Nationalism and nostalgia: the case of radical Basque nationalism*

Abstract. This article argues that the myth of the Golden Age is a key mobilising element within radical Basque nationalism. By using an ethno‐symbolist approach, this article argues that nostalgia, a catchword for looking back, usually relates to an idealised past. It then proceeds to explain how ETA in particular has domesticated the past to justify its political violence which is currently exalted as a means of honouring the fighting spirit of their ancestors. From this perspective, violence is presented as a redemptive act that can stop the decay of the Basque nation and bring a new political future in which the inspiring ancient virtues will be rediscovered. This nostalgic gaze upon the past continually ‘reminds’ radical Basque nationalists of an imaginary, yet familiar, past which can only be regained by using revolutionary violence.     

The lenses of nationhood: an optical model of identity

ABSTRACT. This paper tries to make the case for a model of political identity based on an optical metaphor, which is especially applicable to nations. Human vision can be separated into sentient object, lenses and inbuilt mental ideas. This corresponds well to identity processes in which ‘light’ from a bounded territorial referent is refracted through various lenses (ideological, material, psychological) to focus in certain ways on particular symbolic resources like genealogy, history, culture or political institutions. Distinguishing between referent, lenses and resources helps us more precisely situate many hitherto disparate problems of national identity. These include the ‘ethnic‐civic’ dilemma, the mystery of national identity before nationalism, and the relationship between local and national, and individual and collective, identities. The model also clarifies the place of universalist ideology, which currently fits poorly within the leading culturalist and materialist theories of nationalism.     

The historical dynamics of ethnic conflicts: confrontational nationalisms,democracy and the Basques in contemporary Spain*

ABSTRACT. All the historical moments in which the Basque debate reached political protagonism in contemporary Spain coincided with political contexts of institutional democratisation. The debate on patriotism in the Basque Country is connected with a uniform narrative regarding the Basques and their moral distance from the Spanish nation: the ‘Basque problem’. This narrative has fostered a confrontational discourse between Spanish and Basque nationalism. It has also promoted recourse to specific stereotypical images of the Basques, which bind ethnicity to collective identity. Such representations reveal that the invention of the Basque country as a uniform ethnic collective had much more to do with the internal contradictions of Spanish national identity – and later of Basque identity – than with the existence of a secular conflict between Basques and Spaniards. The Basque case shows that every ‘ethnic conflict’ requires adequate contextualisation in order to avoid simplifying its origins and past pathways to make it conform to present uses.     

A portrait of the chief as a general paralytic: rhetorics of sexual pathology in the Parnell split*

The O’Shea trial and the ensuing fall of Charles Stewart Parnell occupy an epochal position in accounts of the sexual politics of Victorian Britain and the development of Irish nationalism. This article examines how the “Parnell myth” came to serve (and was constructed from the outset) as a symbolic edifice within which anxieties concerning the relationship between Irishness and sexuality could be foregrounded and negotiated. In particular, it will analyse Timothy Healy’s influential post-split denunciations of Parnell, and the rhetoric of sexual contagion through which they were conducted, a campaign which set the discursive terms of twentieth-century mainstream Irish nationalism. Through an analysis of Healy’s post-split journalism, contemporary political memoirs by T.P. O’Connor, and a range of nineteenth-century medical and psychiatric texts, this article will highlight the ways in which discourses of sexual health were used to reshape Parnell’s public persona at the level of gender and ethno-national affiliation. In doing so, it will illustrate how a sensitivity to the history of medicine can enrich critical understandings of a crucial moment in the political and cultural history of Ireland, and shed fresh light on the vexed collocation of Irish identity and sexual purity which the Parnell split reinforced.     

Varieties of nationalism in the political discourses of Habsburg Austria

Nationalism in the Habsburg Empire is traditionally viewed through an ethnic lens. Despite a growing literature on ‘national indifference’ that studies nationalism in Habsburg central Europe from a constructivist perspective and advances our knowledge concerning variations in national identifications, the nationalism implied in these works remains largely limited to an exclusionary ethnic type. This reductionist view of central European nationalism mirrors the traditional dichotomy of ethnic ‘Eastern’ versus civic ‘Western’ nationalism. In order to avoid this reduction, this article approaches nationalism as a thin-centred ideology and explores varieties of nationalism in Habsburg Austria during the long 19th century. Although certain ideational paths made ethno-nationalism appear, retrospectively, as a quasi-natural feature of central Europe, the findings show that there developed rival discursive traditions of nationalism and competing representations of nation.     

From folklore to patriotic and protest songs: Music,youth, and Basque identity during the 1960s

Taking a bottom‐up approach to the study of nationalism, the following pages constitute an attempt to shed light on the role singing played for a young generation of Basques who actively participated in the process of construction of Basque collective identity during the cultural revival movement of the 1960s. In doing so, this article aims at showing the fundamental role of active audiences, as well as their changing political and social context, in conforming the meaning of “Basque songs” as means to promote Basque nationalism and sustain opposition to the Franco regime. The study of the production, reception, and reinterpretation of Basque music during the cultural revival of the 1960s presented here intends to emphasize the interest of focusing on how ordinary people contribute to the recreation of the nation through their appropriation and interpretation of cultural symbols and practices.     

Gernika,Guernica, Guernica?: Contested meanings of a Basque place

The town of Gernika/Guernica is the center for meaning and territorial continuity of Basque nationalist identity. The town and its symbolism represent the history of national conflict with the Spanish state. It is also the focal point of local disagreements; within Basque nationalism itself and between regional urban centers. The town's significance in the Spanish Civil War, representation in Picasso's painting Guernica, and commemoration in the Americas by Basque emigrants has made it a globally significant place. The contest of meanings related to Gernika/Guernica underscores the significance of naming, monuments, ritual, resistance, oppression, and conflict in the creation and maintenance of national identities. In its examination of the politics of a Basque place, the joining of the forces of geography and history proves to be useful in the analysis of meaning in place- and time-specific political processes. From this perspective, the recent development from conflict toward harmony in Basque politics is reviewed.     

Pioneering Leadership: Historical Myth‐Making,Absence, and Identity in the Churches of Christ in Victoria

This article explores the role of historiography in the developing identity of congregationally autonomous churches by examining the process and meaning behind the historical myth‐making associated with pioneering church leadership. In the absence of a clerical hierarchy or recognised historical expertise, four competing claims for the title of “first evangelist” emerged in the Churches of Christ (Disciples of Christ) denomination in colonial Victoria. Each of these claims is critically analysed in the light of rapidly developing church identity, the work of the evangelists in the 1860s, the influence of Australian nationalism, and historiographical portrayals which sought to make these four men heroes even in their absence. Finally the article examines absence of another kind — historiographical omission — and the question of the heroic in denominational church history.     

Privileging masculinity in the social construction of Basque identity

Following a framework developed by Susan Gal and Judith Irvine (1995), this article illustrates how Basque‐medium schools promulgate an androcentric vision of the Basque nation. First, male privilege is upheld in textbooks through the erasure of women's contributions to Basque language and culture, so that men appear as the quintessential Basque speakers and cultural agents. Secondly, language ideologies about Spanish and Basque recursively construct Basque ethnic identity is such a way that it centres on vernacular Basque, whose primary marker is a second person pronoun, ‘hi’, which indirectly indexes male speakers and masculinity. An iconic relationship is thereby created between authentic Basque identity, Basque culture, Basque linguistic forms and masculinity. However, I also show that women have challenged this male privilege in various domains, thereby opening up the possibility of a Basque nation that embraces its female as well as its male members.     

地方传奇、集体记忆与国家认同——以黄埔军校旧址及其参观者为中心的研究

文章在探讨地方、地方传奇、集体记忆、国家认同等概念的基础上,梳理了西方学者从地理学视角对国家认同的相关研究。用参与式观察、文本分析等方法,以黄埔军校旧址及其游客为研究对象,探讨了地方、地方传奇与游客的集体记忆与国家认同的关系,研究表明,地方及地方传奇唤起了游客的集体记忆,增强了爱国情感。而这种爱国情感正是国家认同的一部分。研究尝试把地方传奇(placemyth)作为概念引入记忆地理研究领域,作为对该领域"传奇"(myth)这一概念的拓展,以期对人文地理学研究内容的丰富、文化地理研究的发展有所裨益。     

Psychology,Psychoanalysis and Theories of Nationalism

Abstract. This article reviews some psychological and psychoanalytic social theories to see what they have to offer in terms of an understanding of nations and nationalism. Three approaches are reviewed in turn: discursive psychology, the psychoanalytic work of Theodor Adomo and the Lacanianism of Slavoj Zizek. In critically analysing and drawing on these varied perspectives it is argued that we need to develop a theory of nationalism that focuses on the production of the national ‘subject’. It 0069s further argued that this theorisation enables us to relate nationalism to wider questions of ideology and political identity in modern societies. Drawing out the contours of such a theory the article intimates the sorts of research directions in which this might lead.     

Conflicting nationalist traditions and immigration: the Basque case from 1950 to 1980

Immigration from the different regions in Spain to the Basque Country has traditionally opposed Basque and Spanish nationalism. This article provides an overview of the discourse of both nationalist traditions with respect to the intra‐regional migration movement of the second half of the twentieth century as well as of the resulting controversy. Whereas the Basque nationalist movement claims to have defended the need to integrate immigrants since the middle of the twentieth century, particularly through politics, Spanish nationalism claims that Basque nationalism has helped marginalise these same immigrants. A qualitative analysis is used to contrast this controversy by consulting the opinion of the Spanish immigrants who settled in the Basque Country and did not avail of the political integration proposed by Basque nationalism. The main conclusion is that these immigrants tend to avoid the heart of the matter of discord between both nationalist traditions, granting little importance to political and cultural elements though stressing their social integration in the Basque Country.     

Religion,secularisation and nationalism in Quebec and the Basque Country: a comparative approach

This article analyses the relationship between religion, secularisation and nationalism in Quebec and the Basque Country using a comparative approach. I will first outline the ethnic‐religious origin of these nationalist movements. Second, I will examine the extent to which the ‘new’ secular and violent nationalism (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna and Front de Libération du Québec) that emerged in the 1960s was fuelled in its origin by a transfer of sacrality. Third, I will address an aspect that has led some theorists to view religion and nationalism as analogous phenomena, in which nationalism is construed as a religion of blood sacrifice. Fourth, I will examine another aspect that leads to this view of religion and nationalism as analogous phenomena, as the latter also provides a framework of transcendent meaning through an imaginary of continuity between the different generations. The article concludes with a series of general considerations on the relations between nationalism, secularisation and religion.     

Between Islam and the nation; nation-building,the ulama and Alevi identity in Turkey

This article analyses the relationship between Islam and nationalism by considering the role of the ulama in Turkey, housed within the Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA). The ulama – religious scholars and experts of Islamic law – in Muslim majority contexts are typically closely linked with the state and play a key role in shaping the boundaries of Islam and of what is Islamically acceptable. However, this is also of consequence for the boundaries of the nation, since in Turkey Islam and nationalism has been intertwined, with Islam playing a central role in nation-building, as a basis of ethnic identity formation and a source of symbols and myths. This articles shows, firstly, that the PRA has acted as a carrier and preserver of Sunni (Hanefi) Muslim identity in continuity with the Ottoman ulama and, secondly, that it has delimited nation-building, by considering its approach to and interventions against Alevi identity.     

Methodological nationalism and the politics of history‐writing: how imaginary scholarship perpetuates the nation

The aim of this article is to contribute a greater understanding of the processes by which nationalism passes by unnoticed in research and distorts knowledge about the past. It identifies four narrative practices typical of methodologically nationalist history‐writing and explains why they should be rejected as dubious scholarship. These are: concept overstretch; selection bias; the misrepresentation of governing bodies; and the conflation of culture with identity. It is argued that each functions as a hidden authentication route, entrenching nation‐centric understandings of the past as valid perspectives in scholarly discourses under the legitimating cover of scientific protocol. By increasing awareness around methodological nationalism in history‐writing, this article serves at least two normative purposes. First, it emphasises the reflectiveness required for analysts to avoid co‐option by ideology. Second, it functions as a critical vantage point for dispelling misunderstandings that fuel interstate disputes, interethnic tensions, and the oppression of minorities among populations understanding themselves as heirs to timelessly national property.     

Re‐evaluating otherness in genocidal ideology

Ideas of otherness in both nationalism and genocide studies do not sufficiently explain genocidal levels of policy and ideological development, nor do they help identify groups that may be selected in the future for this particular kind of destruction. This article sets out to introduce the typology of ‘anti‐nation’ to the dialogue of nationalism studies in order to more aptly identify prospective groups at risk of future possible genocidal aggression. This article looks to the Armenian genocide to provide analysis for a greater understanding of the way radicalising ideology evolves regarding the anti‐nation during the early years of identity development in states radicalising towards genocide.     

Negotiating the nation: diaspora contestations in the USA about Hindu nationalism in India

ABSTRACT. Diaspora positions and identities are being continually constructed, negotiated and reframed. Nevertheless, many studies tend to focus on the ethno‐centric, exclusionary and/or nationalistic orientation of some groups. In this article, I will explore variations in the responses of the Indian American diaspora community to Hindu nationalism in India. The article will focus on the opposition of progressive groups to a particularly controversial Hindu nationalist leader, Narendra Modi. They stand in contrast to those US‐based organisations that support Modi and his political ideology. The debate between the two sides shows a high degree of political polarisation within the community. This study illustrates the variations in interpretations of nationalism and identity that exist among groups operating in the transnational political space. In particular, it shows us that the political process that articulates these differences can impact policy in the home or adopted country.     

‘It broadens your view of being Basque’: identity through history,branding, and cultural policy

The purpose of the paper is to address what is the impact of the synthesis between Basque history, branding identity and Law 8/1994 on Basque identity in the homeland and Diaspora. Naturally occurring brands combine history, anthropology, sociology, and marketing to explain the phenomenon of communities defined by a sense of place. Focusing on both the Basque Country and Basques in Boise, Idaho as one case study, the authors discuss how the naturally occurring brand and cultural policy of the Basque people became formalized 20?years ago with Law 8/1994. The article addresses who the Basques are and how they have branded themselves through language, place, industry, food, drink, and culture. Similarities to other communities are explored so that other ethnic/cultural communities can learn from this Diaspora cultural policy discussion.     

Holy Nigerian Nationalisms and Apocalyptic Visions of the Nation

Abstract. This article examines the rise of religious political radicalism and its critique and appropriation of secular Nigerian nationalism. It argues that the revitalisation and radicalisation of religion in Nigeria is both an expression of the deep legitimacy crisis confronting secular nationalism and a means of resolving such a crisis. Religion is seen as fundamental to nationalism because it provides the sacred normative essence that ultimately enables individuals and communities to accept as permanent and meaningful the suffering which is integral to a national identity. In ‘holy nationalism’, the collective emotional force of nationalism merges with religion so that the two are one and the same. God chose a particular people and promised them a particular land.