Nationalism,Sports and Gender in Finnish Sports Journalism in the Early Twentieth Century

The aim of this article is to examine through Olympic sports journalism the connections between sports, gender, nation and class in Finland during the period before the Second World War. The relationship between sports and the nationalist project has always been strong in Finland, and it is often considered that the Finns were the first nation to exploit sports for political purposes in such a consistent way. The attention here is focused on gender and class, since these were the two most significant dividing factors in Finnish sports at the turn of the twentieth century. The article concludes that the idea of a Finnish national character can be seen as a gender-specific narrative, as the image of the Finn has been built on masculine determinants and the male sphere of life. This is proved by the fact that women are not required, or sometimes even allowed, to follow national stereotypes and characteristics. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the sports journalists were nevertheless obliged to conceptualise Finnish women as well through nationalist thinking. This was achieved by contrasting them with foreign women: the 'Other' women functioned as a sexualised background against which it was possible to depict the activities of Finland's own female athletes as pure, feminine, decent and respectable.     

Rape in Kosovo: Masculinity and Serbian Nationalism

Abstract. Accusations of Albanian rape of Serbs in Kosovo became a highly charged political factor in the development of Serbian nationalism in the 1980s. Discussions of rape were used to link perceptions of national victimisation and a crisis of masculinity and to legitimate a militant Serbian nationalism, ultimately contributing to the violent break‐up of Yugoslavia. The article argues for attention to the ways that nationalist projects have been structured with reference to ideals of masculinity, the specific political and cultural contexts that have influenced these processes, and the consequent implications for gender relations as well as for nationalist politics. Such an approach helps explain the appeal of Milo?evi?'s nationalism; at the same time it highlights the divisions and conflicts that lie behind hegemonic gender and national identities constructed around difference.     

Guest editor's introduction: Nationalism and archaeology

In this introductory article an evaluation of the emergence and transformations of parallel discourses regarding the past in relation to the political nationalist context in which they were articulated will be offered. A chronological framework will be adopted, thereby acknowledging the importance of the changes nationalism underwent for understanding shifts in discourses on the past.     

Racism and Nationalism

Abstract. The article seeks to define the relationship between nationalism and racism in modem times. First, it defines racism as one of the principal nineteenth-century ideologies, sharply focused and centred upon the human body itself as its most potent symbol. Then it discusses nationalism as a much more loosely constructed faith which made alliances with most nineteenth-century ideologies such as liberalism, conservatism and socialism. When nationalism allied itself with racism it made racism operative -for example, within the integral nationalist movements from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. The article discusses how this alliance came about, and its consequences. It concludes that racism was never an indispensable element of nationalism. Moreover, it was not merely a form of discrimination, but a determinate way of looking at men and women which presented a total picture of the world. If nationalism made racism a reality, racism came to dominate nationalism once an alliance between the two movements had been consummated.     

Notions in Nationalism

Abstract. The French Revolution and the Romantic Movement subscribed to a common objective, the reintegration of a fractured society. That required establishing the peculiar identity of each nation, its origins and extent – all defined in cultural and psychological rather than, as hitherto, in juridical terms. This shift turned nationalism into a system and in doing so conferred new meanings on the vocabulary of politics. Derived from philosophers and philologists, the changes were conveyed to the people at large by historians through the educational system. They thus fixed the meanings in the public consciousness and underwrote the legitimacy of the national mission.     

Language and Nationalism in Italy

ABSTRACT. Language is a central gauge of a culture's desire for and ability to articulate a common cultural, and political, identity. As such, historical figures, as well as theorists and historians, often view linguistic standardisation as a critical step on the road to forging a nation. This article explores linguistic standardisation in Italy, focusing on the Cruscan Academy dictionaries, and assesses any links between the standardisation of Florentine and nationalism. It then compares the changing political terminology in Florentine to comparable terms in French and English. The article concludes that (a) unlike the cases of French and English and much current theory on linguistic standardisation, in Italy there was no connection between standardisation and nationalism; (b) the standardisation of Florentine was accompanied by the collapse of political concepts that could have been used to bolster a nationalist movement; and (c) Italian ideas about reason of state are distinguishable from other theoretical justifications of absolutism by the removal of political morality (virtù) from the political realm.