The Necessary Nation - Rilegato

Jusdanis, Gregory

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0691070296 ISBN 13: 9780691070292

Casa editrice: Princeton Univ Pr, 2001

Riassunto

In this controversial look at nationalism, Gregory Jusdanis offers a sweeping defense of the nation as a protector of cultural difference and a catalyst for modernization. Since the end of the Cold War, the nation-state has undergone intense scrutiny among critics in the media and the academy. Many believe that civic nationalism may be fruitful but that cultural nationalism fosters xenophobia and backward thinking. Jusdanis, however, emphasizes the positive collaboration between nation-building and culture.

Through a series of critical readings of multicultural, postcolonial, and globalization theories, the author reveals how nationalism enables people to defend their distinctive ways of life, to fight colonial oppression, and to build an independent society of citizens. He explains why people over the last two hundred years have politicized their ethnic identities and have sought a union of culture and power within an autonomous nation-state. While seeking to defend nationalism, Jusdanis also examines its potential to unleash extraordinary violence into the world. He thus proposes federalism as a political solution to the challenges posed by nationalism and globalization.

Jusdanis applies the tools of disciplines ranging from anthropology to philosophy, as he explores the nation-building projects of numerous and diverse countries around the world. What emerges is a fresh perspective on the subjects of national culture, identity, political nations, globalization, postcolonialism, and diaspora.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Gregory Jusdanis is Professor of Modern Greek at Ohio State University. He is the author of The Poetics of Cavafy: Textuality, Eroticism, History (Princeton) and Belated Modernity and Aesthetic Culture: Inventing National Literature.

Contenuti:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION 3
CHAPTER ONE On Nationalism 17
The Union of Nation and State 18
Nations as Self-Institutions 23
Emotional Attachments 28
Ancient Roots 36
National Integration 39
CHAPTER TWO The Autonomy of Culture? 44
Culture as a Totality 46
Culture as Way of Life 49
Absolute States and Religious Wars 52
Culture as Secondary Agent 55
Nationalism as a Reactive Force 58
The Chicken or the Egg? 65
CHAPTER THREE The Bastion of National Culture 71
Fortress Culture 77
National Culture in Aspiration 83
Intellectuals and Class Interest 86
The Perils of Comparisons 89
National Intellectuals 93
CHAPTER FOUR Progress and Belatedness 102
Being Late 105
Catching Up 108
Greece: Postcolonial Narratives 110
Of Backwardness and Change 114
The Greek Culture Wars 118
The Discovery of Tardiness 122
CHAPTER FIVE Political Nations 134
England 137
Canada 143
Brazil 148
Egypt 151
The United States 155
Civic Identity 162
CHAPTER SIX The End of Identities? 166
The Disconnecting of America 166
Of Two Multiculturalisms 169
Racial Panethnicities 177
Culture, Culture Everywhere 185
Does Globalization Spell the End? 192
CHAPTER SEVEN Federal Unions 197
Private Identities, Public Assimilation 201
Endless Diaspora 205
Liberal Nationalism 211
Federalism 215
REFERENCES 225
INDEX 259

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Princeton Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0691070296
• ISBN 13: 9780691070292
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 261