What Is a Nation  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
Revision as of 19:47, 12 November 2011
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)

← Previous diff
Revision as of 19:47, 12 November 2011
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)

Next diff →
Line 8: Line 8:
==Forgetfulness== ==Forgetfulness==
:''[[Forgetfulness]] :''[[Forgetfulness]]
-Renan then states what has become one of the most famous and enduring ideas of the essay. "Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation." Historical research, by revealing unwanted truths, can even endanger nationhood. All nations, even the most benevolent in later practice, are founded on acts of violence, which are then forgotten. "Unity is always achieved by brutality: the joining of the north of France with the center was the result of nearly a century of extermination and terror". He gives some examples of countries like Turkey and Bohemia where there is rigid stratification, or where different communities are played off against one another, and where the homogenization of different groups could not take place, resulting in a failure of nationhood. This leads to one of the most frequently quoted statements in the essay:+Renan then states what has become one of the most famous and enduring ideas of the essay. "Forgetfulness, and I would even say [[historical error]], are essential in the creation of a nation." Historical research, by revealing unwanted truths, can even endanger nationhood. All nations, even the most benevolent in later practice, are founded on acts of violence, which are then forgotten. "Unity is always achieved by brutality: the joining of the north of France with the center was the result of nearly a century of extermination and terror". He gives some examples of countries like Turkey and Bohemia where there is rigid stratification, or where different communities are played off against one another, and where the homogenization of different groups could not take place, resulting in a failure of nationhood. This leads to one of the most frequently quoted statements in the essay:
<blockquote>Now, the essence of a nation is that the people have many things in common, but have also forgotten much together. No French citizen knows if he is Burgundian, Alain, Taifale, Visigoth; every French citizen must have forgotten the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] and the [[Albigensian Crusade|massacres in the Midi]] in the 13th century. </blockquote> <blockquote>Now, the essence of a nation is that the people have many things in common, but have also forgotten much together. No French citizen knows if he is Burgundian, Alain, Taifale, Visigoth; every French citizen must have forgotten the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] and the [[Albigensian Crusade|massacres in the Midi]] in the 13th century. </blockquote>

Revision as of 19:47, 12 November 2011

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

What is a Nation? (Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?) is a 1882 essay by French historian Ernst Renan (1823–1892), known for the statements that a nation is "a daily referendum", and that nations are based as much on what the people jointly forget, as what they remember. It is frequently quoted or anthologized in works of history or political science pertaining to nationalism.

Contents

Nationhood in antiquity and in Renan's time

Renan begins his essay by noting that there is frequent confusion between the idea of nationhood and of racial or linguistic groupings, a form of confusion which he says can produce "the gravest errors". He promises to conduct an autopsy-like examination, "in an absolutely cold and impartial fashion". He predicts that the nations existing at the time of writing in 1882, such as France, Germany, England and Russia, of years, and that any nation trying to dominate them will be quickly pushed back to its own borders, by a coalition of other nations. "The establishment of a new Roman empire, or a new empire of Charlemagne, has become impossible." Renan observes that the idea of a nation, as currently used, was unknown in antiquity, when countries were led by a king purporting to be the son of the sky or of the sun. "There were no Egyptian citizens, any more than there are Chinese citizens today." The cities of Greece had "admirable patriotism" but a limited geographic area. Rome was more like a nation, but covered so vast a geographical area there could be no real shared identity of its subjects.

Renan noted that a unique element of the European nation-forming experience was the mixture of races, origins and religions, where conquering people often adopted the religion and manners, and married the women, of the peoples they conquered. For example, "at the end of one or two generations.

Forgetfulness

Forgetfulness

Renan then states what has become one of the most famous and enduring ideas of the essay. "Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation." Historical research, by revealing unwanted truths, can even endanger nationhood. All nations, even the most benevolent in later practice, are founded on acts of violence, which are then forgotten. "Unity is always achieved by brutality: the joining of the north of France with the center was the result of nearly a century of extermination and terror". He gives some examples of countries like Turkey and Bohemia where there is rigid stratification, or where different communities are played off against one another, and where the homogenization of different groups could not take place, resulting in a failure of nationhood. This leads to one of the most frequently quoted statements in the essay:

Now, the essence of a nation is that the people have many things in common, but have also forgotten much together. No French citizen knows if he is Burgundian, Alain, Taifale, Visigoth; every French citizen must have forgotten the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and the massacres in the Midi in the 13th century.

Organizing principles of nationhood

While many nations, such as France, begin with a feudal regime such as a monarchy, others, such as the United States and Switzerland, are formed by acts of consensual aggregation. France and many others, however, survived their feudal roots while maintaining their identity. Renan inquires what is the organizing principle? It can't be race, because France is "Celt, Iberian, German....The most noble countries, England, France and Italy, are the ones where the blood is most mixed." Language, by contrast, "invites us but does not force us, to unite". Countries which share the Spanish or English language don't merge with one another, while the people of languages. Modern nationhood also cannot be based on religion, which Renan observes, is currently practiced according to individual belief. "You can be French, English, German, yet Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or practicing no religion". Mutuality of interests is fine for and their affiliates, but nationality is based on sentiment. Geography merely leads us astray, and often to: "Mountains don't know how to carve out countries".

A "spiritual principle"

Renan concludes that a nation is

a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which are really one, constitute this soul and spiritual principle. One is in the past, the other, the present. One is the possession in common of a rich trove of memories; the other is actual consent, the desire to live together, the will to continue to value the undivided, shared heritage....To have had glorious moments in common in the past, a common will in the present, to have done great things together and to wish to do more, those are the essential conditions for a people. We love the nation in proportion to the sacrifices to which we consented, the harms that we suffered.

Continued consent

A very important element of nationhood, says Renan, is the desire to continue forming part of the nation. Renan's second frequently quoted statement is:

The existence of a nation (you will pardon me this metaphor) is a daily referendum,<ref>Frequently translated as "daily plebiscite".</ref> just as the continuing existence of an individual is a perpetual affirmation of life.

This leads Renan to the conclusion that "A nation never has a veritable interest in annexing or keeping another region against the wishes of its people". In other words, areas such as states or provinces which wish to secede, should be permitted to do so. "If doubts arise about national borders, consult the population of the area in dispute. They have the right to an opinion on the issue."

Renan concludes that nationhood is not an eternal concept, but changes over time (like everything else in this world). "A European confederation will probably replace the nations of today". At the current time, however, the existence of separate nations serves to guarantee liberty, in a way which would be lost if the whole world served under one law and one master. "Each brings one note to the great concert of humanity..."

Legacy and criticism

Political historian Karl Deutsch, in a quote sometimes mistakenly attributed to Renan, said that a nation is "a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours".<ref>Nationalism and its Alternatives ISBN 0-394-43763-2</ref>

Benedict Anderson's 1983 work Imagined Communities, which states that a nation is an "imagined political community", argues that Renan contradicts himself when he says French people must have forgotten the St. Bartholemew massacre, yet does not explain what it is. In other words, Renan assumes that all his readers will remember the very massacre he says they have forgotten. Anderson also points out that the reason many French citizens of Renan's time knew anything of these massacres was because they learned of them in state-run schools. Thus, the state itself preserved the knowledge which needed to be forgotten for national identity.<ref>Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. (1991). Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (Revised and extended. ed. London: Verso, 1991) pp.. 199-201. ISBN 9780860915461</ref>

In a 1995 book, "For Love of Country: an essay on patriotism and nationalism", Maurizio Viroli called Renan's essay "the most influential late nineteenth-century interpretation of the meaning of nation", because of its focus on the "spiritual principle" as opposed to race, religion or geography.<ref>Oxford:Oxford University Press 1995 p, 159, ISBN 0198293585 http://books.google.com/books?id=Y8crPCvAaNkC&pg=PA159&dq=%22Qu'est-ce+gu'une+nation&hl=en&ei=h14wTfaIFMnVgQfFlPC7Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false Accessed January 13, 2011</ref>

References

Template:Reflist

External links


Template:DEFAULTSORT:What Is A Nation?




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "What Is a Nation?" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools