Beyond Imagined Uniqueness: Nationalisms in Contemporary Perspectives
Editor: Joan Burbick and William Glass
Date Of Publication: Nov 2010
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-2409-5
Isbn: 1-4438-2409-7
Beyond Imagined Uniqueness: Nationalisms in Comparative Perspectives is a collection of essays from a variety of disciplines and theoretical perspectives that explore the contentious issue of nationalism in historical and contemporary settings. They adopt an interdisciplinary approach to the topic of nationalism and its permutations and modes of expression. The unspoken context of these essays is the trends subsumed under the processes of globalization. Though the world may be becoming more integrated economically, these essays suggest social, cultural, and political forces, historically rooted, keep the nation and national identity alive and well.

The comparative perspectives offered by the essays appear in two ways: one set is the explicit comparisons of nations made by several authors within their essays and between the essays themselves when the authors focus on developments within a single nation. A second, and indeed more thought-provoking set of comparisons come from the way the essays address nationalism in disparate scholarly approaches that include visual culture, history, sociology, and literature. Moreover, while traditional themes in the study of nationalism are not ignored, these essays expand the discussion with case studies of nationalism in Turkey, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Even when nationalism is considered in those areas that have been the central focus of nationalism studies (Western Europe and the USA), the authors bring unique voices to the conversation as in the use of portraiture as a vehicle of nationalism in Cold War America or children’s literature shaping a Swedish American identity or in the idea of a covenant as a source of Dutch nationalism or the role of minority languages in West European societies.

Section One of this volume contains essays that examine the terrain of the national imaginary through language, monuments, and visual culture. Several of the essays in this traverse the cultural sites of representation and commemoration of the nation, looking carefully at the “politics of memory” in places, material objects, and texts. Section Two provides more individual case studies of nations, though many of these essays engage significant regional and international tensions especially in a post Cold War world that has often influenced the internal dynamics of nation-building. Section Three moves the focus away from the nation to immigrant communities, especially those in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Diasporas throughout the world have challenged many theories about the nation, as crossing borders becomes the norm rather the exception.

Joan Burbick is Full Professor of English and American Studies at Washington State University, USA, where she has held two endowed professorships in English and Liberal Arts.

William R. Glass is Professor of American Social History at the American Studies Center of the University of Warsaw, Poland.

“The present collection of essays, including contributions of scholars from all over Europe and the United States, proves that nationalism, described and analyzed from various angles, has recently been very much alive and kicking. Nationalism or, rather, nationalisms of different locations and colors, are still with us and there is little hope that they will disappear in spite of globalization and the spread of such metaphors as the ‘global village.’ The contributors to Beyond Imagined Uniqueness have identified their influence in politics, historiography, and culture, using mainly methods and instruments provided by contemporary cultural studies. It is an important book that sheds much needed light on social processes continuing in all parts of the world.”

—Marek Wilczyński, University of Gdańsk, Poland

“This book should reignite discussion of a topic which had begun to die out. These contributions by a new generation of Central and Eastern European scholars are especially welcome.”

—Hayden White, Presidential Professor of Historical Studies, University of California, USA

“Ranging widely across political and linguistic traditions, Beyond Imagined Uniqueness presents a set of challenging and provocative reassessments of nationalism in the context of global culture.”

—Eric Sundquist, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, USA

Price Uk Gbp: 49.99
Price Us Usd: 74.99

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