Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, European Studies - General & Miscellaneous, European Studies - Germany, Great Britain - General & Miscellaneous History, National Characteristics - Europe, German History - Social Aspects, Nationalism & Sovere

Imagining Nations

Name: Imagining Nations
Author: Geoffrey Cubitt
ISBN: 9780719051159

by Geoffrey Cubitt

Write a review

Overview

The concept of the nation is central to modern understandings both of political community and of personal identity. Notions of national distinctiveness and of international competition dominate the ways in which we think about history, about geography, about culture and economics and human character. The essays in this book seek to understand the complex ways in which nations are imaginatively constructed. Dealing chiefly with British and German examples, but relating these examples to wider conceptual and theoretical issues, they illustrate both the diversity and the potential of a cultural approach to nationhood and nationalism. The book is conceived in an interdisciplinary spirit, drawing insights from intellectual history, art history, geography, and literary studies, and tracing the implications of nationalist habits of thought across fields as varied as historiography, cartography, visual art, science and economic statistics. Taken together, the essays offer a wide-ranging exploration of the cultural, ideological and intellectual processes through which national identities are developed, debated and articulated.

Synopsis

Essays from a variety of disciplinary standpoints trace the elements and implications of nationalist habits of thought across fields as varied as historiography, cartography, visual art, science, and economic statistics, and look at specific cultural interactions between areas such as gender ideology and philosophic history, travel literature and ethnography, and portraiture and monetary exchange. Includes b&w photos and illustrations. Paper edition (unseen), $29.95. Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.