Europe - national identity
If we consider nations as `imagined communities', what role did the concepts of race, gender, and class play in crafting national identity from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginnings of the twentieth century? How did these same concepts also serve to undermine a sense of national identity and unity?Race, class and gender give certainty to the idea of nations as imagined communities. Nations are imaginings of a general populace and yet they have a profound effect on the way that the people who have imagined them live out their lives. People in a nation are incredibly different and yet because of their belonging to this imaginary community, they are believed to be the same. In this sense, a nation can be seen as a creation that requires consciousness, because this notion of community must be larger than any individual could experience directly. It is this understanding of nations that gives significance to factors such as race, class and gender. It are these factors which serve to contribute to the idea of shared qualities between people within the imagined boarders of a nation. Furthermore, as race, class and gender create shared national identities within the imagined boundary of a nation, they also result in narr
This facilitated Johann Friedich's Blumenbach's 1775 claim that Africans had "degenerated" from the Caucasian human standard, by living in different climates with different dietary practices (Dr Christopher Forth 24 May). The term 'degenerate' became vital in narrowing the definition of national identity within the imaginary nation. The boundary created by race was based upon the deeply rooted ideal of Greek beauty. Furthermore, while men were associated with reason and the public sphere; women were likened to emotions and the private sphere (Dr Christopher Forth 24 May). This concept of nationalism within a nation state creates a feeling of a community sharing common traits, and therefore, shared identity. By stressing the differences between men and women and emphasising 'respectable' behaviour, national identity was formed based on exclusions. The effect was the construction of new national identities on both sides of the imaginary boundary, separating the 'pure' from 'degenerates' and 'us' from 'them'. Herder's philosophy accords each separate people a separate Volksgeist, which was expressed through its culture and thereby encompassed the whole community. Therefore, after successfully developing national identities by distinguishing 'us' from 'them', the same principles eventually came to be applied to more and more members of the nation, to such an extent that nations became divided based on race, gender and class issues. These 'sciences', which originally gave clarity to gender and race, created national identities, which were thought to be relatively homogeneous communities with shared characteristics which transcended internal divisions of class, and status. Race served to create a national identity that was thought to be unique and distinct from other population groups. (Enloe 1990: 46) 'Sciences' had asserted that women were biologically different from men, female energies were seen as revolving around the uterus and its childbearing capacities. Of further significance to the development of national division, was the widening scope of the concept of degeneration. (Mosse, 1978: xii) According to Mosse in Toward the Final Solution: A History of Modern Racism (1978:235), the development of racism created a divide in the world according to ideal types and antitypes. Up until the 1830s, most "radical" thinking was liberal and centred on the concerns of the middle classes.
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Acceptance Essays
