‘Carnivals of Surplus Emotion?1’ Towards an Understanding of the Significance of Ecstatic Nationalism in a Globalising World

Abstract

This paper focuses on public events that celebrate the nation and how they may offer important insights into the study of wider discourses of (national) identity and belonging. Drawing on theories from both anthropology and media studies, it argues that these events should not be simply dismissed as sudden outbursts of patriotic emotion but instead can be used to extend Billig's work on Banal Nationalism (1995) by analysing in more detail the relationship between the banal and the ecstatic. This approach to the study of such events will also echo the calls of those who have argued that we need to move beyond the functionalism of a Durkheimian position (Couldry 2003). This conceptual framework will then be used to provide a definition of what I have tentatively labelled ‘ecstatic nationalism’. In the final section, Sassen's (2000) concept of the ‘strategic lens’ will be used to illustrate how such events may offer a significant opportunity for studying the complex subject of national identity during relatively bounded and liminal moments in an era that has been widely characterised as ‘globalising’ (Featherstone 1990).

Nationalism in Settled Times

“…Billig (1995, p. 6) argues that "daily, the nation is indicated, or 'flagged,' in the lives of its citizenry" through exposure to implicit cues. These subtle reminders reinforce prior socialization into the nation through mass education and the more intermittent collective rituals associated with national holidays and crises (Collins 2012, Skey 2006). Thus, "nationalism, far from being an intermittent mood in established nations, is the endemic condition" (Billig 1995, p. 6), based on the naturalized beliefs that "the world is (and should be) divided into identifiable nations, that each person should belong to a nation, that an individual's nationality has some influence on how they think and behave and also leads to certain responsibilities and entitlements" (Skey 2011, p. 5).…”

“…Such rituals reinvigorate the nation by amplifying mutualistic norms and feelings of solidarity and by infusing group symbols with emotional potency and meaning [Collins 2012, Durkheim 1995(1912]. They include events that explicitly sacralize the nation, like civic holidays and anniversaries of founding moments (Skey 2006, Spillman 1997, Waldstreicher 1997, but also events that bring the national community together around seemingly nonnationalist ends, from sporting contests to democratic elections (Alexander 2006, Fox 2006, Hobsbawm 1983, Kertzer 1988. The result of these recurring rituals is the continual renewal of nationalism as a form of civil religion that places the nation above other collective affiliations (Bellah 1975).…”

Between banality and effervescence?: a study of Japanese youth nationalism

“…Periodically, members of a community ought to get together so as to ‘affirm their special bond of unity to each other ecstatically’ (King : 251; Kertzer ). In this regard, Skey () stresses the significance of what he calls ‘ecstatic events’ (such as the Olympics and World Cup Soccer) (Cf. ‘mega events’) (Roche ) as they ‘[represent] and [recreate] the image of the nation’ (Skey : 144) whereby a nation is ‘ reflexively concretized ’ (p.146; Emphasis in original).…”

“…In this regard, Skey () stresses the significance of what he calls ‘ecstatic events’ (such as the Olympics and World Cup Soccer) (Cf. ‘mega events’) (Roche ) as they ‘[represent] and [recreate] the image of the nation’ (Skey : 144) whereby a nation is ‘ reflexively concretized ’ (p.146; Emphasis in original). International sporting events thus constitute contemporary rituals as they ‘represent a break with reality that serves as entry into a temporary or liminal phase,’ evoking ‘a sense of communitas’ (Stevenson and Alaug : 458; Cf.…”

Affective nationalism

“…In this sense, affective nationalism might resonate with the progressive idea of a plural, inclusive nation (Modood, 2007;Antonsich & Matejskova, 2015). Yet, on the other hand, such examples of collective effervescence or 'ecstatic nationalism' (Skey, 2006) need to be studied empirically in order to see who participates and to what end. Lumping affected and affecting human bodies together into a single mass, undifferentiated in terms of race, gender, sexuality, age, class, dis-ability, and personal stories, generates an abstract body, impermeable to any issues of power and exclusion.…”