Nationalism and the cultivation of culture

Abstract

On the basis of an extensive sample of European source material, the article investigates the meaning and importance of 'culture' in cultural nationalism. The author argues that European cultural nationalism in the nineteenth century followed a separate dynamic and chronology from political nationalism. Cultural nationalism involved an intense cross-border traffic of ideas and intellectual initiatives, and its participating actors often operated extraterritorially and in multi-national intellectual networks. This means that cultural nationalism needs to be studied on a supranational comparative basis rather than country-by-country, concentrating on the exchange and transfer of ideas and activities. A working model is proposed which may serve to bring these ideas and activities into focus.

The De Glind Conference: A Retreat for Young Historians of … Knowledge

“…Although the mixture of scientism and romanticism in national -Turkish in this case -ideology and identity is a known phenomenon, Ahmedani's attempt to study appropriations and alterations was an appealing alternative. 33 Past & Future At De Glind one could observe the materialization of previously proposed methodological innovations. Even the resurfacing of relatively old historiographical problems and sources -like the 1985 Leviathan and the Air Pump as most important reference in an unsettled internalism versus externalism debate -is in tune with current historiographical discussions.…”

Introduction

“…As Benedict Anderson already argued, nationalism has always been transnationally constituted, because it is the very possibility of its "being transplanted" (1991, 4) into always new contexts and travelling across multiple borders that allowed for its worldwide success (as explored, for example, in the comparative study of "viral nationalisms" in Europe by Leerssen 2006;. As Benedict Anderson already argued, nationalism has always been transnationally constituted, because it is the very possibility of its "being transplanted" (1991, 4) into always new contexts and travelling across multiple borders that allowed for its worldwide success (as explored, for example, in the comparative study of "viral nationalisms" in Europe by Leerssen 2006;.…”

Cuchulain in the General Post Office: Gaelic revival, Irish rising

“…This is what I have analysed elsewhere as the 'cultivation of culture': folklore-collecting, literary creation, nationally themed visual arts and music, the retrieval of ancient texts and tales, and the associational sociability that turns these pursuits from private interests into social mobilisation. I shall here concentrate on, but not limit myself to, the position of the Gaelic language in this activist palette of the 'cultivation of culture' (Leerssen 2006). The cultivation of culture followed a trajectory of increasing political activation in the years leading up to 1916.…”