Peripheries and Contested Regions in Nationalist Imaginations: Irish–German Comparisons, 1850–1930

Abstract

This article is a comparative study of the delineation of national territory by nationalist historians in Germany and Ireland from the mid-nineteenth century to the inter-war period of the twentieth century. The essay examines how the problem of historically contested territories and non-national allegiances was dealt with by these historians, focusing in particular on the Ulster region in the Irish context, and the idea of 'the German East', and in particular on the origins of Prussia as an integral part of the 'German East'. The article, building on recent work that aims at providing a comprehensive 'mapping' of nationalist historical traditions throughout Europe, attempts to provide a comparative analysis through a study of two relatively unconnected contexts. This is in order to establish common patterns that cannot be attributed to cause and effect resulting from direct interaction of 'case A' and 'case B'. This comparison argues for the presence of a common pattern of nationalist argument with respect to European contested regions and territory more generally which was underpinned by a particular form of historical narrative.

Literary representations of borders and partitions in provincial memory cultures (Northern Ireland and Upper Silesia)

“…A landmark comparative publication concerned with partitions in Ireland and Israel/Palestine appeared in 2002: Joe Cleary's Literature, Partition and the Nation‐State: Culture and Conflict in Ireland, Israel and Palestine has proved to be a lasting contribution to the study of partitions and borders across the globe 4 . Ever since, many significant projects concerned with intercultural analogies and border‐crossings have appeared, combining interest in either Northern Ireland or Upper Silesia and including, for contrast or comparison, other cultural, historical and/or linguistic contexts (e.g., Akenson, 1992; Schwerter, 2013; Pospiszil, 2016; Nagle, 2016, 27–47). Still, only one major book is directly concerned with the historical circumstances relevant to the respective partitions in Northern Ireland and in Upper Silesia.…”