Course description
Nationalism, a powerful force for centuries, is growing even more important. In this course we study theories of nation, then turn to detailed case studies including the Czech Republic, Russia, Congo, and the United States. As we study the theory of nation, we consider the politics of our own preconceptions of nation in the United States (or wherever we hail from). Theories examined include traditional ones like those of Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson, and we also use Roland Barthes' semiotic theory of myth to help us understand the idea of nation. In succession, each case study illustrates different aspects of the evolving concepts of nation and national identity, concepts that in their eighteenth-century origins were seen as normatively laudable and fit well with liberal ideas about self-determination and popular sovereignty. However, while the Czechs might have been the ideal liberal nation, in Russia we see how ideas of nation and empire can challenge international stability. Our study of the Congo shows the problematic mix of colonialism and ethnolinguistic identities with the nation-state system. And finally we return to the American case with the question of whether America qualifies as a nation and consider the way that the myth of nation grows and is re-interpreted, and how American identity may evolve in the future.
