Heart to Heart: The Power of Lyrical Bonding in Romantic Nationalism

In nineteenth-century nation-building, the textual genres investigated by researchers are usually long-distance, mediated ones, such as journalism and the novel. This article attempts to assess the function of a much more intimate literary genre, the lyrical, in that process. Lyricism was a central poetical element in Romanticism; its emotive, affect-centered mode was seen as specifically “immediate”, non-mediatized and deeply personal (and therefore non-political). How could this register aid the formation of self-defining national communities? The article suggests a special role for female poets and a privileged position of the lyrical in the interplay between print-disseminated literature and oral-performative literature, in shaping the nation as an “emotive community”

When Was the Nation ? Golden Ages and Identities

Arreu d’Europa, el nacionalismeromàntic tendia, en la seva faseinicial, a desenvolupar una enyorançamedievalista. Això prengué unaforma específica en aquelles àrees on,durant l’època feudal, havien estatreialmes independents, i que varenperdre aquesta independència feudalcom a conseqüència del procés demodernització. Contrastaré exemplesde reflexions literàries sobre «la pèrduade la sobirania» escrites a Escòcia,Polònia, Hongria i Catalunya, per talde correlacionar la seva aparició, comtambé la seva obsolescència en fasesposteriors de desenvolupament

Notes toward a Definition of Romantic Nationalism

While the concept ‘Romantic nationalism’ is becoming widespread, its current usage tends to compound the vagueness inherent in its two constituent terms, Romanticism and nationalism. In order to come to a more focused understanding of the concept, this article surveys a wide sample of Romantically inflected nationalist activities and practices, and nationalistically inflected cultural productions and reflections of Romantic vintage, drawn from various media (literature, music, the arts, critical and historical writing) and from different countries. On that basis, it is argued that something which can legitimately be called ‘Romantic nationalism’ indeed took shape Europe-wide between 1800 and 1850. A dense and intricately connected node of concerns and exchanges, it affected different countries, cultural fields, and media, and as such it takes up a distinct position alongside political and post-Enlightenment nationalism on the one hand, and the less politically-charged manifestationsof Romanticism on the other. A possible definition is suggested by way of theconclusion: Romantic nationalism is the celebration of the nation (defined by its language, history, and cultural character) as an inspiring ideal for artistic expression; and the instrumentalization of that expression in ways of raising the political consciousness

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

This article looks at the importance of the Gaelic language for the development of Irish nationalism in the decades leading up to, and following the Easter Rising of 1916. This importance was mainly symbolical: the Irish language was used mainly by revivalist activists, in a restricted number of functional registers, and largely as an enabling platform of other consciousness-raising activities. It is suggested, however, that such a symbolical instrumentalisation is by no means inconsequential and should be analysed as an important feature of cultural nationalism, not only in Irish history