Literary Histories as an Aspect of Discursive Construction of National Identity Cover Image

Literary Histories as an Aspect of Discursive Construction of National Identity
Literary Histories as an Aspect of Discursive Construction of National Identity

Author(s): Anneli Mihkelev
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus

Summary/Abstract: Stuart Hall has written in the article The Questions of Cultural Identity that one of the aspects of national identity is the narrative of a nation. The narrative of a nation exists in national narratives, in literature, in media and in everyday culture. It creates a connection between stories, landscapes, historical events, national symbols etc. Hall assigns literature a very important role in the creation process of national identity (Hall 1996: 613–615), as well as David Perkins does: A function of many literary histories has been to support feelings of community and identity. [---] a history of literature, whether it be the literature of a nation, class, region, race, or gender, would help instruct us who we are individually and as a community. It displays the tradition in which we stand whether we will or no, for this tradition has formed us. [---] Literary histories explain allusions in text, establish the expectations associated with a genre in a given time and place, show how a work broke through a general crisis in aesthetic construction, demonstrate that it served or subverted a dominant ideology, and so forth. (Perkins 1992: 180–183).

  • Issue Year: XV/2010
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 85-96
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: English