By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs. How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! -- Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion, and straight black lips.
...also, the story of Johannus Junius…1573-1628
Belief and Action/Nationalism and Religion
(Nationalism as Religion?
I. How do you define nation?
(geography, race, language, culture, belief, citizenship status, economic value, feelings)
To be ...“American”… means__________
BENEDICT ANDERSON: "Imagined Communities"
Should you love a country?
In many places in the 19th century, “subjects” become “citizens.”
II. SOME EXAMPLES OF THE INTERTWINED NATURE OF RELIGION AND NATIONALISM
A. J.G. Herder and Das Volk: (important in 1770s)
“There is only one class in the state, the Volk, (not the rabble), and the king belongs to this class as well as the peasant."
"Every nation bears in itself the standard of its perfection, totally independent of all comparison with that of others" for "do not nationalities differ in everything, in poetry, in appearance, in tastes, in usages, customs and languages? Must not religion which partakes of these also differ among the nationalities?"
B. Mexico: El Grito de Dolores, Sept. 15, 1810
"Know this, my children, that knowing your patriotism, I have put myself at the head of a movement begun some hours ago, to wrest away power from the Europeans and give it to you."
Harvey, Robert. Liberators: Latin America’s Struggle for Independence Woodstock: The Overlook Press, 2000.
C. Italy: Joseph Mazzini and “Young Italy” (YI founded in 1831)
“The mission is the task which a people must perform to the end that the Divine Idea shall be realized in this world.” Mazzini
Carbonari…secular religion
Count Camillo Cavour: minister of Piedmont
“Soldiers, what I have to offer is fatigue, danger, struggling, and death -- the chill of the cold night, the open air, the burning sun -- no lodgings, no munitions, no provisions; but forced marches, dangerous watch-posts, and continual struggling with bayonets against batteries. Let those who love freedom and their country better than their life follow me!” Garibaldi in 1849 (as he fled Rome)
…and one non Italian force—Otto von Bismarck
(and his Franco-Prussian War)
D. Greece rebels against the Ottomans…1821
Greek Archbishop Germanos, was “Peace to the Christians! Respect to the Consuls! Death to the Turks!"
E. Gran Columbia…Simon Bolivar and Venezuela and then Ecuador and then Peru and Bolivia
"I have been chosen by fate to break your chains… Fight and you shall win. For God grants victory to perseverance."
F. Young Ireland: James Stephens and John O'Mahony (1848)
An Example in Greater Detail:
Commodore Matthew Perry (surprise visit)
Treaty of Kanagawa, in English
March 31, 1854
Battle of Tsushima (1905)
Meiji period painting of Izanagi
and Izanami creating Japan,
by Kobayashi Eitaku c.1885
The Charter Oath (of the Meiji Restoration), 1868
By this oath we set up as our aim the establishment of the national weal on a broad basis and the framing of a constitution and laws.
1. Deliberative assemblies shall be widely established and all matters decided by public discussion.
2. All classes, high and low, shall unite in vigorously carrying out the administration of affairs of state.
3. The common people, no less than the civil and military officials, shall each be allowed to pursue his own calling so that there may be no discontent.
4. Evil customs of the past shall be broken off and everything based upon the just laws of Nature.
5. Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.
“Japan, shaking off the lethargy of centuries, has taken her rank among civilized, modern powers. European nations have seated themselves along the eastern coast of Asia, while China by her misfortunes has given us an object-lesson in the utter folly of attempting to exist as a nation at all, if at the same time both rich and defenseless.” TR 1903
III. And the point is…
Let’s look again at the opening text:
By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs. How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! -- Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion, and straight black lips.
Nationalism seems natural but, like Frankenstein, is a production…
What are the rules for how nationalism works?
Is nationalism a positive or negative force?
The state itself is a terrifying other under absolute rule…
When the subjects become citizens, we overcome some of that radical anxiety through association--emotional, mystical, soulful--with a state that loves you.
