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" Nationalist Crossroads and Crosshairs: "
Lomonosov, Matvey
Lange, Matthew
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1109246
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| Doc. No
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TLpq2471516317
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| Main Entry
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Lange, Matthew
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Lomonosov, Matvey
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| Title & Author
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Nationalist Crossroads and Crosshairs:\ Lomonosov, MatveyLange, Matthew
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| College
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McGill University (Canada)
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| Date
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2019
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| student score
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2019
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Page No
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265
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| Abstract
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The dissertation employs comparative historical methods to investigate the development of Albanian and Serbian national identity over the last two centuries. More narrowly, it traces the emergence and evolution of two foundational national myths: the story of the Illyrian origins of the Albanian nation and the narrative of the 1389 Kosovo battle. The study focuses on micro- and meso-level processes, the life course of mythmakers and specific historical situations. For this, it relies on archival data from Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia and a wide body of published primary and secondary historical sources. The dissertation is composed of four separate articles. In the first article, I offer evidence that the Kosovo myth, which is often seen as a "crucial" supporting case for ethno-symbolist theory, is a modern ideological construct. The second article contributes to debates on the global spread of nationalism in the generalist, diaspora studies and long-distance nationalism literatures. The article observes that the idea of Illyrian origins was brought to Albania from outside by the early Albanian-speaking diaspora. This suggests that scholars need to pay more attention to the agency of diaspora members and migrants in the global spread of nationalism. The third article discovers that imperialist archaeologists significantly contributed to the construction of national identity and the establishment of the nationalist research tradition in Albania. These conclusions question the existing dichotomy between imperialism and nationalism in the generalist scholarship. Finally, the fourth article explores the emergence of an Albanian counter-myth in the 1980s and 1990s to the 1389 Kosovo battle narrative. It offers evidence that the counter-myth emerged as a moral reaction of self-perceived "saviors of the nation." Therefore, the literatures on nationalist mythology and national identity construction can benefit by focusing more on the moral dimension of nationalism, the relatively recent history of socialization institutions, and the interactive dynamics of identity politics. Overall, the dissertation highlights the historical and culturally parochial face of nationalism. Analyzing the life-course of nationalist mythmakers in specific historical situations, the dissertation finds that the social location of individuals and groups at the crossroads and crosshairs of alien and native influences breeds exclusionary nationalism. The mechanisms of this causal link can be diverse: ideational, emotional, institutional, and habitual. More broadly, the dissertation contributes to ongoing scholarly discussions on the role of ethnicity in nationalism, the worldwide spread of nationalism, the nature of the nation-state model, the relationship between imperialism and nationalism and the interactive, processual and dynamic character of nationhood.
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East European studies
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Sociology
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