National myths : constructed pasts, contested presents / edited by Gerard Bouchard.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bouchard, Gérard, 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National characteristics.

Mythology.

Ethnicity.

Group identity.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (321 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

National myths are now seriously questioned in a number of societies. In the West, for instance, a number of factors have combined to destabilise the symbolic foundation of nations and collective identities. As a result, the diagnosis of a deep cultural crisis has become commonplace. Indeed, who today has not heard about the erosion of common values or the undermining of social cohesion? But to efficiently address this issue, do we know enough about the nature and role of myths in modern and postmodern societies?Against this background, National Myths: Constructed Pasts, Co

Contents:

Cover; TitleInformation; TitlePage; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; List of illustrations; List of contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1 The small nation with a big dream: Québec national myths (eighteenth-twentieth centuries); 2 National imaginaries in a globalizing age: The case of English Canada; 3 The myth(s) that will not die: American National Exceptionalism; 4 Ethnic myths as national identity in Brazil; 5 Understanding Mexico's master myth: A case for theory; 6 1066 and all that: Myths of the English; 7 Polish mythology and the traps of messianic martyrology

8 Myths and national identity choices in post-communist Russia9 Myth and the postnational polity: The case of the European Union; 10 Transforming myths, contested narratives: The reshaping of mnemonic traditions in Israeli culture; 11 War room stories and the rainbow nation: Competing narratives in contemporary South African literature; 12 Gender, Nehanda, and the myth of nationhood in the making of Zimbabwe; 13 War, myths, and national identity formation: Chinese attitudes toward Japan; 14 Lineages and lessons (for national myth formation) of Japan's postwar national myths

15 Myths of the nation, cultural recognition, and personal law in India16 National myths: An overview; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Description based on online resource; title from title page (ebrary, viewed May 16, 2013).

ISBN:

1-136-22109-3

0-203-09711-4

1-136-22110-7

9780203097113

OCLC:

841809968