Özkırımlı (2000) - Theories of Nationalisms (emotions ve affect üzerinden deleuze-spinoza-sara ahmed'e bağlanır mı?)

"Perennialists argue that nations have always existed and that modern nations are nothing but the extansions of their medieval counterparts. Sociobiologists seek the origins of ethnic and national ties in genetic mechanisms and instincts, treating the nation as an extension of the idiom of kinship or a kind of superfamily. Cultural primordialists focus on the perceptions and beliefs of the individuals [supposed sacredness.]" p.74

"Primordialism is about emotions and affect." Eller and Coughlan 1993:187
p.79

"Rituals magically work their effect on participants, making some sensations stronger, producing other at that very moment. There is little or no awareness of the day-to-day activities which might produce or reproduce sentiment or knowledge, religious or otherwise."

"the 'primordial' elements of culture are not affect but the cognitive framework which shapes and informs affect... Certain assumptions or knowledge system set the stage for affect, and to the extent that such knowledge systems form a kind of cognitive substratum not only for affect but for most conscious thought, they might be said to be 'primordial'." Tilley,1997:503
p.80

"Nationalism comes before nations. Nations do not make states and nationalisms but the other way around." Hobsbawm 1990:10

There are no 'good' or 'bad' nationalisms:

"It's through nationalism that societies try to propel themselves forward to certain kinds of goal (industrialization, prosperity, equality with other people, etc.) by a certain sort of regression- by looking inwards, drawing more deeply upon their indigenous resources, resurrecting past folk heroes and myths about themselves and so on." Nairn, 1981

John Breuilly (Nationalism as a form of politics)
-Modernism as generic division of labour
-The link between modernism and nationalistic politics is the development of modern state

The 'cultural' answer to the question "how to establish the state-society connection" was solved by political elites by providing an identity to members of different social groups in order to legitimize state action and secure the support of the masses.  The 'political' answer was defining the nation as a body of citizens with political rights. Nationalism connects these two solutions -the nation as a body of citizens and as a cultural collectivity- together. Typology as seperation, reform and unification opposed to nation and non-nation states. p.107-109

Paul R. Brass (Instrumentalism)
"...ethnic and national identities are convenient tools at the hands of competing elite groups for generating mass support in the universal struggle for wealth, power and prestige(Smith 1986:9)."p.109

"...elites and counter-elites within ethnic groups select aspects of the group's culture, attach new value and meaning to them, and use them as symbols to mobilize the group, to defend its interests and compete with other groups." (Brass 1979:40-1) p.110

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Özkırımlı's Propositions:

1. There can be no 'General' Theory of Nationalism (need for multiple theories)

2. There is no 'one' Nationalism

3. What unites these diverse forms of nationalism is the 'discourse of nationalism'

--> an umbrella definition of nationalism: "a particular way of constructing the social reality we experience"

Özkırımlı (2000:229-230) interprets nationalism as 'a particular way of constructing the social reality we experience' and determines three characteristics for the nationalist discourse as its key element: 1.priority of national interests and values. 2. accepting the nation as the only source of all legitimacy. 3. identity construction through binary divisions.

The three main characteristics of the national discourse:!!!

1. The claim that the interests of the nation comes first (Önce Vatan, Ya Sev Ya Terket)
2. Nation as the only source of legitimacy (Türk Milleti adına..) (more sacred and emotional)
3. It operates through binary divisions to construct a positive identity by the lack of the Other as a constitutive outside. (we-them) p.230

4.The Nationalist discourse can only be effective if it is reproduced on a daily basis !!!


Plural nationalisms in Turkey:

"In Turkey for example, Islamist, secular Kemalists, ultra nationalists and liberals have different conceptions of nationhood. While Kemalists opt for (at least on the surface) a 'civic-territorial' national identity, ultra-nationalists deny any form of cultural pluralism, promoting instead the ethnic and cultural unity, even 'identity', of all those living in Turkey. Liberals subscribe to Western models of nationhood, whereas leftists aspouse anti-imperialist Third World nationalisms which are largely inimical to the West. In short, there is no 'one' Turkish nationalism; rather, there are Turkish nationalisms. p.228