Introduction to Nation States

1. Francis Gilbert:

2. Getting to know you
Could you explain WHY you chose the course?
Your life growing up, your family, cultural
background.
Your experiences of school and learning
generally: your attitudes towards reading,
writing and discussion.
Favourite teachers/authors/music/films etc and
why
Hobbies, interests etc.
Anything else you think is relevant…

3. Key questions to discuss
What is a “nation” in your view? Why do they
exist?
What is a “state” in your view? Is a “state”
different from a “nation”?
What is a “nation state”?
Why have we “invented” nations, and why do
writers write about them?

4. A state
A state is an organized political community
living under a government. States may be
sovereign. The denomination state is also
employed to federated states that are
members of a federal union, which is the
sovereign state.

5. A Nation
A large aggregate of people united by
common descent, history, culture, or
language, inhabiting a particular country or
territory.

6. Definitions?
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as
deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a
sovereign entity for a nation as a
sovereign territorial unit.


The concept and actuality of the nation state can
be compared and contrasted with that of the
multinational state, city state,
empire
, confederation,
and other state forms with which it may overlap.
The key distinction from the other forms is the
identification of a people with a polity.

7. The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is a controversial example of a
nation state, due to its "countries within a
country" status. The UK is a unitary state formed
initially by the merger of two independent
kingdoms, the Kingdom of England and
the Kingdom of Scotland, but the Treaty of
Union (1707) that set out the agreed terms has
ensured the continuation of distinct features of
each state, including separate legal systems and
separate national churches.

8. Clear examples
Albania
Egypt
Iceland
Mongolia
Poland
Portugal
Swaziland

9. Why examine “England”?
The England contains the “heart of
government”.
The English were the main proponents of
colonialism.
They “marketed” their “national identity”
throughout the world as a model; this was
used to stop other “nations” or peoples from
becoming “states” in their own right.

10. What does literature tell
us?
Often embodies “hegemonic” values; the
dominant ideologies of a time often are
promoted within popular pieces of literature.
Used as a tool for colonialism, for
subjugating peoples, nations…
Used to subvert hegemonic values; to
counter-act dominant ideologies.

11. Why study literature?
Literature can offer different perspectives; it
can explore issues connected with national
identity through the lens of the “little
person”, the marginalised, the ignored, the
“subaltern”. It can “voice” to the
dispossessed.
It is particularly fruitful looking at the
“difficult” cases; the ones that defy
categorisation.

12. Why Study The Caribbean?
English-speaking
Issues connected national identity come up again
and again.
Rich and emerging literature.
The poetry is particularly diverse and fascinating,
using dialect.
Like England, Jamaica is NOT a nation state, but
still part of the British Commonwealth with the
Queen as the Head of State. It has its own
government which is democratically elected.

13. Small Island
Small Island – looking at the contrasting ways
in which Caribbean and English identities
changed after the war.
Very popular.
Author is British, with Jamaican parents.

14. The Dragon Can’t Dance
The subaltern rebels?
Experimental.
Written by a Jamaican.

15. Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys.
A feminist fable?
A colonialist or post-colonialist text?
A protest novel?
Reader-response?
Dominated by an exploration of the
“subaltern”.

16. The Kite Runner
Very contemporary.
Afghanistan: a failed state, part of an
empire??
Explores issues connected with the subaltern.

17. Pigeon English
Very recent novel.
The child as the “subaltern”.
English and African identities.