The Nation as a Community Born of War? Symbolic Strategies and Popular Reception of Public Statues in Late Nineteenth-Century Western European Capitals

Rausch, Helke

doi:10.1080/13507480701249091

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…What makes Turkey a singular case among other authoritarian nations in Europe in the early 20th century is the complete novelty of figurative public monuments since the Islamic order under the Ottoman Empire had banned on all forms of idolatry. 2 This contrast also holds true for the more democratic states in Europe such as France and Britain where the erection, demolition and re-erection of public monuments had played a key role in nation-building since the 18th century (Cohen, 1989;Mosse, 1977;Rausch, 2007). 3 Given the absence of this aesthetic form in the Ottoman Empire, the erection of these symbols in early republican Turkey (1923)(1924)(1925)(1926)(1927)(1928)(1929)(1930)(1931)(1932)(1933)(1934)(1935)(1936)(1937)(1938) constituted a symbolic event itself as it invented a new tradition by representing the birth of a new nation with a pro-Westernised, modern, secular culture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More than a sovereign symbol? The public reception of the early monumental statues of Atatürk in Turkey

Güçler

Gür

2021

Nations and Nationalism

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The early monumental statues of Atatürk in Turkey have so far been studied from the perspective of the state and its ambition to disseminate a national consciousness. While this state‐centric approach has been helpful to understand the role of symbolism in nation‐building, it ends up reducing people to a passive recipient of symbolic indoctrination. We, in contrast, approach public perception as an active component in the discursive construction of these monuments over time. We first analyse the period until the death of Atatürk in 1938 during which the democratic possibility of conflicting with the official narrative remained quite minimal. We then look at the aftermath of Atatürk's death, which coincides with the introduction of the multiparty democracy in Turkey where there were more critical engagements with these monuments, particularly by the right‐wing constituents and politicians. We conclude that such resistance was still discursively bound by the nationalist context within which it operated. Our analysis of the politics of symbolism in Turkey taps into the theoretical works of Hanna Pitkin and Warren Breckman.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More than a sovereign symbol? The public reception of the early monumental statues of Atatürk in Turkey

Güçler

Gür

2021

Nations and Nationalism

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“…For example. historian HelkeRausch (2007) analyzes the memorials and statues of nineteenthcentury national heroes as expressions of national ideals, popular war myths, and intentional national propaganda. Over the past two decades.…”

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The hero's journey: tracing the history of the myth to the celebrity

Goldberg¹

2021

Preprint

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The terms "hero," "heroism," and, more recently, "heroine," are broad, wide ranging, and contested terms prominent within academia yet there remains a general consensus that heroes are, historically, an essential component to society. This paper will identify that there are diverse Western cultural conceptions surrounding the hero. It is therefore important to trace the meaning behind the concept and draw conclusions as to whether or not the hero narrative has developed or shifted over time. Through an intensive review of the literature on the "hero," this research paper critically identifies the historical constructions, empirical observations, and theoretical analyses in order to explore and understand how the hero narrative has changed or retained timeless qualities of meaning or myth. As the hero developed from the Classical times to the present, through the periods of oral tradition to electronic media, those who are identified as a "hero" became more and more far-reaching. This paper constructs several empirical tables that identify similarities and differences concerning how Western society's classification of heroes has developed. By taking into account the different types of heroic figures that have existed across time, including Greek gods, soldiers, community workers, and celebrities, this paper establishes whether or not the conception of the "hero" changes depending on war, gender, race, popular culture, historical time period, and changes in communication technology.

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Symbolism in European integration

Manners

2011

Comp Eur Polit

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The role of symbolism in European integration provides one way of answering Craig Calhoun's 2003 call in Comparative European Politics for a means of transcending specific regimes of analysis in order to advance European studies. The article argues that our understanding of the integration process and the constitution of the European Union (EU) is furthered by broadly studying symbolic forms in a multiperspectival way. In contrast to much emphasis on heroic symbolic icons, the article studies more banal processes of symbolic construction that provide a deeper understanding of the symbolisation of European integration and enrich European studies more broadly. The article sets out how such processes could include the roles of physical icons such as maps or places, performative rituals such as days or museums, or discursive taboos such as mottos or texts. In this way the study of symbolism in European integration suggests a means of understanding how the EU becomes constituted as a political reality -how it is 'always already there and still in formation'.

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The Nation as a Community Born of War? Symbolic Strategies and Popular Reception of Public Statues in Late Nineteenth-Century Western European Capitals

Cited by 5 publications

References 16 publications

More than a sovereign symbol? The public reception of the early monumental statues of Atatürk in Turkey

More than a sovereign symbol? The public reception of the early monumental statues of Atatürk in Turkey

The hero's journey: tracing the history of the myth to the celebrity

Symbolism in European integration

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