Performing Nationalism

                               Glossary of Terms and Concepts  – 40%

                                              handout


The mark 40% will be calculated based on your final Glossary, which will include 5 theoretical
terms of your choice and 5 applications of these terms, i.e. analysis of the chosen works of art
within the lens of these terms.

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Samples of a single glossary entry:

SAMPLE ONE:

SOURCE: Derrida, Jacques. Of Hospitality: Anne Dufourmantelle invites Jacques Derrida to respond,
Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2000.


CONCEPT - ABSOLUTE HOSPITALITY

Absolute hospitality requires that I open up my home and that I give not only to the foreigner
(provided with a family name, with the social status of being a foreigner, etc.), but to the
absolute, unknown, anonymous other, and that I give place to them, that I let them come, that I let
them arrive, and take place in the place I offer them, without asking of them either reciprocity
(entering into a pact) or even their names. [Derrida 2000: 25]


Application:

In the short story "Amy Foster” by Joseph Conrad, the notion of absolute hospitality is looked at
from difference perspectives: those of the host and those of the traveller, Yanko. Although each
character has his/her own version of what hospitality means, often the characters cannot meet each
other even half-way. Yanko dies in complete isolation without properly experiencing the sense of
hospitality, as nobody truly claims responsibility for him.



SAMPLE TWO:

SOURCE: Verdery, Katherine. “CIVIL SOCIETY OR NATION? “EUROPE” IN THE SYMBOLISM OF POSTSOCIALIST
POLITICS”, What Was Socialism, and What Comes Next? Princeton University Press. 1996. Pp. 23-45


CONCEPT: Moral Capital


Moral capital, a potent type of political capital in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union,
refers to the definition and upholding of certain values as correct[1]. Ruling modern states
require regimes of legitimation and control in order to exercise sovereignty over their borders and
population. This entails symbols mobilized by rulers to “define and help build the political
capital of the actors who wield them” (Verdery 106). The introduction and/or redefinition of
symbols, as well as the monopoly over those definitions, are integral to building political capital
and producing new regimes of legitimation. This form of capital does not apply merely to the
national level but to any political actor.



APPLICATION:

Communist Party leaders in Russia and Romania have monopolized definitions of virtue, purity,
social entitlement and obligation to establish the grounds for control over the masses. For the
Romanians subjected to Ceausescu’s regime, the means of accumulating moral capital occurred through
resistance-based suffering. Harassment from the Party, persecution, imprisonment, or torture for
defending the idea of civil society or nation, became political resources for the powerless to
accumulate moral capital through acts of resistance (107). In Stanescu’s play Waxing West,
Daniela’s late father is an example of moral capital accumulation on the part of Romanian
dissidents during the Ceausescu regime. Marcela, his widow, says “your father was such a clean
sensitive polite perfect gentleman” and reveals that he was in jail for political reasons (Stanescu
4). She continues: “Nobody had the courage to start a strike during that bloody Ceausescu regime,
but your father… your father… did” (ibid). However, Elvis exposes Marcela’s contradicting opinions
of his father, revealing that she used to call him a “useless bastard” and “insignificant bag”
(ibid). This reveals that Marcela’s seemingly high opinion of the man is heavily rooted in the
context of his political endeavours against the Ceausescu regime. Taking into consideration the
anti-communist stance of the West, “persons who resisted Communist tyranny and suffered for it
gained visibility and renown” enhancing their moral stature as “pioneers of freedom” (107-8). Moral
capital works as a currency in the political realm, explaining how political actors acquire and
maintain legitimacy and power.



Each glossary entry must follow the MLA format of citation:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/


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[1] Moral capital is not limited to Eastern states and can exist in any political sphere.