Stories about border crossers, illegal aliens, refugees that
regularly appear in the press everywhere point to the crucial role
national identity plays in human beings' lives today. The National
Habitus seeks to understand how and why national belonging became
so central to a person's identity and sense of identity. Centered
on the acquisition of the national habitus, the process that
transforms subjects into citizens when a state becomes a
nation-state, the book examines this transformation at the
individual level in the case of nineteenth century France. Literary
texts serve as primary material in this study of national
belonging, because, as Germaine de Stael pointed out long ago,
literature has the unique ability to provide access to "inner
feelings." The term "habitus," in the title of this book, signals a
departure from traditional approaches to nationalism, a break with
the criteria of language, race, and ethnicity typically used to
examine it. It is grounded instead in a sociology that deals with
the subjective dimension of life and is best exemplified by the
works of Norbert Elias (1897-1990) and Pierre Bourdieu (1931-2002),
two sociologists who approach belief systems like nationalism from
a historical, instead of an ethical vantage point. By
distinguishing between two groups of major French writers, three
who experienced the 1789 Revolution firsthand as adults (Olympe de
Gouges, Francois Rene de Chateaubriand and Germaine de Stael) and
three who did not (Stendhal, Prosper Merimee, and George Sand), the
book captures evolving understandings of the nation, as well as
thoughts and emotions associated with national belonging over time.
Le Hir shows that although none of these writers is typically
associated with nationalism, all of them were actually affected by
the process of nationalization of feelings, thoughts, and habits,
irrespective of aesthetic preferences, social class, or political
views. By the end of the nineteenth century, they had learned to
feel and view themselves as French nationals; they all exhibited
the characteristic features of the national habitus: love of their
own nation, distrust and/or hatred of other nations. By
underscoring the dual contradictory nature of the national habitus,
the book highlights the limitations nation-based identities impose
on the prospect for peace.
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