Mihaela C Ionescu | National Taiwan Normal University (original) (raw)

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My papers by Mihaela C Ionescu

In his classical book “Imagined Communities”, Benedict Anderson attempted to outline the historic... more In his classical book “Imagined Communities”, Benedict Anderson attempted to outline the historic causes and process that lead to the rise and spread of nationalism all over the world, and in doing so came up with some innovative ideas, such as that of “imagined communities”, “limited pilgrimages”, and “modularity”. He dived his analysis in four different phases, placing the formation of post-colonial nations within the so-called “last wave” of nationalism, and claimed that they had been shaped by their colonisers, and that they were merely “copying” the models that had been previously created by American and European nations.
I argue that Anderson’s reflections are severely limited by his approach, namely historic materialism. Anderson provides a wealth of insights and good general theories on the rise and spread of nations and nationalisms, but his analysis is limited to visible phenomena, political and social structures, while failing to acknowledge the cultural and “spiritual” dimension. Anderson is mainly concerned with highlighting patterns and similarities between nations and nationalisms, while ignoring differences and specificities, and how the post-colonial process evolved throughout the decades. When it comes to explaining the process of nation-building in post-colonial societies (“The Last Wave”), he focuses excessively on the role of colonial states and the structures they left behind, while ignoring to look at “Who imagines what, when, and how?” Moreover, his analysis is hugely limited by the fact that he only studied the cases of Dutch-ruled Indies and French-ruled Indochina, and after comparing the two cases, extended his conclusions to all post-colonial nations at large.

In his classical book “Imagined Communities”, Benedict Anderson attempted to outline the historic... more In his classical book “Imagined Communities”, Benedict Anderson attempted to outline the historic causes and process that lead to the rise and spread of nationalism all over the world, and in doing so came up with some innovative ideas, such as that of “imagined communities”, “limited pilgrimages”, and “modularity”. He dived his analysis in four different phases, placing the formation of post-colonial nations within the so-called “last wave” of nationalism, and claimed that they had been shaped by their colonisers, and that they were merely “copying” the models that had been previously created by American and European nations.
I argue that Anderson’s reflections are severely limited by his approach, namely historic materialism. Anderson provides a wealth of insights and good general theories on the rise and spread of nations and nationalisms, but his analysis is limited to visible phenomena, political and social structures, while failing to acknowledge the cultural and “spiritual” dimension. Anderson is mainly concerned with highlighting patterns and similarities between nations and nationalisms, while ignoring differences and specificities, and how the post-colonial process evolved throughout the decades. When it comes to explaining the process of nation-building in post-colonial societies (“The Last Wave”), he focuses excessively on the role of colonial states and the structures they left behind, while ignoring to look at “Who imagines what, when, and how?” Moreover, his analysis is hugely limited by the fact that he only studied the cases of Dutch-ruled Indies and French-ruled Indochina, and after comparing the two cases, extended his conclusions to all post-colonial nations at large.