Cultural logics and the search for national identities

Algis Mickunas

pp. 147-170

in: Mano Daniel, Lester Embree (eds), Phenomenology of the cultural disciplines, Berlin, Springer, 1994

Abstract

The current appearance of the search for national identities may be understood in contexts of broader cultural structures. One such structure is Western Modernity, and provides a background which plays a multiple role in the search for identity: in its secular form it provides an opposition to national/ethnic groups of specific religious type; in its technical form it provides means for economic transformation or military enhancement; in its homogenizing universality, it sets a tone for postmodern movements and anti-modern oppositions; in its individuating form it becomes an attraction for freedom and liberation. This essay explores the relationships of Western modernity to various nationalistic and ethnic movements and, in a final analysis, raises a question concerning the constitution of nationality