National Cultures at Grass-root Level / / Antonina Kłoskowska.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Central European University Press eBook-Package 2013-1998
• VerfasserIn: Kłoskowska, Antonina,
• Place / Publishing House: Budapest ;, New York : : Central European University Press, , [2022]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (462 p.)

The major dilemma this volume addresses is the function of national identity in a modern society, for despite the trend towards globalization, the world continues to be riddled with national conflict. Kłoskowska begins by looking at the controversy between two competing concepts of the origin of the nation – political and ethnic. She examines the central issues of the argument, and in particular, the characteristics and effects of ethnic differences on personal identity and the appropriation of national culture. Her theories are based upon autobiographies by individuals belonging to various national minorities in Poland and other areas where ethnic borders are blurred. The group studied included mostly young intellectuals: Ukrainians, Belarussians and Silesian-Germans. She examines the national attitudes of the various countries the ethnic minorities have been forced to live with. In her conclusion, Kłoskowska takes the view that national cultures are either ‘open’ or ‘closed’ and stresses the importance of participating in more than one cultural medium. National Cultures at the Grass-Root Level is rich in information on contemporary theories of the nation, on its origin, character and future, and offers a deep insight into the complex and often ambiguous reality of national attitudes.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Foreword -- PART I THE THEORY, HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE NATION -- 1. Controversies Surrounding the Concept of Nation -- 2. Historical Perspective -- 3. "Patria "—Fatherland, Homeland— as the Correlate of the Nation -- PART II THE CULTURALISTIC SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE -- 4. The Complexity and Diversity of National Symbolic Communities -- 5. National Stereotypes and the Concept of National Identity -- 6. Personal Identity as Related to National Identification and to the Appropriation of National Culture— the Valence of National Culture -- 7. Empirical Materials—Concepts and Methods -- PART III NATIONAL CONVERSIONS -- 8. National Conversion as a Borderland Phenomenon -- 9. The Polish Conversion of Albert Winkler -- 10. German Conversions: Arrested or Realized -- PART IV NATIONAL MINORITIES—PERIPHERIES OF THE DOMINANT CULTURE -- 11. Variants of Ukrainity in the Light of Autobiographies -- 12. The Problem of Belarussian Nationality in the Autobiographical Approach -- 13. Silesian National Dilemmas: the Older Generation of Silesians -- 14. Silesian National Dilemmas: the Younger Generation of Silesians -- 15. Open and Closed National Attitudes in a Borderland Situation -- PART V THE CENTER OF NATIONAL CULTURE -- 16. A Portrait of the Wartime Generation in the Background -- 17. Young Poles in the Period of the Democratic Breakthrough -- 18. Young Poles Facing Others. An Open or a Closed Nation? -- PART VI AN EPILOGUE ON EMIGRATION -- 19. Scales of Polishness -- 20. Józef Czapski: Polish Identification and Cultural Polyvalence -- Conclusions. The Nation: What for? -- Bibliography -- Name Index