'Importance of culture - art, poetry, stories and music help shape nationalist feelings.'
Justify the above statement with respect to European nationalism.
Answer:
Answer to be written in exam
- Shared cultural past, history, and heritage bring a sense of commonality and unity amongst people.
- Nationalism did not come only through wars and territorial expansion but also through Culture and cultural activities like art, poetry, stories, and music . Romanticism was the cultural movemen t that sought to develop a particular form of nationalist feeling .
- Critical approach towards reason and science: Under romanticism, a rtists criticized the glorification of reason and science and focused on emotions, intuition, and mystical feelings to create a sense of a shared collective heritage, a common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.
- Folk culture as the spirit of the nation : Johann Gottfried Herder claimed that through folk songs, folk poetry, and folk dances, the true spirit of the nation could be popularized. So, collecting and recording forms of folk culture was essential to the project of nation-building.
- Emphasis on vernacular language: They gave emphasis on vernacular language to recover not only the ancient national spirit but also to carry the modern nationalist message to a large audience who were mostly illiterate. For Example - nationalism was kept alive through music and language in Poland.
