Question

How did culture play an important role in creating the idea of the 'nation' in Europe? Explain with examples.

Answer 1

The development of nationalism did not come about only through wars and territorial expansion. Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nation: art and poetry, stories and music helped express and shape nationalist feelings. Romanticism was a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist sentiment. Romantic artists and poets generally became strong critics of reason and science in their glorified forms. The Romanticists dwelt more on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings. They were aiming at creating a sense of shared collective heritage and common cultural part to serve as the basis of a nation.

German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 – 1803), a Romantic, claimed that true German culture was to be discovered among the common people — das volk. He claimed that folk songs, folk poetry and folk dances held the true spirit of the nation (Volksgeist). He encouraged collecting and recording these forms of folk culture as essential to the nation-building process.

The emphasis on vernacular language and the collection of local folklore, as the Grimm brothers (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812) did, was not just to recover an ancient national spirit, but also to carry the modern nationalist message to large audiences who were mostly illiterate. Even though Poland no longer existed as an independent territory, national feelings were kept alive there through music and language.