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This dissertation concerns the reproduction and negotiation of Japanese national identity at the intersection between sports, media, and globalization. The research includes the analysis of newspaper coverage of the most significant sporting events in recent Japanese history, including the 2014 Koshien National High School Baseball Championships, the awarding of the People’s Honor Award, the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup, wrestler Hakuho’s record breaking victories in the sumo ring, and the bidding process for the 2020 Olympic Games. 2054 Japanese language articles were examined by thematic analysis in order to identify the extent to which established themes of “Japaneseness” were reproduced or renegotiated in the coverage. The research contributes to a broader understanding of national identity negotiation by illustrating the manner in which established symbolic boundaries are reproduced in service of the nation, particularly via mass media. Furthermore, the manner in which change is negotiated through processes of assimilation and rejection was considered through the lens of hybridity theory. / Media & Communication

Since the early 1990s, more and more people in Taiwan have come to view Taiwan itself as a country independent of China. They consider themselves Taiwanese rather than Chinese. Drawing on a social constructionist perspective to nationalism and Laclau and Mouffe's theory of discourse, this dissertation attempts to analyze the discursive mechanisms that have constructed this new collective imagination by many people in Taiwan that now regard themselves as members of an independent Taiwanese nation. The research questions of this dissertation are: how has the post-1949 national identity of Taiwan been discursively transformed since the early 1990s? What are the discursive and institutional mechanisms that have reproduced the Taiwanese national identity? What challenges is the Taiwanese national identity facing? To answer these questions, this dissertation outlines three nationalist discourses and five representations that have been derived from them regarding Taiwan's status, its relationship with mainland China, and the national identity of people in Taiwan. It examines the changes in Taiwan's discursive regime and symbolic economy since the early 1990s, showing how the rise of Taiwanese national identity has been closely related to political leaders' identification with Taiwanese nationalism. I argue that the rise of Taiwanese national identity in Taiwan has been an effect of a discursive contestation among the three major nationalist discourses and the polarization of the discursive field. This dissertation also explores the provincial origin issue---which has been closely related to ethnic tension in Taiwan---and the relations between the nationalist discourses and democratization. In addition, to explore the possibility for a deconstruction of the Taiwanese national identity, I examine the challenges that the Taiwanese national identity faces, focusing on democracy, the Democratic Progressive Party's performance as the ruling party, and the cross-Strait economic integration and political interactions. / Ph. D.

To promote their desired national identity, the North Macedonian government funded the Skopje 2014 Project––an initiative including abundant statues, architectural façades, and other structures that depict Ancient Macedon as North Macedonia’s heritage. This project received copious amounts of criticism on two central fronts: first, that its allusions to Ancient Macedon are a false depiction of history; second, that its aesthetic is tacky. While valid arguments are made on each of these fronts, I argue that the latter complicates the former when analyzed in the context of North Macedonia’s precarity. In this analysis, I employ the work of Judith Butler and Liron Lavi as a theoretical backdrop to interrogate the nature of North Macedonia’s precarity. Analyzing political negotiations between North Macedonia and Greece surrounding Skopje 2014, I introduce the term persistent infelicity––a type of precarity in which the validity of an identity performance is made inaccessible for a given entity. Further, the commodification of the Ancient Macedon narrative has transformed North Macedonia’s identity performance from an iterative production to an instantaneous transaction, limiting North Macedonia’s opportunity to challenge its infelicitous state. However, I assert that the aesthetic of Skopje 2014 creates space for subversion even considering these limitations. Expanding upon the work of Susan Sontag, I identify Skopje 2014’s aesthetic as camp and delineate its function in the project as one of subversive compliance. Camp as a rhetorical tool allows North Macedonia to perform a bifurcated identity—one identity that is insincere yet appeases its international audience and another that is more authentic yet controversial directed toward an intra-national audience. While this has modestly empowering implications for Skopje 2014, this analysis concludes that the identity performance of North Macedonia has been propelled into the realm of simulacra—a realm ultimately and perilously untethered to the “real”––and prompts further consideration for other precarious nations whose identities may be fated to persistent infelicity.

This thesis is a chronologically comparative study of fairy culture and belief in early modern and Victorian Scotland. Using fairy culture as a case study, I examine the adaptability of folk culture by exploring whether beliefs and legends surrounding fairies in the early modern era continued into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a single culture system, or whether the Victorian fairy revival was a distinct cultural phenomenon. Based on contextual, physical, and behavioral comparisons, this thesis argues the former; while select aspects of fairy culture developed and adapted to serve the needs and values of Victorian society, its resurgence and popularization was largely predicated on the notion that it was a remnant of the past, therefore directly linking the nineteenth century interpretation to the early modern. In each era, fairy culture serves as a window into the major tensions complicating Scottish identity formation. In the early modern era, these largely centered around witchcraft, theology, and the Reformation, while notions of cultural heritage, national mythology, and escapist fantasy dominated Victorian fairy discourse. A comparative study on fairy culture demonstrates how cultural traditions can help link vastly different time periods and complicate traditional conceptions about periodization. Ultimately, this thesis reveals how issues of class impacted the popularization and persistence of fairy culture across both eras, reflecting ongoing discussions about Scottish identity. / Master of Arts

The identities of people residing in the vicinity of national borders are complex and affected by many factors, especially by narratives imposed by national governments through the national education system. The European Union, as a supranational organization, also provides narratives that expose individuals to globalized, versus national, ideals. This ethnographic case study asks how individuals living along the Macedonian-Bulgarian border, sharing strong ethnic and cultural ties, view their regional, national and European identities. The study finds that individuals have developed a strong attachment to their national identity. Many Bulgarians hold a strong vision based on historic claims to the Bulgarian Kingdom. Many Bulgarians see Macedonian as having been carved out of the ancient territory and therefore refer to the people as Bulgarians, thus denying their right to self-identify. Macedonians, on the other hand, choose not to refer to the 'other' as part of their own population, but rather as neighbors. They view their national identity is based on the idea of the country being 'attacked' by its neighbors and having to struggle for recognition in the world. The E.U. does not currently offer an alternative, as individuals have little attachment to their European identity related to E.U. membership. / Ph. D.

The Meiji Restoration was the revolution that overthrew the feudal regime of the Tokugawa period in late nineteenth-century Japan. It was also the time of the opening of the country to the rest of the world, and Japan had to confront with Western powers. The Meiji government boldly accepted the new technologies from the West, and succeeded in swiftly industrializing the nation. However, this same government had been aggressive exclusionists and ultra-nationalists before the Restoration. In light of this fact, I investigate how national identity is linked to engineering education in Japan. My focus is on the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE), or Kobu-daigakko, in Tokyo during the late nineteenth century. The ICE was at the forefront of Westernization in the Meiji government. I specifically examine Yozo Yamao and Hirobumi Ito, who studied in Britain and were the co-founders of the college; Henry Dyer, the first principal; and the students of the ICE. As a result of the investigation, I conclude that the spirit of samurai (former warriors) was the ethos for Westernization at the ICE. They followed ethical code for the samurai, the essence of which was lordly pride as a ruling class. They upheld their ethical standard after the Meiji Restoration. Their spirit of rivalry and loyalty urged Yamao, Ito, and the students to emulate Western technology for ensuring the independence of Japan. The course of the ICE's development reveals that non-engineering motivations shared a mutual relationship with the engineering education of those at the ICE. / Master of Science

This study looks at social studies teachers' perceptions of Malawi's national identity as it is promoted through Malawi's primary school social studies education. The following research questions were posed: 1) What are teachers' perceptions of national identity in Malawi? 2) What are teachers' perceptions of Malawi's primary school social studies curriculum? and 3) What are teachers' perceptions of the practice of constructing national identity through primary school social studies curriculum in Malawi? The recent revision of Malawi's social studies curriculum allows for a new analysis on the relationship between Western neocolonialism and its affect on the shaping of Malawian national identity, as exampled by Malawi's social studies program. This study will therefore contribute to existing literature regarding the role of social studies education and the construction of national identity as well as the impact the West has on the maintenance of African national identity. Using semi-structured interviews with ten practicing primary school social studies teachers and one social studies curriculum specialist in the Domasi district, Southern Region of Malawi, I found that Malawi's social studies currciulum is promoting Malawian national identity as perceived by the interviewees. However, the interviewees illuminated contextual factors that hinder the implementation of the new curriculum. / Master of Science

Darbo tema − Gimtoji kalba kaip tautinio tapatumo išsaugojimo prioritetas (trijų kartų įžvalgos). Temos aktualumas ir problema. Gimtoji kalba yra viena iš svarbiausių tautinio tapatumo tęstinumo gijų. Tai ne vien skambūs žodžiai, tai gyvenimo patirtis, tautos dvasios šaltinis, savitumas, kalbos bendrumo jausmas, kuris tampantis įsitikinimu darosi ir tautinio, dorovinio bei kultūrinio identiteto esminga dalimi. Kalbos vaidmuo yra išskirtinis. Sunku atrasti ką nors kitą nei kalba, kas būtų vienodai svarbus ir suvienytų visus tautinės ir politinės bendruomenės narius. Darbo tikslas − ištirti trijų kartų tautinius prioritetus: pasitelkus lyginamąją analizę atskleisti gimtosios (lietuvių) kalbos vaidmenį siekiant išsaugoti ir sustiprinti lietuvių tautinį tapatumą. Šiame magistro darbe bus analizuojamas tautinis tapatumas ir jo santykis su gimtąja kalba. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Išnagrinėti lietuvių tautinį tapatumą (lietuvybę) atspindinčius elementus, jų raišką ir kaitą mūsų visuomenėje. 2. Atskleisti lietuvių tautinio tapatumo išlaikymo galimybes integruojantis į pasaulinę erdvę. 3. Ištirti gimtosios kalbos ir tautinio tapatumo santykį, apibrėžti lietuvių kalbą kaip lietuvybės požymį. 4. Išnagrinėti kalbines nuostatas ir savęs identifikavimo problemas globalizacijos akivaizdoje. 5. Išanalizuoti lietuvių tautiškumo, lietuvybės, lietuvių kalbos kaip dorovinių vertybių sistemos svarbą asmenybės vertybinių principų formavimuisi. 6. Atlikti kokybinį tyrimą ir sužinoti trijų kartų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Topic of the thesis − Native Language as a Priority for Preserving National Identity (Insights of Three Generations). Relevance and problem of the topic. Native language is one of the most important links of continuity of national identity. It is not only high-sounding words but also life experience, source of national spirit, peculiarity and sense of belonging to the same linguistic community, which, while gradually turning into personal conviction, becomes an essential part of national, moral and cultural identity. The role of language is exceptional. It is hard to find any other element as important as the language itself, bringing all members of the national and political community into a single whole. The goal of the thesis − to examine national priorities of three generations; by means of comparative analysis, reveal the role of the native (Lithuanian) language in pursuit of preserving and strengthening Lithuanian national identity. Therefore, the Master’s thesis will address national identity and its relationship with the native language. Objectives of the thesis: 1. To analyse the elements reflecting Lithuanian national identity (Lithuanianhood), their expression and change in our society. 2. To reveal the possibilities for preserving Lithuanian national identity in the process of global integration. 3. To examine the relationship between native language and national identity; to define the Lithuanian language as an inherent feature of Lithuanianhood. 4. To... [to full text]

Na presente tese de doutorado focalizamos as músicas gravadas por Carlos Gardel (1917 a 1935) e por Carmen Miranda (1930 a 1940), articulando-as com a imagem e a performance dos artistas, as quais podem ser observadas na audição das gravações, nos filmes dos quais participaram e em fotos divulgadas em revistas da época, para analisar as representações das identidades nacionais argentina e brasileira do período. Considerando que tal período é, exatamente, o de emergência de determinados meios de comunicação de massas (a indústria fonográfica, o rádio e o cinema), observa-se que estes dois artistas tornaram-se ídolos nacionais através destes meios e foram mediadores na construção das identidades nacionais. Desta forma, estabeleceram, nas representações contidas em suas músicas, imagem e performance, relações entre a identidade nacional e outras identidades já existentes anteriormente entre seu público. Neste trabalho, analisamos também estas relações, especialmente da identidade nacional com as identidades populares e de elite, com as identidades étnicas e regionais. / In this doctorate thesis we remarked the music recorded by Carlos Gardel (1917- 1935) and Carmen Miranda (1930-1940) matching image and performance of these artists, which can be look on hearing recorded, in the movies that both played a part in and in the photos published in magazines in that time, to analyze the Brazilian and Argentine national identity. Regarding that epoch exactly the development of the mass media (phonografic industry, radio and cinema) we can realize these artists became national idols by these communications and they were mediators that national identity form. By this way, they established, in their musics, images and performances representations relationship between national identity and others identities just extant before among their public. In this thesis we analyze these relationship especially of national identity with popular and elite identity, with ethnic identity and regional identity.