This thesis engages literature in the field of nationalism in order to explore the discursive construction of a Self-Other relationship in American foreign policy as it has been projected by President George W. Bush between September 11, 2001 and March 19, 2003. Political theorists advance numerous definitions of both the nation and nationalism that offer insight into the Self-Other dichotomy. Despite substantive differences, there is consensus among them that the 'national Self' must be accompanied by the presence and identification of Others who fall beyond political, cultural, and territorial boundaries. Without their presence, there would exist either one nation or none at all. / Master of Arts

Politicians justify border walls by arguing that it would protect the nation from outside threats, such as immigration or terrorism. The literature on border walls has identified xenophobic nationalism's centrality in framing border walls as a security measure. Yet, alternative geographic visions of nationhood in Hungary, Georgia and Israel define the fenced perimeters in these countries as the lines that divide the nation and its territory. These cases illustrate the contradiction between the geography of security, marked by the border wall, and the geography of nationhood, which extends beyond the fenced boundary. These cases allow us to problematize the link between "security" and "nationalism" and their relationship with borders. Therefore, this dissertation is a study of the politics of reconciling distinct geopolitical visions of security and nationhood in the making of border walls. Justification of border walls requires the reframing of the national territory in line with the geography articulated by border security and away from the spatially expanded vision of nationhood. A successful reframing of the nation's geography is a matter of politicians' skills to craft a convincing geopolitical storyline in favor of the border wall that would combine security and nationalist arguments (Hungary). However, even the most skillful rhetoricians will find it hard to create such a discursive story if the hegemonic geography of nationhood has firmly fixed the meaning of the fenced line not as a border but as a dividing line across the nation's geo-body (Georgia). Where such hegemonic geography of nationhood is absent and the society disagrees over the meaning, shape and location of borders and territory, a security discourse in favor of the border wall would sway the public opinion towards that type of territorial conception of nationhood, which overlaps with the promise of protection (Israel). / Doctor of Philosophy / Politicians justify border walls by arguing that it would protect the nation from outside threats, such as immigration or terrorism. This study shows that the new border walls do not necessarily mean the rise of nationalism. Instead, the nationalism associated with border walls has sidelined and replaced other forms of nationalism that aim to keep the border open and expand the state's reach beyond the sovereign boundaries. In Hungary, Georgia and Israel, new border walls serve the purpose of security. Simultaneously, they separate the country from the areas beyond the fenced line but are considered part of the national territory. This study accounts for the political process that aims to reconcile these territorial contradictions between the quest for border security and the nationalist desire to maintain power beyond the border wall. The study has found that such a dual functioning of the borders has been possible in Hungary and Israel. In contrast, in Georgia, the fence remains a deeply negative symbol of the nation's territorial division.

This thesis uses Benedict Anderson's theoretical contributions on the topic of national identity and Michel Foucault's contributions toward discourse analysis to perform a discursive analysis of Donald Trump's campaign speeches in which he exploits pre-existing anti-immigration sentiments among certain voters to gain political power. The research question addressed herein is: How has Donald Trump invoked the issue of national security to single out groups of immigrants as threats to U.S. national security, and what conditions exists so that he is able to do so in a way that enlists the support of a sizeable portion of the American public? First, this thesis works to put into context what drove post-World War II immigration in the U.S. to provide insight into what conditions lead to certain groups being encouraged or discouraged from immigrating. Second, I contrast Anderson's concept of nationalism with that of Samuel Huntington, whose idea of nationalism more closely aligns with Trump's nativist sense of national identity. Third, having put the history of U.S. immigration and the concept of national identity into context, I perform a discursive analysis of three of Trump's campaign speeches and tweets that focus on immigration and make problematic his racist, far-right ideology and its purpose toward the de-politicization and de-historicization of immigration as a national security and economic issue. I conclude by reminding the reader that allowing anti-immigrant discourse to become normalized without the burden of proof can lead to curbed freedoms under an authoritarian regime, a direction toward which Trump appears ready and willing to lead the American electorate. / Master of Arts / This thesis poses the question: How has Donald Trump invoked the issue of national security to single out groups of immigrants as threats to U.S. national security, and what conditions exists so that he is able to do so in a way that enlists the support of a sizeable portion of the American public? This question is answered through a discursive analysis of Trump’s campaign speeches, a discussion of how national identity is derived, and a brief consideration of a few policies that have impacted immigration to the U.S. and its political landscape. Ultimately, this thesis identifies a discursive apparatus that has been leveraged by Donald Trump and his supporters in order to gain political favor. If left unchecked, this discourse could have a damaging effect on the U.S. and its citizens by making it acceptable to cast certain groups as un-American.

This thesis examines the influence of nationalism on individual identity, focusing on the United States as a case study. It argues that the emergence of nationalism significantly shapes personal identity, impacting individual worldviews and lifeways. Utilizing insights from sociology, philosophy, and religious studies, this paper delves into modern concepts of diversity, secularism, and the social phenomenon of nationalism. The study explores the intersection of nation and religion, suggesting a shift toward individual worldviews and lifeways as a framework that encompasses both religious and secular perspectives to recognize the influence of both in the lives of individuals. Through an analysis of American culture, the paper demonstrates nationalism's role in molding American societal norms and individual identities. Additionally, this research underscores the importance of recognizing the impact of nationalism for navigating the complexities of modern pluralistic societies, contributing to the ongoing cultural conversation by offering an analysis that bridges secular and religious perspectives to offer a holistic understanding of individual and collective meaning-making in the contemporary world.

This dissertation contextualizes Brahms's vocal quartets within a largely forgotten discourse about Hausmusik that flourished in German-speaking lands in the second half of the nineteenth century. In numerous texts about Hausmusik from ca. 1848-1900, authors conceived the genre as an aesthetically and politically conservative expression of German identity and connected its accessible style to an ideal of social cohesion in the pre-industrial age. Similar issues of national identity and musical style arise in the reception of Brahms's quartets, which, I contend, was informed by the works' generic status as Hausmusik. Critics either praised Brahms's works for their simple, folk-like style or disparaged their complexity, artifice, and foreignness. Ultimately, I argue, Brahms sought to elevate the genre of Hausmusik in his vocal quartets by integrating aesthetic and cultural values associated with this genre with a more sophisticated musical style. The works' stylistic and generic ambiguity and the disparity in critics' responses reveal competing aesthetic, political, and cultural world views immediately before and after German unification. Chapter 2 shows how discourse about Hausmusik constructed German identity in the private sphere by promoting a folk-like aesthetic and accessible musical style over the perceived cosmopolitanism and commercialism of Salonmusik and other repertoires. Chapter 3 investigates the tension between Hausmusik and chamber styles and their associated opposing cultural values. Chapter 4 explores a similar conflict between folk and popular musical styles manifested in reactions to the Liebeslieder, which were interpreted as either Ländler or Viennese waltzes. Finally, chapter 5 demonstrates how reception of the Zigeunerlieder reflects the impulse to define German identity in opposition to a foreign "other" by sharply distinguishing between German and exotic musical styles. By relating these descriptive reviews of Brahms's works to largely prescriptive texts about Hausmusik, I define the genre by delimiting its boundaries and demonstrate the crucial role domestic music-making played in the expression of German identity in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-01

In this dissertation, I examine the political shift or reorientation of Arabs and Muslims from the supranational Ummah to the Western form of nation-state by attending to modern Arabic novel in the period between World War I and World War II. I explore the emergence of secularism in Arab national formation. One of my central arguments is that Arab nationalism is indeed a misleading phrase as it gives the impression of unity and coherence to a complex phenomenon that materialize in a number of trends as a form of struggle. In the first chapter, I defined the scope of my argument and the underlying structure and function of nationalism as a form of representation masked by nationalist ideologies. To investigate the reorientation of Arabs and Muslims from Ummah to adopting nation-state, I utilize Spivak's criticism of the system of representation along with Foucault's theorization of discourse. I argued along Edward Said that although the Western national discourse might have influenced the Arab nationalists, I do not believe they prevented them from consciously appropriating nationalism in a free creative way. I also explained that the Arab adoption of a secularist separatist nationalism was more an outcome than an effect in the dissolution of the supranational Ummah, since according to Hourani that "explicit Arab nationalism" did not emerge until the end of the nineteenth century. I wrote this dissertation with the hope that I could, to use Masood Raja's literary concepts, inundate the modern Arabic novel with "silenced knowledge" to not only prevent the untrained Western readers from reducing these works to a set of assumptions, prejudices, or preferences but also to shift the texts from being a point of arrival to a being a point departure.

The purpose of this thesis is to Investigate the relation between mega sport event, media and Korean nationalism in the context of globalisation. Attention is paid to the South Korean media coverage of the 2004 summer Athens Olympic Games. A process/figurational sociological perspective was implemented in making sense of the global-national nexus in the media coverage of the Olympic Games. In this examination, the way In which the media promote the notion of globalisation and reinforce the Idea of nationalism was addressed. The South Korean newspapers and television coverage were investigated In a qualitative manner, and thematic, discourse and visual/image analysis were carried out. Using an inductive thematic coding system, themes and types of media discourse of globalisation and nationalism were identified. The research findings showed that the media coverage of the Olympic Games contains elements of both globalisation and nationalism. While the notions of a global festival and global fraternity were frequently used in celebration of emergence of a global society at the Olympic Games by the media, nationalistic discourses and expressions also accounted for a significant portion of the media coverage of the Olympic Games. It was also found that other notions such as Olympic ideals, war on terror and capitalist ideology were also central elements of the media coverage of the Olympic Games. In addition, the research outcome also points out that a unitary Korean nationalism, which supports reunification of the divided Korea, is becoming a dominant form of discourse on inter-Korean relations within South Korea. Therefore, a unitary Korean nationalism is evident in the South Korean media coverage of the Olympic Games. Overall, the research findings suggest that a media version of the Olympic Games is both a supreme facilitator of globalisation and an ultimate identifier of the nation.

The main purpose of this thesis is to gain insight to, and widened knowledge about, the contemporary nationalistic movement in Sweden, represented by the Sweden Democrats, and its’ relation to cultural heritage. The party has made cultural heritage the main focal of their culture politic, but the questions are what cultural heritage is to them, what content they read in to the concept, how they value heritage, what sort of heritage policies they want to pursue, and why. And also what sort of sources and expertise that are invoked by the party. The source material, consisting of transcripts from parliamentary debates, motions, and policy documents from the party’s web page, is processed through a discourse analytic method. An important theoretical starting point is that to define a term is to define the thing itself, and that this is an expression of power, especially when it comes to a parliamentary party. The second purpose is to problematize and discuss the concept of heritage on a meta level by comparing the results from the empirical study with earlier research that explores the hegemonic heritage discourse. The main findings are that the Sweden Democrats, like many of their peers around Europe, want to use cultural heritage to create unity and a common national identity – a mono culture to replace the multi cultural paradigm they mean is prevailing in the country (and ruining it). The party has an essentialist, even positivistic, view on the content of heritage, but they never really define it thoroughly. The study also shows that most of the party’s thoughts on heritage are in line with the hegemonic heritage discourse. Some have argued that the Sweden Democrats are abusing ”the heritage”, but I would rather say that they are using it, in a way that corresponds well with the concept “cultural heritage” as it has been defined by all those involved with it (i.e. journalists, writers, scholars, policy makers, museal personnel, and the public through public debate in the press). The example of this Swedish nationalistic party, shows what the cultural heritage concept of today can be when driven to its peak. / Uppsatsens första syfte är att nå ökade insikter i modern svensk nationalism (representerad av Sverigedemokraterna) och dess relation till, och syn på, kulturarvsbegreppet. Partiet har gjort kulturarv till sin främsta kulturpolitiska fråga, men frågan är vad kulturarv är för partiet, vilket innehåll de tillskriver det, vilken kulturarvspolitik de säger sig vilja bedriva, hur de värderar kulturarv, och motiverar sina åsikter och förslag. Detta skall utredas genom en diskursanalys av Sverigedemokratiska motioner, riksdagsdebattinlägg, och texter från partiets webbsida. En teoretisk utgångspunkt som är mycket viktig för motiverandet av uppsatsens relevans är att kontroll över kulturarvsbegreppet är kontroll över tinget i sig, och att detta är ett maktuttryck, i synnerhet när det är ett riksdagsparti som söker kontroll över begreppet. Uppsatsens andra syfte är att problematisera och diskutera kulturarvsbegreppet på en metanivå, genom att jämföra resultaten från den empiriska studien med tidigare forskning om den hegemoniska kulturarvsdiskursen. De huvudsakliga fynden är att Sverigedemokraterna, likt många nationalistiska rörelser ute i Europa, vill använda kulturarv för att skapa gemenskap och en gemensam nationell identitet – en monokultur som kan ersätta det multikulturella paradigm de menar är rådande i landet idag. Partiet har en essentialistisk, till och med positivistisk, syn på kulturarv, men definierar det trots det aldrig på djupet. Studien visar att partiets tankar om kulturarvet ofta går i linje med den hegemoniska kulturarvsdiskursen. Somliga har hävdat att Sverigedemokraterna missbrukar ”kulturarvet”, men jag vill snarare säga att de brukar det på ett sätt som korresponderar med kulturarvsbegreppet med stort K, såsom det kommit att tolkas efter år av användande av journalister, författare, akademiker, politiker, museipersonal, och genom publik debatt i pressen. Exemplet Sverigedemokraterna visar vad kulturarvsbegreppet av idag kan vara när det dras till sin spets.

This dissertation concerns the development and interaction of Kazakh and Russian identities in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. My research questions were: (1) what was the character of these identities in 2003/04 (the time of my research); (2) how have these identities interacted to form dominant and subordinate identities, and (3) how can the character of these identities and their interaction be explained? In order to research these questions I used a general questionnaire followed up by open ended interviews of a representative sample of Kazakhstani citizens. While my research findings show continued uncertainty and provisionality in both Kazakh and Russian identities, which confirms the broad trend of previous surveys, they also indicate signs of change in the emergence of more consolidated dominant and subordinate identities in the less Russianised areas like Chimkent and among the younger generation, while by contrast the older generations of Russians, particularly in the more Russianised areas, find it difficult to accept the delegitimation of their dominant status as reflected in the nationalizing policies pursued by the new state. In theoretical terms these findings confirm the importance of the study of ethnic stratification, which has not received sufficient attention in previous research in this area. In explaining these developments I found that the character of the transition and also of the ‘prior regime type’ in Kazakhstan has had a significant effect on ethnic relationships, but also that international factors, such as those presented in Brubaker’s triadic model, and internal factors, elaborated by Schermerhorn and Horowitz, were also important.