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The Revitalization of National Consciousness Through Ethno-Symbolic Nationalism : the Study of the Blind Owl, Between the Acts, Once Upon a Time and Dubliners

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The Revitalization of National Consciousness Through Ethno-Symbolic Nationalism : the Study of the Blind Owl, Between the Acts, Once Upon a Time and Dubliners University of Huddersfield Repository Eslamhesari, Amirhossein The revitalization of national consciousness through ethno-symbolic nationalism : the study of The Blind Owl, Between The Acts, Once Upon A Time and Dubliners Original Citation Eslamhesari, Amirhossein (2014) The revitalization of national consciousness through ethno- symbolic nationalism : the study of The Blind Owl, Between The Acts, Once Upon A Time and Dubliners. Masters thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/30291/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ THE REVITALIZATION OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH ETHNO-SYMBOLIC NATIONALISM; THE STUDY OF THE BLIND OWL, BETWEEN THE ACTS, ONCE UPON A TIME AND DUBLINERS Amirhossein Eslamhesari A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of MPhil The University of Huddersfield April 2014 1 Abstract The rise of nationalism in the early twentieth century, in the build-up to the world wars, was contemporaneous with unprecedented upheavals in literature, particularly the advent of modernism. Then, ethno-symbolic nationalism was theorized by Anthony D. Smith. This approach relies on the myths, memories, symbols and values of a nation to try to surpass the divergence and “polarization between primordialism and modernism” (Özkirimli, 2000, p.168). It also enables readers to perceive the importance of memories, myths and symbols and makes them realize the common roots and backgrounds that lead to the affinity and cohesion of nation-members. Studies such as The Ethnic Origins of Nations (1986), Nation and Ethnoscape (1997), The Nation in History (2000) and The Antiquity Of Nations (2000), all emphasized the historical/cultural images, myths, symbols and memories of each nation as opposed to the modernist nationalists or primordialsits - who accentuate the concept of the nation-state or geography. This recent ethno-symbolic approach created new possibilities on the analysis of literary studies. Having been adopted by many theorists to refine the concept of nationalism and analyse the process of the formation of nationhood, the ethno-symbolic approach has been chiefly involved with political theory. It is very rarely discussed or applied in the field of art and literature. Building on the literature from the birth of modernism (Joyce and Jamalzadeh) and later modernism (Woolf and Hedayat), my thesis aims to take the ethno-symbolic nationalism and apply it to literary texts from the early twentieth century to explore the creation and critique of national identities through literature. It also aims to critique literary scholars’ traditional understanding of nationalism. Texts like The Blind Owl, Between the Acts, Dubliners and Once Upon A Time are made up of images, symbols, myths and figurative events that subject traditional nationalisms to ethno-symbolic critique. II2 Acknowledgements The accomplishment of my research would not have been possible without encouragement and support by many persons and organizations. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Paul Ward, my main supervisor. He continually gave me guidance and stimulation throughout the duration of this research. His insightful critiques considerably raised the standard of this dissertation. Also, I would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions and supports of Jean York and Ivan York. The completion of this dissertation would be impossible without their help for proofreading as well as the provision of guidance about the academic writing. My heartfelt thanks also go to the University of Huddersfield staff members including Jean, Gail, Carole, Lauren, Elizabeth and Tatyana, for their coordination and generous support given to international students. Finally, special thanks go to my fellow students in the research center, West Building: Fariha, Razia, Chunyao, Irfan, Mook, Ulrika, Beth, Duncan and Dawn for advice and the meaningful time we shared together in pursuit of our research. Above all, I am indebted to my parents and my brother who endlessly supported me throughout this journey. 3 III Contents Abstract.......................................................................................................................................... II Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................... III Chapter I: Introduction……………………………………………………………………..…...5 1.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………..…………..…5 1.2 Theoretical Framework…..…………………….………………….…………………......9 1.3 Research Questions………………………………………………….………..………...10 1.4 The Intention of Study……………………………………………..………….……..…11 1.5 Contribution to Knowledge…………………………………………..….………..……12 Chapter II: Theories of Nationalism and the Ethno-symbolic Approach…………….……13 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….….....13 2.2 Nationalism or Patriotism…………………………………………………….……...….15 2.3 Reviewing the Key Concepts and Definitional Issues of Nationalism.....................…...17 2.3.1 Nation, State and Nationhood………………………………………………......17 2.3.2 Ethnicity or Ethnic Identity……………………………………………………..20 2.4 Sub-theories of Nationalism……………………………..………………………….…23 2.4.1 Primordialism vs. Perennialism…………………….…….…………………….23 2.4.2 Modernism……………………………………………………………………...25 2.4.3 Ethno-Symbolic Nationalism……………………………………….…………..27 2.4.3.1 Nationalism and the Glorious Past of the Nation………….………….30 2.4.3.2 Myths, Memories and Symbols of a Nation……………………...….31 2.4.3.3 Religion and Nationalism………………………………………..…...32 2.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..36 Chapter III: Analysis; Jamalzadeh’s Once Upon A Time vs. Joyce’s Dubliners………...…39 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..…....…39 3.2 Culture, Traditions and Basic Portrayal of the Nation……………………….…….…. 47 3.3 Religion……………………….……………...…………………………………..……..60 3.4 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………..75 Chapter IV: Analysis; Hedayat’s The Blind Owl vs. Woolf’s Between the Acts…….…...….79 4.1 Introduction………………………………………………..……………………………79 4.2 Looking for the Glorious Past of Nation………………………………………….…….85 4.3 The Use of National Memories…………..…………………..…….………..….……..100 4.4 Myths, Figures, Symbols and Metaphors……………………………………….…….118 4.5 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….…134 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….………………….140 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………..145 4 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 INTRODUCTION National identity or consciousness is a form of identity which is constructed or inspired through different vehicles such as school study books, literature, history, movies, documentaries or other TV shows. Taking its lead from the latest approach to the study of nationalism, ethnos- ymbolic nationalism, this thesis focuses on Persian literature in English by Sadegh Hedayat and M. A. Jamalzadeh as well as British literature by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Thus, the study proposes to examine the process of formation or inspiration of national identity or consciousness by different authors who were writing in the same time span but in different countries. As collections of short stories and written in almost same period, Once Upon A Time written by Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh in 1921 is analysed and compared with James Joyce’s Dubliners (1914) from an ethnosymbolic point of view. A similar analysis is applied to The Blind Owl written by Sadegh Hedayat in 1937 – and known as one of the major prose literary works of Persian literature in the twentieth century – and Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts (1941). It should be highlighted that the intention of this study is to apply the ethno-symbolic approach to the selected texts and therefore looking at them through nationalistic lens to explore their nationalistic elements, rather than suggesting that their authors straightforwardly intended those texts to be nationalistic. The second chapter of this thesis focuses on the concept of identity and its different forms, national identity in particular, together with the formative elements of nationhood. Therewith, it studies the related literature in that regard to portray a better perception of the theory of nationalism and the ethno-symbolic approach. Identity - as a description of the combination of individual qualities and behavioural characteristics which shape the entity of an individual - is used to locate an individual in a social group and to distinguish them from others. The feeling of identity encompasses a collection of different senses such as unity, harmony, belonging, 5 independence and confidence (D. Sheikhavandi, 2001). The usage of identity, certainly, dates back to prehistory when human beings came out of
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