Joep Leerssen (ed.), Encyclopedia of Romantic in Europe, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018, 2 vols, 1,489 pages.

These two aesthetically pleasing volumes the Spinoza Premium, awarded by the are the product of an immense, ambitious Netherlands Organisation for Scientific project, conceived and successfully carried Research in 2008, and the other from the out by the comparatist and cultural Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and historian Joep Leerssen, Professor of Sciences in 2010, provided the financial European Studies at the University of support necessary to publish the work. The Amsterdam, in association with a small aim of the project was, first, to create an circle of collaborators. Leerssen has electronic database, which, fully available produced an extensive body of work in for a year now (http://ernie.uva.nl), has the field of comparative literature and, been enriched with more images. The in recent years, his research has also print edition followed. taken the phenomenon of nationalism Researchers from all over Europe into consideration.1 Two grants – one, contributed entries to the work, creating an academic communication network * The author would like to thank Kalliopi focused on the programme’s twofold Psarrou for her translation of the text. objective: firstly, “to document and 1 See, for example, Mere Irish & analyze how cultural production and Fíor-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish cultural mobilization affected and Nationality, its Development and Literary reflected the consciousness-raising of Expression Prior to the Nineteenth emerging national movements”, and Century, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, secondly “to document and analyze the 1986; Remembrance and Imagination: extent to which these processes were Patterns in the Historical and Literary transnational in their communicative Representation of Ireland in the Nineteenth spread” (p. 4). Century, Notre Dame: University of Notre The project’s objective is served Dame Press, 1997; The Contention of the through three distinct thematic sections: Bards (Iomarbhágh na bhFileadh) and its “Survey Articles”, “Thematic Articles” Place in Irish Political and Literary History, and “Individuals”. The first volume London: Irish Texts Society, 1994; with comprises an extensive introduction, the Manfred Beller (eds.), National Thought in Europe: A Cultural History, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006; Characters: A Critical Survey, Amsterdam: Imagology: The Cultural Construction Rodopi, 2007; Nationalisme, Amsterdam: and Literary Representation of National Amsterdam University Press, 2015.

The Historical Review / La Revue Historique Section of Neohellenic Research / Institute of Historical Research Volume XV (2018) 334 Sophia Matthaiou

“Survey Articles” and the “Individuals”. it does not overlook the socio-political In the introduction (pp. 17–44), context at the centre of the research Leerssen analyses the main concept of conducted on nationalism thus far. It the programme that balances, as we constitutes the foundation since, unlike shall see, between the classic theories on the cultural context that has several facets nationalism and comparative literature. with a transnational dimension, it differs The survey articles (pp. 45–158) attempt considerably from country to country. a synthetic presentation of the thematic Leerssen takes into account all the sections of the encyclopaedia, based on literature on nationalism, summarising both the pre-existing literature and the the explanatory models of the researchers content of the encyclopaedia. Although who dealt with the subject, while he mostly Leerssen’s work, the articles focuses on the issue of the cultural include texts that the following scholars manifestations of the phenomenon (Hans either contributed or co-wrote with Kohn, Isaiah Berlin, Elie Kedourie, Ernest him: Marjet Derks, Terry Gunnell, Eric Gellner, Anthony Smith, John Breuilly, Storm, Krisztina Lajosi, Javier Gimeno Miroslav Hroch, Benedict Anderson). Martinez, Carmen Popescu, Ann Rigney, His interpretation is based mainly on Monika Baár, Jan Rock and Nanne van Hroch’s model, which, although it der Linden. The “Individuals” section does not treat cultural phenomena as that follows consists of alphabetical reflections or corollaries of social or entries on persons. political processes, maintains that they The “Thematic Articles”, included anticipate them. Leerssen develops the in the second volume, are presented three-phase schema Hroch identified (1. according to cultural community (see Emergence of manifestations; 2. Social below), again in alphabetical order. demands based on these manifestations; Each national chapter begins with an and 3. Activism on the part of the introduction, entitled “Background protagonists), positing another that is Notes”, which provides the historical and more complex; in this system, cultural political context of the community under phenomena appear in all phases of the examination. An adjective rather than manifestation of nationalism, even a noun serves as the title (for example, after the national movements’ political Greek instead of Greece), since the cultural objectives have been achieved. communities analysed do not necessarily Critically combining the definitions correspond to the borders of the periodically given to the term, Leerssen countries of post-1918 Europe. The cross- defines culture as “a deliberate praxis with referencing system used in all sections of both its own inner dynamics and its re- the encyclopaedia is particularly helpful sponses to historically changing circum- for the reader, as are the analytical name stances” (p. 20). He considers the basic, index and index of contributors. overlapping fields of culture to be the The work focuses on the cultural following: Language discourse, material manifestations of nationalism, contending culture, performative immaterial culture, that the cultural and intellectual history of social ambience and institutional infra- nationalism has been neglected. Naturally, structure. More specifically, he identifies Joep Leerssen, Encyclopedia of 335 the following thematic sections: Cultural Instead of the term “nations”, Leerssen production (artistic, knowledge, critical employs the term “cultural communities”, reflection); cultural reception (dissemi- which he describes as “a group of people nation, mobilisation); cultural instru- sharing a cultural ambience and sharing a mentalisation, that is, agents, institutions joint awareness of their common cultural and persons (artists, scholars, journalists, ambience” (p. 54) or, otherwise, “any activists) undivided by class, region or re- culturally defined group that articulated ligion; people with a variety of attributes a national consciousness or national and activities. The focus is “the agency aspirations between 1780 and 1920” (p. of cultural praxis in articulating the na- 11). Accordingly, he does not include tion, bringing it into being […] the way separate entries for certain groups, such in which nation-states were culturally as the Saami, Roma, Vlachs and Rusyns, invented” (p. 26), something associated although he does incorporate smaller with nineteenth-century Europe and the language communities that participated climate of Romanticism. Thus, he links in the general romantic cultivation at a the phenomenon to the methodology of subsidiary-regionalist level, incorporating comparative literature. them into larger units (for example, He determines that the early mani- Walloons in Belgium). The timeframe of festations of the agents of cultural na- the project covers the entire nineteenth tionalism are territorially a-specific, as he century and extends to the end of World defines them. He, therefore, chooses the War I. The introduction also discusses term “romantic nationalism” instead of the subsequent occasional resurgence of “” because the former Romanticism, looking at how it has been, reflects the international dimension of the in a way, received in subsequent periods. phenomenon. Romantic nationalism is Leerssen uses the assumption that defined as “the celebration of the nation “nationalism was a worldwide phenom- (defined in its language, history and cul- enon; Romanticism was not” to justify tural production); and dissemination and the fact that the encyclopaedia focuses on instrumentalization of that production in Europe and does not expand its scope to political consciousness-raising” (p. 36). cover the other continents where cultural Or, otherwise: “National consciousness- interrelationships with Europe existed raising on cultural grounds” (p. 53). during the period and many nationalities Certain characteristic changes and were in the process of nation-building (as transformations in the early nineteenth occurred in Latin America). Some such century allow us to comprehend the cases can be found under the title “Trans- relationship between Romanticism and European” (pp. 1470–1475). nationalism, such as, for example, the shift Having, therefore, a clear vision of to the spoken language, the role of poetry the objective of the project, the basic as a nation-building instrument, the birth prerequisite for the implementation of of Volksgeist philological historicism in such an extensive programme, Leerssen Germany, etc. The term also reflects the drew up a list of topics, common to networks and mutual influences of the all the cultural communities, and of agents of cultural communities. the persons he considered essential to 336 Sophia Matthaiou each community, putting out a call for This type of publication, which, interested researchers from all over it should be noted, is a trend in Europe. contemporary research, is determined The specific modules he selected are: by certain characteristics. The scope of “Language interest”, “Traditions: imma- information in an encyclopaedia is, by terial and traditional culture (oral litera- definition, limited. On the one hand, this ture, folk music, manners and customs, overview of themes and individuals does sports, pastimes, ethnography and eth- provide an almost “complete” picture nicity)”, “Sight and sound: musical and in a few words. On the other, it does visual culture (national-classical music, not permit the deeper understanding visual arts, dress, design, architecture)”, that only a detailed presentation would “Text and stories: literary and historical offer. While it facilitates – the electronic culture (patriotic poetry and verse, his- availability of its content is another factor tory novel, Bible/classics translations, – a rather casual and superficial approach history writing, antiquarianism, arche- to the topics, it also aids a comparative ology, critical writing, publishing ven- approach to issues, a factor extremely tures/periodicals)”, and “Society (sports useful for research. Moreover, the content associations, choral societies, national adheres to the central concept of each drama and national theatre, festivals and edition. However, it is not always easy to commemorations, education, publish- study the phenomena in question as they ing, book clubs and reading societies, na- had unfolded in “peripheral” countries tional museums)”. because many European researchers These modules serve as the titles of lack the language skills necessary to the “Thematic Articles”. Each of these access the literature in the languages modules is not always covered in all cul- of these countries; this was taken into tural communities, while variations or account when the “Individuals” were additions, decreed by the particularities selected (in the case of Greece, for of the countries, also emerge. Moreover, example, the selection relied, more or the manifestations of nationalism took less, on what was available on Greek various forms depending on the histori- issues in these languages). Nevertheless, cal circumstances of each country, some- precisely because the edition is in thing summarised in the background English, having researchers from every notes of each entry in the encyclopaedia. country participate in authoring the On the initiative of its then director, entries allows the European scholarly Paschalis M. Kitromilides, the NHRF’s audience to become familiar with how Institute for Neohellenic Research researchers in every European country undertook to deliver the Greek national currently approach these issues. The fact chapter (pp. 1022–1048). The entries that the “Survey Articles” are dominated were written from 2010 to 2015 by primarily by the example of Germany institute researchers as well as by (and secondarily of France) seems external subject-matter experts under natural and is due both to the leading Kitromilides’ supervision. role these two countries played in Europe Joep Leerssen, Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism 337 as regards these phenomena and to their with the specific phenomenon of romantic fundamental influence on corresponding nationalism throughout the whole of phenomena in the rest of Europe. Yet, Europe but also, generally, for anyone it is also due, judging from the example researching modern European history. of Greece, to the research gaps every country presents in this field. Sophia Matthaiou In summary, we can conclude that this encyclopaedia constitutes a valuable Institute for Historical Research / NHRF research tool not only for anyone dealing