Bulletin n. 1/2009 | ||
July 2009 | ||
Sluga Glenda |
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Passions, patriotism and nationalism, and Germaine de Staël | ||
in Nations and Nationalism , Volume 15, Issue 2, April 2009 , 2009 , 299-318 | ||
This essay examines the influence of sentimentalism on conceptions of patriotism at the turn of the nineteenth century in order to historicise conventional views of the nature of patriotism as a fundamental human emotion. It uses a focus on the intellectual thought of Germaine de Staël in order to understand how a 'sentimental' view of patriotism took hold at a crucial moment in the European history of the idea of the nation and of the conceptualisation of emotions. I argue that de Staël's ideas and influence lead us to a radical reconsideration of the significance of the emotional history of patriotism for how we explain nationalism. | ||