College of Arts & Humanities
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1611
The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item After Empire: Ethnic Germans and Minority Nationalism in Interwar Yugoslavia(2008-11-30) Lyon, Philip; Lampe, John R; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study traces the (ethnically German) Danube Swabians' embrace of national identity in interwar Yugoslavia with attention to the German national movement's antecedents in Croatia-Slavonia and Vojvodina under the Habsburgs. We examine the important role of German national activists in Yugoslavia and survey the institutions they built to stimulate, shape and mobilize Yugoslavia's German population as a specifically national minority based on the Swabians' history and collective memory as colonists in the region. Thereafter, we discuss the rift that emerged inside the German minority during the 1930s, when the German leadership and its conservative variety of German nationalism were confronted by brash, young challengers who sought to "renew" the German minority in a Nazi image. These young enthusiasts for National Socialism directed their extreme nationalism not at the repressive Yugoslav authorities, but rather at their older rivals in the Germans' main cultural and political organization, the Kulturbund. German culture and national authenticity became key criteria for German leadership in this struggle to control the Kulturbund. Meanwhile, German Catholic priests also resisted the Nazi-oriented Erneuerungsbewegung insurgency. Ultimately, we see in this clash of generations both support for and resistance to local manifestations of Nazism in Southeastern Europe. One of this study's major finds is the stubborn endurance of national indifference and local identity in Southeastern Europe throughout interwar period, when national identity was supposed to be dominant. Many Germans embraced national identity, but certainly not all of them. The persistence of this indifference confounded the logic of twentieth century nationalists, for whom national indeterminacy seemed unnatural, archaic, and inexplicable. Even after years of effort by German nationalist activists in the nationalized political atmosphere of interwar Yugoslavia, some ethnic Germans remained indifferent to national identity or else identified as Croats or Magyars. There were also those who pined for Habsburg Hungary, which had offered a dynastic alternative to national identity before 1918. Still others' identity remained shaped by confession as Catholic or Protestant. We conclude therefore by observing the paradoxical situation whereby Nazi-oriented extreme nationalism coexisted with instances of German national indifference in Yugoslavia until the eve of the Second World War.Item The Very Idea of Hispanic Identity(2005-08-03) Idler, Jose Enrique; Morris, Christopher W; Philosophy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Hispanics, and similar ethnic groups, are socially and politically recognized in American society because belonging to such groups is often thought to be central to members' identities. But is "Hispanicity" central to members' identities? What is the significance of being a Hispanic? My general thesis is that contrary to the common assumption of governmental agencies, advocacy groups, policy-makers, and American society in general, belonging to the Hispanic group is not currently central to its members' identities. I develop my thesis in two parts. In chapters two through four, I address philosophical questions about membership and groups. I argue that the sort of membership that is central to group members' identities is basic. Basic membership consists of traits that are essential to someone's self-understanding, making such a person a member of a particular group. Groups in which membership is basic generally satisfy three conditions: relevant identification, differentiation, and intrinsic identification. In chapters five through seven, I then turn to Hispanic identity. I argue that given the national identities of Hispanics, membership in the Hispanic group is generally not basic. Hispanic membership is an epiphenomenon of national membership, and thus the latter is basic whereas the former is not. I also point out that Hispanic membership could be a tipping phenomenon. A process of Hispanic people-making, in which the American state plays a key role, could turn Hispanic membership into a basic one. By way of conclusion, I discuss some possible implications of Hispanic identity for American national unity and for U.S.-Latin American relations.