|
|
As argued in the previous text, the construction of national identity and collective memory are not exclusive to the sphere of politics. Popular culture, too, is a central agent in the narrativising of the nation. To acknowledge the role of the popular in the imagining of the nation, chapters 3 and 4 take readers into the realm of sports and culinary consumption. Demonstrating the political nature of popular culture, these chapters show how football and food are contexts against which ethnic and civic notions of national identity are imagined. Discourses of football and food feed concepts of German identity that are enshrined in government policies on European integration and citizenship. Chapter 3 shows how press and television coverage of international tournaments work with an ethno-cultural concept of national identity. So-called German virtues of battle and determination are celebrated. It is only when fans engage in acts of violence, or show hatred of other nations, that pride in one’s nation becomes problematic and a civic concept of the nation emerges. Chapter 4 traces the ethno-cultural nation further and argues that restaurant reviews show a nostalgic longing for a romanticised world of cultural simplicity. Social change and hybridity of cultural identities are rejected. The other is celebrated, yet rendered to a state of powerless exoticness that does not grant access to the German nation. By comparing discourses on different topics, this book thus traces a master narrative of German identity that can be found not only in the political sphere but also in the popular.
National Identity and the Media
As previously argued, for those in search of national identity, the choice of storytellers of the nation is almost overwhelming: political rhetoric, media discourse, public ceremonies, landscapes—the list is seemingly endless. While acknowledging that the narrative of the nation is constructed by many agents, this book focuses on the role of the media. Its case studies are based on analyses of television and press.