Nothing to kill or die for and no religion too -- John Lennon When reading Imagined Communities‚ it’s hard not to become reflective of John Lennon’s words in his famed hit "Imagine"‚ which calls for our imagination to do away with barriers that have created such a divide in humanity. It’s interesting to note that in Benedict Anderson’s analysis of the formation of nations; he accredits this process to our imagination of communities that include our peripheral acknowledgement of our fellow countrymen‚
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According to Benedict Anderson‚ nations are “imagined communities”. First‚ we must understand what a nation actually is. Anderson defines a nation as “an imagined political community that is imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign”. It is imagined because members of a particular community will never meet or know other members in the same community. However‚ each member of that community understands and believes in their community’s unique image or communion. A nation is limited because
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Imagined Communities The concept of nationalism‚ according to Benedict Anderson‚ has never been deeply discussed. There has never been a great thinker treating this concept as thoroughly as other concepts. Anderson suggests that one should not think of nationalism as an ideology like “fascism” or “liberalism”‚ but to relate it with “kinship” and “religion” in order to understand the similarity that groups of people have and why the territory that they live help one understand the borders that we
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1. Benedict Anderson/Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism: 1983 (Revised 2006)/Brooklyn‚ New York 2. What is the central theme – the topic – of the reading? “The reading is about....” Anderson articulates that a nation is an “imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” (6). People will not meet every person in their community and nationalism has been proven to be hard to define. The people from the same community will
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In “Imagined Communities‚” Benedict Anderson speculated that the transition from printing work in Latin to printing in a wide variety of vernacular created space for the idea of nationalism to form and initiate an alternative option to religion. Before 1500‚ roughly 77% of the books printed were in Latin‚ as estimated by French historians Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin‚ which resulted in an ever widening gap between the literate and illiterate. Once Latin was usurped by the vernacular around
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Benedict Anderson Benedict Richard O’Gorman Anderson was born on August 26‚ 1936 in Kunming‚ China In 1957‚ he received a BA in Classics from Cambridge University‚ England. There‚ he developed an immense interest in Asian politics‚ and later enrolled in Cornell University’s Indonesian studies program (see A). Working part-time as a teaching assistant in the department of politics‚ Anderson worked on his Ph. D. under the guidance of experts in the field‚ George Kahin and Claire Holt. As part
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Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson Introduction Modern Americans today can easily answer the question “When was your nationbirthed?” Though the details of their answer may vary‚ the basic idea would place that time around the American Revolution. Some “older” countries such as Italy‚ Greece‚ or China would not have such a ready-made answer because they believe their nation was a naturalmanifestation of their people. Not so‚ according to Benedict Anderson’sImagined Communities(Anderson 1983)
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founded on. Benedict Anderson argues‚ "A nation is an imagined political community and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign."(Anderson‚ 6). Through these advances‚ America has come closer to achieving Anderson ’s belief of an imagined political community. Anderson believes it to be imagined because "the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members‚ meet them‚ or even hear of them‚ yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communities."(Anderson
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it a specific imagined community‚ which is accord with Benedict Anderson’s theory of imagined community. Whereas‚ it is under discussion whether since the reunification in 1997‚ Hong Kong has been gradually transformed into a part of China in terms of culture and identity and‚ thus‚ will no longer be a separated imagined community in the future. This short essay will firstly illustrate why Hong Kong is an imagined community till nowadays and then discuss the future of this community. Hong Kong as
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society‚ today‚ can definitely respond to the statement which Anderson made that the nation is limited with sovereign communities. Even though several residents may answer this statement differently‚ they would certainly place the answer in the history of America. Many countries see their nations as the demonstration of their people. However‚ Anderson explains in his book titled Imagined Communities that it is imagined as a community‚ because‚ regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation
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