ABSTRACT
National narratives — or the stories that nations convey to connect their past, present and future — are powerful and necessary tools in shaping national identity. Within such narratives, the ‘nation’ as a concept seeks to moderate diversity via the creation of a coherent unity that may sometimes appear to rely heavily on an essentialized narrative while at other times appear to be less so. Yet, regardless of ontological firmness, this is arguably a mere blanket over the differences that truly exist within and between communities. In these spaces lie endless pockets of identificational ambiguities continuously in need of discovery and critical discussion. This volume of investigative and exploratory essays aims to critically interrogate this nebulous space of adaptation, negotiation and re-conceptualization of national identity by addressing the following questions: can nation states construct commonality via the discourse of nationalism while accommodating inter-communal differences? Who shapes the agenda and where are the sites of resistance? Do contending accounts of what a nation stands for work for or against the nation-building project?
