ABSTRACT
When we seek to study and explain the rise of nations and the role of nationalisms, we normally have recourse to texts of various kinds: chronological narratives, descriptions of political regimes, economic and demographic statistics, the speeches and diaries of nationalist leaders and the programmes of nationalist organizations. But this exclusive concern with the ‘literature of nationalism’, as we may call it, obscures a range of other kinds of consideration and evidence. I have in mind such extra-literary genres as musical performances, works of art, architecture and urban planning, and the artefacts of archaeological excavations. In this regard, the rituals and performances associated with large-scale ‘mass’ nationalisms are of particular significance. Without them, I shall argue, it is doubtful whether national sentiments and ideals in the modern world could be embedded in wider populations and could reproduce themselves across the generations. While I would not want to claim that national rituals and performances constitute either a necessary or a sufficient condition of the persistence of nations and nationalisms, their ubiquity and regularity gives them a special role and significance in the forging and the reproduction of nations.
