ABSTRACT
Recent theories of nationalism and national culture and identity have emphasised the active role of the imagination in the formation of nations. Benedict Anderson’s most influential and persuasive argument for theorizing nations as ‘imagined communities’ exemplifies a recurrent theme in writing on nation formation.1
Anderson cites Ernest Gellner’s frequently quoted observation that nationalism ‘invents nations where they do not exist’.2 The centrality of the imagination is echoed in the titles of recent publications on the formation of Australia as a nation: Inventing Australia, Creating a Nation, Illusions of Identity, and National Fictions are examples of wellknown texts across a range of disciplines.3 Significantly, though the titles emphasize imagination or creativity in ‘inventing’ nations, these pivotal concepts are treated cursorily as though the act and capacity for imagination, invention, illusion and creativity were self-evident.
