From Imagined Communities to "Placeable Bonding": Describing the 1980s Culture through Re-reading Literary Criticism

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370347
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Tohoku University (2018); Kwansei Gakuin University (2014-2017)
• Principal Investigator: ONUKI Takashi 東北大学, 文学研究科, 准教授 (40404800)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: ナショナリズム論 / ウェールズ / レイモンド・ウィリアムズ / カルチュラル・スタディーズ / 批評理論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The 1980s in Britain is a period in which there arose an intense debate about nationalism, which is an indispensable point when we are considering the 1980s British Culture. As is often pointed out, 1983 is a year in which Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, Ernest Gellner's Nations and Nationalism, and Raymond Williams's essay, "The Culture of Nations" were published. This study aims at describing these papers on nationalism themselves as an important aspect of the 1980s British Culture as it is looking at the positioning and readership concerning these writers, rather than questioning the theoretical accuracy of them.

Free Research Field

英文学、文化研究

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

1980年代英国文化は、アイデンティティの政治という枠組で論じられることが多く、そこでは「ネイション」「コミュニティ」は、歴史性を欠いた抽象的枠組みとして見なされやすい。本研究課題は、「ネイション」「コミュニティ」をプロセスの渦中にある可変的なものと見なす。この方法的独自性によって、これらのキーワードの複層性が明らかになる。これは文学・文化研究全般を、社会科学的な用語法のもたらす制約から解き放つものであり、研究の地平拡大に寄与しうる。