2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Historical Studies on National Consciousness in America
| Project/Area Number |
14310183
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
History of Europe and America
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Senshu University (2003-2004)
Kyoritsu Women's University (2002) |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
HIGUCHI Hayumi Senshu University, School of Literature, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (80238287)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KIDO Yoshiyuki Hitotsubashi University, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Associate Professor, 大学院・社会学研究科, 助教授 (70262095)
SATO Kanji Dokkyo University, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Professor, 外国語学部, 教授 (60235330)
CHUJO Ken Obirin University, School of Foreign Studies, Professor, 国際学部, 教授 (50227336)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2004
|
| Keywords | national consciousness / wars / U.S.A.:Mexico U.K.:Japan / immigrants / African Americans / gender / media / international scholars' exchange |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
We attempted to cross national boundaries in our research by exchanging opinions with scholars outside Japan, and by including immigrants and people living in other areas under U.S. influence. These are our findings:
1. Studies on media shed light on its function of creating national consciousness, demonstrating cases, for instance, in which postbellum journalism created a unified image of American citizenship epitomized by soldiers' manliness and bravery in the Civil War, and in which 1990s' journalism depicted the U.S.A. as a savior for the "HIV epidemics in Africa."
2. Studies on gender indicate that processes of forming national consciousness are inseparable from gender issues; for instance, manliness was identified as the ideal qualification of citizenship, and governmental control of venereal disease among U. S. military forces was one way of creating a model of an American by repressing the prostitution of women during WWI.
3. Studies on Polish immigrants, African Americans, and Caribbean immigrants show the relationship between U.S. national consciousness and a people's sense of belonging to their former countries, or their ancestors', was not always stable. They coexisted at one time and were polarized another time, and there are also cases in which people might not have a sense of being a U.S. citizen although they apply for U.S. citizenship.
4. Studies on Mexico and Okinawa indicate that despite the apparent influence of U.S. military/economic power, people there were not influenced in terms of forming a national consciousness. On the contrary, they took advantage of the existence of U.S. economic power in their daily lives to achieve their goals.
In focusing on people's daily lives across national boundaries, it is clear to us that the meaning of national consciousness was not the same for everyone, and that ways of creating national consciousness have varied depending on many factors.
|
Research Products
(26 results)
