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The Antagonistic Complicity of Nationalisms and Nationalist Phenomenology in the East Asian Historiography
Maison de l'Asie - Grand salon (1er étage)
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22, avenue du Président Wilson
- 75116 paris
Le professeur Lim Jie-Hyun, de Hanyang University, donnera une conférence intitulée "The Antagonistic Complicity of Nationalisms and Nationalist Phenomenology in the East Asian Historiography".
This lecture helps to illuminate the topography of competing national histories in East Asia. The history texbook conflict in East Asia appears not as a question of 'right or wrong' to be proven by objective facts, but as the inevitable collision of conflicting nation-centred interpretations. If reality is a cognitive construction, then 'historical facts' - in this context at least - may be said to be constructed by the nationalist episteme ; that is, the reality of the past is constructed by the present 'idea of the nation'. I would call this a 'nationalist phenomenology' because nationalism not only informs, but actually determines the construction of historical narratives in East Asian history texbooks. With escalating tension over the past, the demands on history education increase. National history as a political project becomes deeply rooted in civil society. It has been a disciplinary project to 'enculturate' the masses into the nation-state, using history textbooks as a tool for 'the nationalisation of the masses'. Looking at the century-long history of competing national histories in this region, it is not hard to find numerous instances of cultural transfers between ostensible rivals and examples of 'antagonistic acculturation' in which, for example, the hegemonic discourses of the colonisers have been appropriated by the colonised as the basis for anti-colonial resistance and their own nationalist projects. this lecture tries to deconstruct the nationalist episteme of history texbooks in East Asia by unveiling the antagonistic complicity of competing national histories.
This lecture helps to illuminate the topography of competing national histories in East Asia. The history texbook conflict in East Asia appears not as a question of 'right or wrong' to be proven by objective facts, but as the inevitable collision of conflicting nation-centred interpretations. If reality is a cognitive construction, then 'historical facts' - in this context at least - may be said to be constructed by the nationalist episteme ; that is, the reality of the past is constructed by the present 'idea of the nation'. I would call this a 'nationalist phenomenology' because nationalism not only informs, but actually determines the construction of historical narratives in East Asian history texbooks. With escalating tension over the past, the demands on history education increase. National history as a political project becomes deeply rooted in civil society. It has been a disciplinary project to 'enculturate' the masses into the nation-state, using history textbooks as a tool for 'the nationalisation of the masses'. Looking at the century-long history of competing national histories in this region, it is not hard to find numerous instances of cultural transfers between ostensible rivals and examples of 'antagonistic acculturation' in which, for example, the hegemonic discourses of the colonisers have been appropriated by the colonised as the basis for anti-colonial resistance and their own nationalist projects. this lecture tries to deconstruct the nationalist episteme of history texbooks in East Asia by unveiling the antagonistic complicity of competing national histories.