CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Mirza, Abdullah |
|---|---|
| Title | Political Nationalism's Oedipal Moment: Abrahamic Psychologies in Central European and Late Colonial Indian Fins de Siecle |
| Summary | This thesis examines how the early leaders of two modern nationalist movements, Zionism and Muslim nationalism in India, built on and diverted from their predecessors, through an examination of established source material and historical debates. I embrace the term fin de siècle in all its connotative ambiguities as a peculiar periodization at the tail end of the Age of Questions and as a metaphor for the methodological and conceptual challenges historians have faced in interpreting nationalism in the period. Framing the political crisis of fins de siècle in the mythological terms of the Oedipus myth, I seek to move beyond conventional explanations for the historical development of these political nationalisms while examining how certain querists, political figures, and historians old and new sometimes embraced and sometimes avoided psychological explanations. Political nationalism with its “charismatic” features being distinguished from period movements such as socialisms and other ideologies—as well as from older nationalist sentiments and philosophies and the ensuing institutionalization of nationalism and nation-states which followed—the comparison is somewhat asynchronous with some implications for the conception and periodization of an Indian Muslim fin de siècle. Finally, I consider possible implications of a psychological-historical interpretation of modern political nationalisms’ founding moments and some prospects for future study. |
| Supervisor | Miller, Michael L., Wilson, Brett, |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/mirza_abdullah.pdf |
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