An alternative way of looking at national histories

Our identities are shaped by our nation’s history, but how much of that national narrative is unique and how much is borrowed, constructed, or put together in relation to how other nations see us and themselves? This was a topic broached by Dr. Prasenjit Duara on Aug. 2, as he delivered the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives’ annual Albert Hung Chao Hong Lecture.

Duara, Raffles Professor of Humanities, Director of the Asia Research Institute and Director of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore, discussed his theories on national histories and storytelling to a packed house in his lecture, “Histories and Competitive Societies: Temporal Foundations for Global Theory.”

One of the main themes Duara discussed was how stories—narratives of our past—are necessary in all collectives, including nation-states, that seek to constitute and maintain themselves. He argued that before modern nation-states, these narratives not only entrenched differences, they also bore a relationship to universal or cosmological time.  In modern times, both of these characteristics have come under challenge and competitive states have sought to mobilize resources by adopting singular, linear histories of state, nation and civilization. However, ironically, just as these singular stories are becoming dominant, the world is globalizing more actively than ever.

While the historical enterprise of collective formation—in which distinctive stories are developed within the framework of single states—remains important for the building of local, national or regional communities, these nation-states can no longer deny the significant influence that the rest of the world has on them. “This is especially relevant now that planetary sustainability is at stake,” argued Duara. In modern times, it could be claimed that our shared stories and cultures are becoming ever more homogenous as ideas and cultures interact and ideas are shared at an increasing pace.

This lecture was the keynote of the 2012 Demcon conference “De-parochializing Political Theory.” This conference was the culmination of a three-year project, “East Asian Perspectives on Politics,” whose purpose was to advance research in the emerging field of comparative political theory.

Check the CAPI website for more great events coming in the fall: www.capi.uvic.ca

Video of the lecture can be found at: https://vimeo.com/capi

Info on Demcon: http://www.law.uvic.ca/demcon/