"The National Longing for Form"
Timothy Brennan¡Ðfrom Nation and Narration
Kate Liu 10/11, '96 
purpose: ©Ó±µAnderson, Lukács, Bakhtin, Benjaminªº²z½×¡A½Í¤p»¡¦p¦ó·Q¹³¡B«Øºc°ê®a¡C½Í½×¤p»¡­«ÂI¦b¢°¡^¼g¹ê¤p»¡ªº½Æ¦X©Ê(composite nature)¢±¡^¤p»¡»P¥v¸Ö©M¬G¨Æªº¤£¦P¢²¡^²{¥N¤p»¡¤Î²Ä¤T¥@¬É¤p»¡³B²z¡u°ê®avs.¬y©ñ¡vªº¤£¦P¡C 
I. nation: 
  1. its myths, as both "the modern nation-state and...something more ancient and nebulous" 
  2. the national question(nationalism dead or not): nationalism vs. local affiliation and (capitalist or working class) internationalism 
  3. postwar nations and migration to the imperial center: anti-colonialism, cultural pluralism at 'home' and expatriates 
  4. English studies¡Ðrefused to place the fact of domination in a comprehensive approach to its literary material. 
  5. invention of nation: of tradition (history and symbols)

    6. ¡¹ two 'anti-death processes'p. 51 (R. Debray) Cf. Balibar & Bhabha  
    populist and Romantic nationalism p. 53¡Ðpeople, folk, working class 
    e.g. Rousseau's 'people' and civic virtue—from middle-class liberties to lower classes, 

    ¡@Herder's 'primordial and inalienable roots 
    ¡@populist trends in Romantic poetry (Wordsworth)
II. Nation and novel  ¡Ðsociological plurals + heteroglossia 
--¡¹objectifying the nation's composite nature (language, calendrical coincidences, readership, social classes) p. 49-51 
Novel and epic  ¡Ðpolitical view vs. ritual view p. 50 
--novel directs itself to 'open-ended present' 

 
key event in the development of the novel: 
Lukács¡Ðthe French Revolution 
Bakhtins¡Ðthat period when 'the world becomes polyglot once and for all ..' 
Brennan¡ÐB cannot explain on-going heteroglossia 
[modernist] Novelist vs. Storyteller(Benjamin)¡Ðcommunal/oral vs. Isolated/written; memory or not; with moral vs. meaning of life; the miraculous or not) ¡¹¡ö¡÷Brennan¡Ðone trend in Third World novels is close to storytelling as defined by B p. 55 
¡¹Third World novel¡Ða cosmopolitan form, to play a national role only in an international arena p. 56, examples? 
Phases of nation¡Ð
imperialism, 'empire's old clothes' wore by anti-colonial elite; nation-state as "only the by-product of the conditions created by European exploration; two emperial legacies: 'world' languages, international communications
Exile vs. nationalism two kinds of exile: archaic, literary--¡@banishment--wander--exodus 
modern political¡Ð¡@deportation--immigrant--refugee--flight 

 3 kinds 3rd World novels about nation-- 
1. attack independence, 2. Anti-colonial work, 3. Cosmopolitan explanations of the 'lower depths' or the 'fantastic unknown' 
¡¹one trend--a simultaneous recognition of nationhood and an alienation from it. 

 Ä³ÃD¡G¨£¡¹¡F¤p»¡ªº½Æ¦XÅé¤@©w¥Nªí°ê®a¶Ü¡H 
¨Ò¤l¡GFanon¡ÐKMT; Balibar¡ÐIn Country; Brennan¡ÐMidnight's Childre 

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