SLAVC 90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Romantic Nationalism, Ottoman Empire, Philology
Document Summary
Slavs tied to modern notion of nationalism (balkanization) in eighteenth century, religion was defining characteristic of people and groups (other commonalities, i. e. language, culture, etc noticeable but less important) Modern conception of nations is relatively new idea; tied to development of philology (study of language in oral and written historical sources) and notion of what a language is and what it means. Writing in language of the people began to be seen as aspirational. Most slavs had been part of a larger empire for long periods of time (sometimes centuries), but slovaks had never had their own kingdom. Herder drew attention to slavs in study of their languages and histories peasant are carriers of culture (herder-- volk/narod) Slavs no longer thought of as a single tribe idea that slavs have been disenfranchised but as wheel of history turns, they will ascend to greatness attempt to create pan-slavic state.
