University of Heidelberg

NATIONIZING THE DYNASTY - DYNASTIZING THE NATION

Organizers: 
Milinda Banerjee, Ulrike Büchsel, Verena Gander, Elise Wintz (Heidelberg University, Germany); Julia Schneider (Ghent University, Belgium)

In cooperation with:
Prof. Patrick Geary, UCLA Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies

Keynote Speakers:
Joseph Esherick, University of California, San Diego
Nile Green, University of California, Los Angeles, Liah Greenfeld, Boston University 

Date and place:
April 12th-14th, 2012, University of California, Los Angeles, Royce Hall 306  

Conference description: 
Dynasty and nation are often considered as providing fundamentally different structures of articulating the legitimacy of political rule. It is assumed that dynastic rule, a fortiori by divine grace, has been replaced or overwritten by a national body of free and equal citizens as the principal source of political legitimation (e.g. Anderson 1983/2003; Chatterjee 1994/1999). However, there are many cases in which both systems were or still are intertwined and complement each other. The most basic of these forms are the numerous constitutional monarchies existing until today, in which the nation accepts the monarch as symbolic head of the state and role model. In other instances, which have hitherto been little studied, the monarchy might have disappeared on the surface, but is living on in different aspects. In many, but not all, instances, the ability of nascent nationalisms to appropriate past or present dynasties was facilitated by the efforts of the dynasties themselves to project themselves as model representatives of the nation. Thus, the research group "A5 - Nationising the dynasty" part of the Heidelberg University Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" argues that the shift from dynasty to nation might not be the paradigmatic break presented by nationalist historiography, but rather a complex metamorphosis with each system adapting to, or even (re-)constructing, the other. The underlying aim behind this conference is to critique the nature of the modern national body politic by looking at it from the point of view of its putative Other: the dynasty. By doing so, and especially by locating the dynastic-genealogical nature of many of the discursive assumptions of nationalism, and also investigating the specificities of this in different polities, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of the self-formulation of nationalism as a mode of historicity and identity. A study of the ways in which royal dynasties have adapted to nationalism enables a critical understanding of the politics of representation, and destabilizes any unilinear historicity which claims that dynasties cannot represent the people. It also provokes important questions, such as on the continuities between dynastic modes of violent territorialism and national modes, or the commonalities between them as regards the creation of a monistic centre of sovereignty.

Summarily, by combining an approach 'from above' (dynasties adapting to nationalism, that is, nationising of the dynasty) and an approach 'from below' (nations appropriating dynastic concepts into their symbolic repertoire, that is, dynastising of the nation), we aim to present a theoretical perspective which deconstructs the category of nationalist modernity by understanding it from the point of view of one of its so-called 'premodern' ancestors: the princely dynasty. We open up our perspective to all instances of interaction between dynasties and nationalisms in world history. Dynasties and monarchic forms of government were present in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe, and their interactions with concepts of nationhood or nationalist movements in pre-colonial, colonial or postcolonial contexts will be important fields of exploration at our conference.

Conference “Nationizing the Dynasty – Dynastizing the Nation“

University of California, Los Angeles, April 12-14, 2012

Thursday, April 12, Royce Hall 306

1:30 pm: Registration

2:15 pm: Welcoming Remarks

• Massimo Ciavolella, Interim Director, UCLA Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies
• Thomas Maissen, University of Heidelberg

PANEL 1: Engaging with “Nation” and “Identity” during Dynastic Change
(Chair: Patrick Geary, Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies and UCLA)

2:30 pm–4:30 pm

• Elise Wintz, University of Heidelberg: “Being the Legitimate Ruler: Use of “National” and “Dynastic” Arguments to Establish a King - Subject Relationship after the Surrender of Rouen in 1449”
• Torsten Schrade, University of Mainz: “Realm, King and Family: Cultural Conceptions of Late Medieval English Queenship“
• Cathleen Sarti, University of Mainz: “James I. – One Head on Two Bodies?“
• Charlotte Backerra, University of Mainz: “Prince Elector to King – How to Become a British Monarch“

4:30 – 5:00 pm Break

5:00 pm–6:30 pm KEYNOTE LECTURE: Liah Greenfeld, Boston University: "Palimpsest vs. Segmentation: Dynasty and Nation, East and West (with a focus on France and Japan)" (Introduction: Thomas Maissen, University of Heidelberg)

6:30 pm Opening reception, hosted by CMRS

8:15 pm Conference Dinner, Napa Valley Grille Restaurant, Westwood

Friday, April 13, Royce Hall 306

PANEL 2: Monarchy and the Nation-State: The Royal Roots of Modern Politics 
(Chair: Joseph Esherick, University of California San Diego)

9:30 am – 11:30 am:

• Milinda Banerjee, University of Heidelberg: “God, King, and Country: Colonial and Nationalist Discourses on Human and Divine ‘Monarchy’ in India“
• Julia Schneider, Ghent University: “Desire and Reality: Territory, Ethnicity and History Captured in Chinese Nationalism”
• David Malitz, Center for Southern Asian Studies, Kyoto University/University of Munich: “The Monarch, Religion and the Formation of the Modern Nation-State in Japan and Thailand”
• Senem Aslan, Bates College (ME): “Governing Difference: Nation-Building and Ethnic Peace in Morocco”

11:30 pm – 1:00 pm Lunch

PANEL 3: Performing Monarchies: Dynastic Ceremonial, Ritual Traditions, and their Adaptation to the Modern Nation State
(Chair:  Lynn Hunt, University of California, Los Angeles)

1:00 pm–2:30 pm

• Verena Gander, University of Heidelberg: “Well Ordered Spectacle or Spontaneous Public Joy? The Birth of the Dauphin as a ‘National’ Event in Early Modern France”
• Javier Moreno-Luzón, Complutense University of Madrid: “Performing Monarchy and Spanish Nationalism: A Comparative Perspective (1902-1913)“

• Ulrike Büchsel, University of Heidelberg: "Conceptualizing State Ritual between Dynasty and Nation: The Reform of the Qing Ritual System, 1906-1911"

2:30 pm–3:00 pm Break

PANEL 4: Using the Dynastic Past: Dynasty and National Memory (Chair: Liah Greenfeld, Boston University)

3:00 pm–4:30 pm

• Alexandre Lazzari, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro: “Forging a National Memory against the Republic: the Monarchical Nation of Afonso Arinos, Brazil, 1897-1899“
• Daniel Wimmer, University of Mannheim: “The Image of the Medieval Counts of Barcelona as ‘Fathers of the Nation’ in the Present-Day Nationalist Self-perception of Catalonia”
• Feng Jia, University of Illinois: The Royal “Family” in the Republican “Nation”: the Qing Abdicated Court during its Forbidden City Period (1912-1924)

4:30 pm–5:00 pm Break

5:00 pm–6:30 pm KEYNOTE LECTURE : Joseph Esherick, University of California, San Diego: "Republican Centennial: Looking back at China's Transition from Empire to Nation" (Introduction: Barbara Mittler, University of Heidelberg)

Saturday, April 14, Royce Hall 306

PANEL 5: Popular Royalism: The Dynasty as a Charismatic Symbol of the Nation
(Chair: Nile Green, University of California, Los Angeles)

09:00 am–10:30 am

• Bradford Brown, Bradley University (IL): “Transition of the Sacred: Rethinking the Desacralization of the French Monarch in the 18th Century”
• Mark Braude, University of Southern California: “The Capital of Illusions: Myth, Media, and the 1956 Marriage of Prince Rainier of Monaco and Grace Kelly“
• Nadia Sartoretti, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva: “The Politics of Dynastic Televisual Tales”

10:30 am–11:00 am Break

 11:00 am–12:30 pm KEYNOTE LECTURE: Nile Green, University of California, Los Angeles : “Defending Islam and Independence: Dynasticizing the Nation in Modern Afghanistan" (Introduction: Patrick Geary + Conclusion)

12:30 pm– 1:30 pm Lunch 

Afternoon: Visit of the Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Call for papers is now closed but if you wish to attend the conference or for further information, please contact Ulrike Büchsel (buechsel@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de).