European nationalisms imagined themselves as waking from sleep toward ancestral glory

Evidence

In Europe, the new nationalisms almost immediately began to imagine themselves as ‘awakening from sleep,’ a trope wholly foreign to the Americas. Already in 1803 (as we have seen in Chapter 5) the young Greek nationalist Adamantios Koraes was telling a sympathetic Parisian audience: ‘For the first time the [Greek] nation surveys the hideous spectacle of its ignorance and trembles in measuring with the eye the distance separating it from its ancestors’ glory.’ Here is perfectly exemplified the transition from New Time to Old. ‘For the first time’ still echoes the ruptures of 1776 and 1789, but Koraes’s sweet eyes are turned, not ahead to San Martín’s future, but back, in trembling, to ancestral glories. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 726

Categorization

• DEFINE: The ‘awakening from sleep’ trope is a core term distinguishing European from American nationalism — directly useful for the toolkit.
• XREF: connects to: The awakening trope explained the anomaly of Europe’s late nationalism by claiming antiquity — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 727; Nationalism originated in the New World colonies, not in Europe’s ethnolinguistic movements — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 22; European national identities were built on Germanic origin myths derived from Tacitus (+2 more)

Related

• The awakening trope explained the anomaly of Europe’s late nationalism by claiming antiquity (similarity 0.89)
• Nationalism is modern in fact but ancient in claim, universal and particular (similarity 0.80)
• Nationalism originated in the New World colonies, not in Europe’s ethnolinguistic movements (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The awakening trope explained the anomaly of Europe’s late nationalism by claiming antiquity #expands (0.90) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 727
• Nationalism is modern in fact but ancient in claim, universal and particular #expands (0.82) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 35
• Nationalism originated in the New World colonies, not in Europe’s ethnolinguistic movements #qualifies (0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 22
• European national identities were built on Germanic origin myths derived from Tacitus #exemplifies (0.75)
• A historical period can itself function as a waking dream #exemplifies (0.70) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 21