Nationalist founding myths are actively imagined into a people’s authentic self-understanding.

Evidence

Portugal wanted and believed a history of her own, and she did this with such intensity that she was successful little by little incorporating both an imagined history and the practice of imagining it into the process of her authentic existence. The imperial enterprises; the enduring imprint of Portugal in Brazil, in the East Indies, and in Africa; the imposing figures of Vasco da Gama, Affonso de Albuquerque, Ferdinand Magellan, and others; the works of Gil Vicente and Camoems—all this and more have motivated the recreation of the origins of Portugal. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 480

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the ‘imagined history’ concept as foundational to the book’s method of questioning dominant Portuguese origin narratives.
• XREF: Robinson’s ‘imagined history’ parallels Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities as nation-building mechanism. — connects to: Modern politicians actively map themselves onto mythic warrior-kings to claim legitimacy — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 82; Writing others’ voices lets nationalists discover beliefs already present in those voices — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 105