The Fictional Universe of Nationalism

This chapter borrows the concept of ‘fictional universe’ from literary studies, which defines an alternative reality created by a fiction author. The chapter claims that nationalisms create similarly ‘fictional’ representations of the world. National historiography, which aims to provide a convincing backstory to the nation’s ‘legitimate’ existence, defines ‘we’ and various ‘others’ as protagonists in the formative events in the history of the nation. It describes ‘friends’ and ‘foes’ and even the ‘homeland’ versus foreign territories in emotion-laden terms. Going through national education and socialization processes, we internalize various nationalist narratives (including their emotional elements) and learn to see the world through these fictional schemes. Besides, in our social and political interactions, we use these patterns to create our own narratives about the world, thereby contributing to the dynamic reproduction and evolution of these schemes. In other words, our human experience on earth is framed by the fictional parameters of a nationally constructed worldview as we consume and produce various reality-interpreting narratives in our everyday lives.