Challenging Nation

Authors

Catherine Dauvergne, Allard School of Law at the University of British ColumbiaFollow
W. Wesley Pue, Allard School of Law at the University of British ColumbiaFollow

Faculty Author Type

In Memoriam [W. Wesley Pue] &Current Faculty [Catherine Dauvergne]

Published In

Challenging Nation - Law Text Culture

Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

2004

Subjects

law; nation; nationalism; post-colonialism; aboriginality; America; Canada; Australia; culture

Abstract

This paper introduces a project on the role of the "nation" as symbol, construct, event and actor, drawing on historical insights and postcolonial perspectives as well as focusing on urgent contemporary issues. It forms the introduction to a symposium issue of Law Text Culture on that theme. The idea of nation that has suffused the history of "the west" and its colonies for four hundred years is at once deeply political, raced, gendered and spaced. Nation stands at once as a positive, encompassing symbol of solidarity transcending the fractiousness of smaller groups but also as a force for exclusion, xenophobia, and aggression. Contemporary challenges to nation arise on both fronts. In the age of "globalisation" it stands simultaneously for parochialism and for "locality".

Comments

Version of introduction to a symposium issue of Law Text Culture on the theme of “Challenging Nation” in 2004.

Citation Details

Wesley Pue & Catherine Dauvergne, "Challenging Nation. Law Text Culture" ([forthcoming in 2004]) 8 Law Text Culture.