Identity Hunters

By Samuel Joseph Davies Emerging from the disillusionment of Post-Thatcher South Wales, The Manic Street Preachers have long established themselves as one of Britain’s most politically literate rock bands, challenging the nation’s political elite whilst brandishing a political vision submerged in radical working-class consciousness. Through their lyrics, ideological influences, and historical context, this blog examines the Manics’ engagement with […]

By Samuel Joseph Davies “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established” Romans 13:1 Since the nation’s foundation, the Church and Congress have been institutional cousins in US identity shaping. Unlike the nations of yesteryear and their affections towards Petra’s Papal claim of Rome […]

By Liv Sinnes El Salvador’s forgotten memory In Qu’est-ce qu’une nation Renan states that “the essence of a nation is that all of its individuals have a lot of things in common, and that all have forgotten many things (…) the modern nation is a historical result brought together by a series of facts converging in the […]

By Baptiste de Vries While the world is focused on reversing colonial and neocolonial trends, Singapore seems deeply attached to its British past. Parks, hotels, and roads proudly bear the names of their former colonial rulers. Monuments continue to be erected to commemorate the colonial and personal legacy of Sir Raffles, the British officer credited […]

By Meng Xu [Picture: 2012 China anti-Japanese demonstrations in Beijing] In China, the Second Sino-Japanese War during the Second World War—commonly referred to as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression—has long been a central theme in television dramas, films, and other forms of artworks. These productions typically focus on the Japanese militarist invasion, telling […]

Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises, is the life story of Jiro Horikoshi, the famed designer of Mitsubishi’s “Zero” fighter plane. Jiro is a man born into poverty whose passion for aviation and natural intelligence push him into higher education and eventually a career as a brilliant aviation engineer. Along the way, Miyazaki tells the story […]

By Anonymous Introduction In 1951 the Estado Novo reaffirmed its colonies as overseas provinces, in a gesture that sought to strengthen its claims of a pluricontinental state in the era of decolonization. As Portugal faced mounting pressure from the United Nations to evidence its decolonization, Portugal instead sought to defend its possessions through its theories […]

By Alessandro Colletti Internationally, France appears as a cohesive nation with a homogeneous identity and a single language; however, this is a projection of years of centralisation and cultural repression rather than historical reality. Ever since the French revolution, the Paris government has made it its commitment to eradicate regional cultures and languages, branding the […]

By Imane Ait-Kaci Blood stains mark the theatre where Abdelkader Alloula fell from three bullets to his back. In his flat lies Jean Sénac’s body, while M’Hamed Boukhobza’s daughter bears witness to her father’s torture. Through these assassinations, Assia Djebar builds more than a memorial in “Algerian White” – she dissects how nationalism engulfs its […]