균열된 상상의 공동체: 배네딕트 앤더슨의 민족과 민족주의 이론

Abstract

Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities has been considered one of the most crucial contributions to today's theory of nation and nationalism. The significance of the work lies in his notion of the nation of the imagined community as a cultural artifact which is equivalent to a sign system in a Saussurian term in contrast to the politically oriented theories of nationalism. However, as his subtitle "reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism" suggests, Anderson seems to argue that nation as an imagined community naturally brings about nationalism, which is originated from Creole nationalism in America. The three main types of Creole nationalism in America, popular nationalism in Europe, and Official nationalism in Russia are models of nationalism which are selectively adapted in later nationalisms. Since his argument of nationalism focuses on the role of leaders in the construction of nation-states, his theory of nationalism is incompatible with his theory of nation as an imagined community in that the imagined community of the nation is, in principle, based on the collectivity of people in a given area. Hence, between the nation of the collective community and the nationalism of the political movement lead by national elites for the building of a nation-state exists an unbridgeable gap. Since the nation of the collective community based on a horizontal comradeship is a historically impossible project with the actual inequality and exploitation in any nation-state, the nation of horizontal comradeship works as a Utopian metaphor which is historically impossible but should be longed for.