WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT NATIONALISM

Abstract

My aim is to propose a review of the available literature on nationalism in order to show that the problem is too complex to be quickly embraced or dismissed as taboo. First, I argue that the nation is, in the modern context, an inescapable notion. Second, I distinguish different types of nationalism, such as the various national movements that are at the origin of many nations that exist today, the classical liberal nationalism, the Latin American populist nationalism, and the Brazilian anti-colonialist nationalism of the 1950s. The phenomenon, from the Brazilian point of view, has to be understood in the light of its own context, without unnecessary theoretical imports. In addition, it appears that a good part of the theories assume, in view of the phenomenon, a posture that often makes it impossible to think of national anti-colonial movements. Thus, although the concept represents irrationalist political movements in some developed countries, this theoretical transposition is not always possible to our context. Some vulnerable classes and races often found a path to emancipation in national movements, as shown by Joaquim Nabuco's analysis of the relationship between the abolitionist movement and the movement for independence in Brazil.