Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities

Fernando L. Olmo

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In the first and third chapters of Benedict Anderson’s book “Imagined Communities” the author attempts to define the concept of nation by relating the emergence of national consciousness with social and technological developments in the past three hundred years. Anderson defines nationalism as a cultural artifact. National consciousness is a remnant or result of cultural events emerging through the convergence of historical forces during the 18th century.

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Nationalism is hard to define because it is neither an ideology nor a philosophy; there are no manifestos to promote it. It is an abstract concept. Anderson defines it as an imagined political community, imagined as limited and sovereign.The concept of nationalism within a nation state creates a feeling of a community sharing common traits and unified through a common language, religion or race; any of these traits may apply but may vary. Nationalism creates nations where they do not exist, thus Anderson’s “imagined communities”.

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The rise of nationalism derived as a result of political and social changes in the 18th century. The concept of sovereignty developed in the 18th century along with Enlightenment ideals and the rise of Protestantism and Capitalism. Eventually the demand for personal freedom and rights encouraged the decline of monarchial power in the 18th century. The feeling of a people having the power of creating a state, a national consciousness, encouraged the French and American Revolution rejecting absolute power and putting the power in the hands of the people. As nations came to be divided by language, race, religion, class etc. the need to create a sense of commonality, to create a sense of community arose. For this sense, this imagined community alone an individual will fight and die.

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This imagined community leads to the development of a national consciousness. National consciousness is fueled by social and technological and political developments through out history. The first development is print capitalism came about towards the end of the 15th century with the invention of the printing press. This allowed for the production of large volumes of printed works and the easy dispersal of printed works to the general public. Printed works no longer became accessible only to the elite a written only in their own administrative vernacular, such as Latin, or Norman French in the case of England. The publishing companies now had the means to meet the demands of a larger readership and make more money which eventually led to catering to the demands by printing works in the language of the cultural center, dominant regional vernacular. Behind all this is the Reformation. Protestantism motivated printing while promoting their religion through printed religious works. Protestantism helps increase the literate world. Because Latin was considered the language of Catholicism and because it was necessary reach out to the general public in a language they all commonly understood their works were printed in national vernacular, which then posed a threat to the administrative languages and eventually replaced the already established administrative language with new ones. The rise of national language increase the exchange of ideas, communication among members within a shared common space, a region or country marked by boundary defined by Anderson’s concept of imagined community.

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Anderson goes on in describing how language is a key component in the creation of an imagined community. Before the 18th century the concept of nation was broader because Latin was the language of a much larger imagined community called “Christendom” but began to break apart as national vernaculars such as French in Paris and English in London became language of choice. Together print capitalism, the Reformation and the emergence of new and diverse form of national languages as administrative language fueled national consciousness and the creation of many smaller imagined communities.

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With the development of many print languages, the newly established official languages led to a rise in national consciousness and imagined communities. Print capitalism stabilized the print language of a community, ensuring its longevity. At the same time it solidified the existence of imagined communities by creating a language, a form of communication developed and encouraged through print, in which individuals can understand and interact within its field of influence, a language field. This language field in the conscience of the individual forms a space in which thousands or millions of individuals live in, bound by a common language.

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Anderson sees today’s modern nations as a product of printing advances and emergence of capitalism, print capitalism. Together it encouraged the creation of diverse languages and imagined communities. Andersons view on the development of imagined communities hint at a cycle of communities emerging and dismantling at the same time becoming more fragmented in even more imagined communities as groups of people redefine their own perceptions of their community. In other word imagine communities within imagine communities. Globalization and increased mobilization could in the future replace language as an important factor in the creation of national consciousness by blending imaginary communities into one big global community. This global world would be composed of imaginary communities sharing a lot more than language but monetary, cultural, and natural resources as well. The European Economic Community (EEC) is one modern example and a sign of what is to come. In a sense one could say that the EEC is an imagined community in the making. It is therefore an example of Anderson’s concept of national consciousness, as a product of the imagination of a community.

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What may result is a monopoly of large nations leading toward fewer nations, the death of many regional vernaculars and traditions. This I believe would lead to the end of national consciousness and the growing numbers of imagined communities; bringing us back to the world of large empires and who knows what else, perhaps Democracy it self?