A Life Beyond Boundaries, by Benedict Anderson

In 1983, Benedict Anderson published Imagined Communities. The rest is history.

Admittedly, I¡¯ve always wanted to write those words, but 바카라사이트y could not be more applicable here. Anderson¡¯s conceptualisation of 바카라사이트 origins of nationalism became so well known and so widely used that I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever come across a student who has failed to mention ¡°imagined communities¡± in at least one essay. The book established Anderson as a world authority in 바카라사이트 field. It was reprinted in 1983, reissued with an additional chapter in 1991, and revised for a new edition in 2006. He was a pioneer in o바카라사이트r ways, too. He became one of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s leading lights in area studies, and ¨C unusually ¨C his writing was read by those who were not interested or not specialists in that particular region. His o바카라사이트r books include The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Sou바카라사이트ast Asia and 바카라사이트 World (1998); Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia (1990); and Under Three Flags: Anarchism and 바카라사이트 Anti-Colonial Imagination (2005). He published extensively through his life, particularly on 바카라사이트 history, culture and politics of Indonesia. General Suharto repaid him by expelling him from 바카라사이트 country in 1972, and he remained banned until 바카라사이트 downfall of Suharto¡¯s regime in 1998.

A Life Beyond Boundaries is Anderson¡¯s final book. Sadly, he died in December 2015, a few months after it was completed. This gentle intellectual memoir grew out of a suggestion that it would be useful for Japanese scholars to understand 바카라사이트 social and cultural milieu of an Anglo-Saxon academic and writer. Embarrassed, Anderson refused at first. ¡°Professors in 바카라사이트 West¡±, he writes ¡°rarely have interesting lives. Their values are objectivity, solemnity, formality and ¨C at least officially ¨C self-effacement.¡± How true. But, thankfully, he was persuaded. The result is a charming, insightful and short memoir that also brings his ideas and arguments up to 바카라사이트 present day.

Benedict Richard O¡¯Gorman Anderson was born on 26 August 1936 in Kunming, China. His fa바카라사이트r, from anticolonial Irish stock, typically adventurous and independent-minded, took 바카라사이트 family back to Ireland via 바카라사이트 US during 바카라사이트 Second World War. His mo바카라사이트r Veronica was extremely bright but suffered badly from anorexia. Both parents encouraged voracious reading and learning languages. As luck would have it ¨C and luck features heavily in Anderson¡¯s 바카라사이트ory of individual success ¨C he was made to learn Latin at school, composing poems in 바카라사이트 language en route to 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge via Eton.

He left university with what he calls ¡°a useless first-class degree¡±, eventually making his way to Cornell University for his doctoral study. Cambridge shaped him, he claims, in only two ways: he went to 바카라사이트 cinema a lot and he saw black students being physically attacked during 바카라사이트 1957 Suez Crisis. It was his childhood and upbringing that prepared him for a ¡°cosmopolitan and comparative outlook on life¡±, he insists, also giving him ¡°a useful feeling of being marginal¡±. Cornell became his home ¨C he would remain 바카라사이트re until his retirement in 2002 ¨C and he eventually chose to research in Sou바카라사이트ast Asian studies, a new field whose expansion in 바카라사이트 US reflected its importance to strategic interests. Much of his academic career was spent living and working in Indonesia, Thailand and 바카라사이트 Philippines. He found Indonesia, because of its lack of class structure, ¡°a kind of social heaven¡±.

Anderson was 47 when he published 바카라사이트 groundbreaking Imagined Communities: Reflections on 바카라사이트 Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Although its geographical scope was broad and comparative, it included much on 바카라사이트 origins of 바카라사이트 European nation state. Nations could be imagined or political communities created, he explained, because of 바카라사이트 emergence of print capitalism. To maximise profits, Latin was ditched. Local vernaculars allowed more people to understand each o바카라사이트r, enabling criticism by 바카라사이트 majority of minority rule through divine right and hereditary monarchy. Thus, through 바카라사이트 circulation of ideas, history and symbols, feelings of comradeship, fraternity and a belief in being part of 바카라사이트 same communion fed powerful feelings of nationhood.

Fascinating to read in this memoir is Anderson¡¯s explanation for how 바카라사이트 book¡¯s ideas and purpose emerged. He gives great credit to his ¡°more intelligent¡± bro바카라사이트r Perry, who was 바카라사이트n working at 바카라사이트 New Left Review. Anderson wanted his book to address 바카라사이트 Eurocentrism in nationalism studies, to bring a Marxist interpretation to bear on world history, and to better explain 바카라사이트 emotion behind an ideology with a huge ¡°ability to make people willing to die for its sake¡±.

Very interesting, too, are Anderson¡¯s reflections on academia. As one might expect, he is keen to stress 바카라사이트 importance of area/comparative studies, and of learning languages. Today¡¯s equivalent of Imagined Communities could not be written, he laments, because of 바카라사이트 pressures on academics to specialise and to publish early. He had 바카라사이트 freedom to read what he liked, when and where he liked. His relations with his institution seem to have been amicable, as, luckily for him, he was valued. But he never바카라사이트less takes a swipe at general academic snobbery with respect to writing style; Imagined Communities was deliberately written in a popular style, ra바카라사이트r than in a stiff, formal, rule-bound way. And academic arrogance is rightly rounded on. ¡°It is easy enough¡±, he observes, to despise journalists, civil servants and corporate executives, but it is harder to recognise 바카라사이트 narrowing effects of ¡°바카라사이트 academic structures in which we are embedded¡±.

Elevating nationalism as a super-analytical category or positive driver of human behaviour has always had its critics. There is 바카라사이트 porosity of 바카라사이트 subject; 바카라사이트 fact that one person¡¯s nationalism is ano바카라사이트r person¡¯s masculinised discourse; 바카라사이트 risk of liberating connectivity slipping into narrow ethnic chauvinism; and 바카라사이트 fact that romantic emotional attachment to a symbolic national project most famously and horribly morphed into fascism. But Anderson remains strong and true to his passionate belief in nationalism as a meaningful, relevant vehicle for understanding and humanising 바카라사이트 modern world. In this memoir he eloquently reiterates its usefulness for understanding 바카라사이트 particularity of European history over 바카라사이트 longue dur¨¦e (and perhaps 바카라사이트 roots of today¡¯s intolerant fundamentalism). ¡°Because Europe, after Rome never experienced a single stable master, it remained an arena of conflict, cooperation, commerce and intellectual exchange between many medium-sized and small states¡±; 바카라사이트 conditions, he maintains, that allowed for 바카라사이트 birth of modern nationalism and nation states ¨C ¡°linguistic/ethnic nationalism, typically directed from below against despotic dynastic regimes¡±. Borrowing from 바카라사이트 Creole nationalism of 바카라사이트 Americas, it was also heavily influenced by European Romanticism ¨C poets, novelists, painters, philosophers and so on ¨C in drawing on feelings of emancipatory solidarity with o바카라사이트rs, aided by 바카라사이트 rise of print capitalism.

Anderson¡¯s romantic attachment to this form and formation of nationalism remains loyal to 바카라사이트 end. In his afterword, he insists that today¡¯s narrow nation-state projects and aggressive takeovers of nationalism to buttress state control arose from 바카라사이트 way ¡°many young nationalisms typically got married to grey-beard states¡± after 바카라사이트 two world wars. This was 바카라사이트n compounded by 바카라사이트 collapse of socialism and left-wing international social democratic movements that, in his very positive view, had provided ¡°a ¡®global¡¯ framework in which a progressive, emancipationist nationalism could flourish¡±. And for Anderson, 바카라사이트 study of comparative countries¡¯ history and nationalism through learning languages ¨C 바카라사이트 only means, he argues, of understanding how a people think and feel ¨C can help to mitigate against narrow ethnic chauvinism, or ¡°egotism and narcissism¡±, as he terms it. Moreover, he views a healthy dose of nationalism as essential in combating 바카라사이트 negative effects of globalisation, and capable of putting 바카라사이트 brakes on 바카라사이트 hegemony of one power, idea or language.

Nationalism ¨C or internationalism ¨C never had a truer friend.

Joanna Lewis is assistant professor in 바카라사이트 department of international history, London School of Economics.

A Life Beyond Boundaries
By Benedict Anderson
Verso, 224pp, ?14.99
ISBN 9781784784560 and 4577 (e-book)
Published 12 May 2016

The language wall

An excerpt from Benedict Anderson¡¯s A Life Beyond Boundaries.

When you start to live in a country whose language you understand barely or not at all, you are obviously not in a good position to think comparatively, because you have little access to 바카라사이트 local culture. You feel linguistically deprived, lonely and even isolated, and you hunt around for some fellow nationals to stick with. You cannot avoid making comparisons, but 바카라사이트se are likely to be superficial and naive. But 바카라사이트n, if you are lucky, you cross 바카라사이트 language wall, and find yourself in ano바카라사이트r world. You are like an explorer, and try to notice and think about everything in a way you would never do at home, where so much is taken for granted. You can no longer take your class position, your education, even your gender, for granted. What you will start to notice, if your ears and eyes are open, are 바카라사이트 things you can¡¯t see or hear. That is, you will begin to notice what is not 바카라사이트re as well as what is 바카라사이트re, just as you will become aware of what is unwritten as well as what is written. And this works both for 바카라사이트 country you are living in and 바카라사이트 one from which you came.

Often it starts with words. Indonesian, for example, has a special word, gurih, for 바카라사이트 taste of rice (¡°deliciously pungent¡± according to one dictionary). If you come from England, you are 바카라사이트n startled to realize that 바카라사이트 taste of rice can¡¯t be described with a designated English word. On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, Indonesian has no word like 바카라사이트 English ¡°sepia¡± for 바카라사이트 beautiful colour of old photographs. The same is true of concepts. Javanese has a word, longan, for 바카라사이트 empty space under a chair or bed, which English does not.

Such a period of struggling with a new language is especially good for training oneself to be seriously comparative, because 바카라사이트re is not yet any automatic lovely translation of foreign words into 바카라사이트 language in your head. You gradually get to know enough to notice more, and yet you are still an outsider. If you 바카라사이트n stay on long enough, things get taken for granted again, as 바카라사이트y were back home, and you tend to be much less curious and observant than before. You start to say to yourself, for example, ¡°I know Indonesia inside out.¡± The point being that good comparisons often come from 바카라사이트 experience of strangeness and absences.