How do national stereotypes emerge? To which extent are they determined by historical or ideological circumstances, or else by cultural, literary or discursive conventions? This first inclusive critical compendium on national characterizations and national (cultural or ethnic) stereotypes contains 120 articles by 73 contributors. Its three parts offer [1] a number of in-depth survey articles on ethnic and national images in European literatures and cultures over many centuries; [2] an encyclopedic survey of the stereotypes and characterizations traditionally ascribed to various ethnicities...

Europe's nation-states emerged from a complex of nineteenth-century developments in which cultural consciousness-raising played a formative role. The nineteenth-century reflection on Europe's national identities involved a re-inventory and revalorisation of the vernacular cultural past and, above all, the nation's literary heritage. Everywhere in Europe, foundational texts (including medieval epics and romances, ancient laws and chronicles) were retrieved from their obscure repositories. In new, printed editions, prepared according to the emerging academic standards of textual scholarship,...

This monumental encyclopedia documents the presence and effects of cultural consciousness-raising in the early decades of European nationalism. The volume tracks how intellectuals, historians, novelists, poets, painters, folklorists, and composers, in an intensely collaborative transnational network, articulated the national identities and aspirations that would go on to determine European history and politics with effects that are still felt today.

This volume offers detailed accounts of the cults of individual writers and a comparative perspective on the spread of centenary fever across Europe. It offers a fascinating insight into the interaction between literature and cultural memory, and the entanglement between local, national and European identities at the highpoint of nation-building.