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This is a book about shifting national identities in Belgium. It is an attempt to show how these identities emerged and evolved. It aims at explaining why the Belgian identity, which in 1830 was so strong that it could create a new nation-state, has become so weak that today it has to accept a mere overarching role above and in competition with the new national loyalties. More and more people wonder whether this country will survive.
List of contents
Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction; K.Deprez & L.Vos PART ONE: BELGIAN NATION BUILDING Belgian Liberties and Loyalty to the House of Austria; J.Roegiers The Two Belgian Revolutions; L.Wils Painting at the Service of the New Nation-State; L.Pil National Imagery in 19th Century Flemish Literature; P.Couttenier The Symbolic Deficit. French Literature in Belgium and 19th Century National Sentiment; C.Berg Henri Conscience and the French Revolution; P.Raxhon PART TWO: THE WANING OF BELGIUM The Flemish National Question; L.Vos The Language of the Flemings; K.Deprez The Catholic Church and the Flemish Movement; L.Gevers Sport and the Flemish Movement. Resistance and Accommodation 1868-1914; R.Renson The Christian Workers' Movement as a Mass Foundation of the Flemish Movement; E.Gerard The Growth of the Walloon Movement; C.Kesteloot Four Definitions of Culture in Francophone Belgium; J.Fontaine PART THREE: NATIONAL IDENTITIES IN A FEDERAL STATE Unequal Economic Development at the Origin of the Federalisation Process; P.Saey, C.Kesteloot & C.Vandermotten Belgium's Peculiar Way to Federalism; R.Falter The National Consciousness of the Flemings and the Walloons. An Empirical Investigation; B.Maddens, R.Beerten & J.Billiet Nationalism in Present-Day Flanders; J.Bouveroux Present-Day Wallonia. The Search for an Identity without Nationalist Mania; P.Destatte A Brussels Identity? A Speculative Interpretation; S.Govaert Germans, German Belgians, German-Speaking Belgians; H.Jenniges Are the Immigrants the Last Belgians?; A.Morelli & J-P.Schreiber Bibliography Index
About the author
ROELAND BEERTEN Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, KU Leuven
CHRISTIAN BERG Professor of French Literature, Department of Romance Languages, UIA Antwerp
JAAK BILLIET Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, KU Leuven
JOS BOUVEROUS Journalist and Head of the News Service, Belgian Radio and Television
PIET COUTTENIER Professor of Dutch Literature, UFSIA Antwerp
PHILIPPE DESTATTE Historian
ROLF FALTER Historian and Journalist
JOSE FONTAINE Professor of Philosophy, Graty
EMMANUEL GERARD Professor of History, Department of Political Sciences, KU Leuven
LIEVE GEVERS Professor of History, Faculty of Theology, KU Leuven
SERGE GOVAERT Translator, Parliament of the Brussels Region
DIDIER GOYVAERTS Professor of Linguistics, UIA Antwerp
HUBERT JENNIGES Historian and Journalist
CHANTAL KESTELOOT Historian, Brussels
CHRISTIAN KESTELOOT Professor of Social Geography, Institute of Social and Economic Geography, KU Leuven
BART MADDENS Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, KU Leuven
ANNE MORELLI Professor of History, Institute for the Study of Religions, UL Brussels
LUT PIL Professor of History of Art, Department of Archaeology, History of Art and Musicology, KU Leuven
PHILIPPE RAXHON Assistant Professor, University of Liege
ROLAND RENSON Professor of History of Sports, Department of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, KU Leuven
JAN ROEGIERS Professor of History, KU Leuven
PIETER SAEY Professor of Social Geography, University of Gent
JEAN-PHILIPPE SCHREIBER Assistant Professor, Institute for the Study of Religion, UL de Bruxelles
CHRISTIAN VANDERMOTTEN Professor of Economic Geography, UL de Bruxelles
LODE WILS Professor of History, KU Leuven
Summary
This is a book about shifting national identities in Belgium. It aims at explaining why the Belgian identity, which in 1830 was so strong that it could create a new nation-state, has become so weak that today it has to accept a mere overarching role above and in competition with the new national loyalties.
