Nationalism and Respectability: Normal and Abnormal Sexuality in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The relationship between nationalism and respectability in Europe requires investigation to give us a better understanding of how nationalism has functioned in the historical process. Both modern nationalism and the ideal of respectability were responses to a new century in motion, to the age of the masses and industrialization; both had their origins in the eighteenth century, and matured together in the nineteenth. Yet while the history of nationalism has been well studied, the history of respectability has only recently begun to receive attention. Our purpose is to initiate an examination of this relationship - to stimulate thought and discussion. We seem to take for granted, however dimly, that nationalism and respectability have supported each other, while both have condemned the unconventional as threatening to the state and to society: normal and abnormal behaviour must be clearly defined and distinguished from one another in order to guarantee a happy and healthy world. And in the context of respectability, the normal and the abnormal have been viewed differently for men and for women. In our analysis of the links between nationalism and respectability, we will focus on the role of male sexuality. Moreover, we will draw our examples mainly from Germany, and to a lesser extent from England.

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