内容简介

The definitive, bestselling book on the origins and development of nationalism.

Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson's brilliant book on nationalism, forged a new field of study when it first appeared in 1983. Since then it has sold over a quarter of a million copies and is widely considered the most important book on the subject. In this greatly anticipated revised edition, Anderson updates and elaborates on the core question: what makes people live, die and kill in the name of nations? He shows how an originary nationalism born in the Americas was adopted by popular movements in Europe, by imperialist powers, and by the anti-imperialist resistances in Asia and Africa, and explores the way communities were created by the growth of the nation-state, the interaction between capitalism and printing, and the birth of vernacular languages-of-state. Anderson revisits these fundamental ideas, showing how their relevance has been tested by the events of the past two decades.

作者简介

Benedict Anderson was Aaron L. Binenkorp Professor of International Studies Emeritus at Cornell University. He was editor of the journal Indonesia and author of Java in a Time of Revolution, The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World and Imagined Communities.

精彩摘录

印刷语言以三种不同的方式奠定了民族意识的基础。首先，并且是最重要的，它们在拉丁文之下，口语方言之上创造了统一的交流与传播的领域。那些口操种类繁多的各式法语、英语或西班牙语，原本可能难以或根本无法彼此交流的人们，通过印刷字体和纸张的中介，变得能够相互理解了。在这个过程中，他们逐渐感觉到那些在他们的特殊语言领域里数以十万计、甚至百万计的人的存在，而与此同时，他们也逐渐感觉到只有那些数以十万计或百万计的人们属于这个特殊的语言领域。这些被印刷品所联结的“读者同胞们”，在其世俗的、特殊的和“可见之不可见”当中，形成了民族的想象的共同体的胚胎。

——引自章节：民族意识的起源

第二，印刷资本主义赋予了语言一种新的固定性（fixity），这种固定性在经过长时间之后，为语言塑造出对“主观的民族理念”而言是极为关键的古老形象。诚如费柏赫和马丁所提醒我们的，印刷的书籍保有一种永恒的形态，几乎可以不拘时空地被无限复制。它不再受制于经院手抄本那种个人化和“不自觉地把典籍现代化”的习惯了。因此，纵使12世纪的法文和15世纪维永（Villon）所写的法文相去甚远，进入16世纪之后法文变化的速度也决定性地减缓了。“到了17世纪时，欧洲的语言大致上已经具备其现代的形了”。换句话说，经过了三个世纪之后，现在这些印刷语言之上已经积了一层发暗的色泽。因此，今天我们还读得懂17世纪先人的话语，然而维永却无法理解他12世纪的祖先的遗泽。

——引自章节：民族意识的起源