Nacionalna identiteta kot imperialna zapuščina: uvod v slovensko etnomitologijo

It is argued in this book that empire-building and nation-building are not two op-posed and entirely separated processes but more like two faces of the same process. Empire and nation-state are not two clearly opposed and incompatible polities, each one negating its opposite and each one preceding or following it in a lineal, even evolutionary temporal sequence. Correspondingly, the book supports an ‘externalist’ theory of the national identity-making which propounds the view of national identity not as an inner, quasi organic growth, but as an outcome of interaction within wider imperial frameworks. Taking for its subject the case of the Slovenian national identity, it argues for the concept of imperial legacy which proves a particularly useful tool for theorizing the process of the making of national identity.