The paper analyses the relation between gender and national identity in the case of transnational “imperial mothers.” The concept of national identity, of course, cannot be applied in periods prior to the emergence of nation states, neither in the historical nor the theoretical sense, as it is related to the period of the emergence of modern political community and its consolidation in the 20th century. But this historical detail is often overlooked from perspectives of contemporary nationalisms; instead, nation and its identity is managed in the sense of a trans-historical formation striving teleologically– from ethnicity through nationality to nation – for its ultimate fulfilment. This historical projection also includes notions of the role of women in the reproduction of the national community: here, too, the idea of female national mission, including the biological, cultural and symbolic reproductions of the collective, are mirrored into the hegemonic model retroactively. The present study looks into “imperial mothers” and analyses the gender imagery surrounding their role of so-called symbolic mothers. It focuses on three imperial mothers: two from the historical formation of the Slovene nation – Elisabeth, the wife of Franz Joseph I from the period of the Hapsburg monarchy, and Jovanka, the spouse of Josip Broz, from the period of the socialist federative republic of Yugoslavia ‒ and Melania, the wife of the American president and First Lady of the USA (as a global imperial power) from the current historical situation of the post-socialist nation. In the latter case, rather than in the historical sense, the notion of empire is used in the sense as developed by political philosophy in current social contexts. The introductory part also focuses on Marie Antoinette as a separate case study. The analysis has shown that all the mentioned symbolic mothers – though foreigners in view of their ethnic origin – were objects of public scrutiny in relation to their representation of female gender suitability and not of cultural and identity conformity. In terms of theory, the issue under consideration relies on a feminist theory of nationalism, with a focus on the critical re-evaluation of the “ethnic” component in relation to the reproduction of national identity.Nel contributo viene analizzato il rapporto tra gender e nazionalismo in tre esempi di “madri imperiali” transnazionali. Il termine di madre imperiale designa le consorti dei regnanti degli imperi multinazionali quali portatrici della rappresentazione simbolica dell’organismo politico e della sua riproduzione sessuale. L’indagine si concentra sulle due madri imperiali collegate alla formazione storica della nazione slovena – Elisabetta, la consorte di Francesco Giuseppe, del periodo della monarchia degli Asburgo, e Jovanka, la moglie di Josip Broz, del periodo della Repubblica socialista federativa di Jugoslavia – nonché su Melania, la moglie dell’ex presidente americano e First Lady degli Stati Uniti (quale potere imperiale globale), come esempio collegato all’attuale situazione storica della nazione post-socialista. L’argomento preso in esame si impernia in termini teorici sulla teoria femminista del nazionalismo, mettendo in rilievo la rivalutazione critica della questione che concerne la componente «etnica» della riproduzione dell’identità nazionale.
|
