Nationhood vs Self-Identity
By: J. Garcia
Tags: War, Literary Criticism, Literature, Identity, Nationhood

Nationhood vs Self-Identity

A Quick Study of Identity in 20th Century War Novels

The concept of nationhood is centered on several ideas that coalesce and ultimately creates a common identity. The concept can be based on historic, military, linguistic or folkloric self-narratives. “One such feature is the decisive character… [in other words] the outcome of common decisions” (Kiss 48). War leads the individual to challenge the notion of nationhood against self-vested interests and, therefore, challenging the decisive factor. In the novels All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, and The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass the concept of nationhood and the concept self-identity compete against each other.

In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul finds that his youth and life is sacrificed for the notion of nationhood. The decisive factor, war, which propels the narrator and his young compatriots to fight was an overly zealous notion of nationhood. Paul states, “with our young, awakened eyes we saw that the classical conception of the fatherland held by our teachers resolved itself here into renunciation of personality” (Remarque 19). In this case, self-identity was at odds with nationhood. The narrator had to give up or renounce the idea of self to adhere to the decisive formation of nationhood during war. The novel emphasizes the wasteful sacrifice of the self in order to satisfy the whims of nationhood.

In Doctor Zhivago, self-identity confronts the concept of nationhood against the backdrop of dissent. The doctor explains, “trains… served as… a refuge for criminal and political fugitives in hiding, the involuntary vagabonds of the time” (Pasternak 339). The collective decisive factor judged the actions of some as unacceptable. “The decisive components of the concept of nationhood entail the creation of new subjects of politics. ‘Nation’ and the ‘people’ will become the new subject, the representatives of which will of course not correspond to the representative system of the existing status quo” (Kiss 48). Therefore, as the class or ideological shift in the concept of nationhood sets up a confrontation between the main character and the system in a struggle to define self-identity against the backdrop of collective derision for being part of the previous status quo.

The Tin Drum also expresses conflict between the nation and self-identity. Oskar is thrust into the middle of a national crises. He asks, “after all, Poland was at stake, not my drum. If they insisted Poland be lost, be lost in red and white, must my drum, rendered suspect by its fresh coat, be lost as well?” (Grass 209). Oskar navigates his self-identity against the backdrop of changing national boundaries and lines. He balances his identity against the concept of nationhood. Oskar actively chooses to align himself with Germany when Poland loses. Self-identity and nationhood play a large conflict in the novel.

The concept of nationhood and self-identity clash in all three novels. The characters negotiate self-identity against a backdrop of changing decisive components in each book. The outcome is a direct struggle between nationhood and self-identity.