Browsing by Author "Valentonis, Alexander S."
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Item The Imagined National Identity of The North and South During the Civil War, as Expressed Through War-Songs(Keyhole Press, 2021) Valentonis, Alexander S.During the American Civil War, a major means of communicating national concepts was through song, due to its role as a form of popular entertainment, combined with low literacy rates. And during the American Civil War, war-songs in particular acted as important phenomena which expressed and developed the national identities of the Union and Confederacy. As the war progressed, the concepts in the war-songs developed alongside the zeitgeist of the war, portraying the American experience during this time by the soldiers in both the North and South. Because of this, war-songs contributed to the development of the Confederate and Union national identities during the Civil War. This essay seeks to understand this effect and analyze the ways in which war-songs affected the early American nationalism. Specifically, the popular war-songs of the beginning, middle, and end of the Civil War are analyzed in this essay to understand how national identity was developed and expressed through the medium of music. The basis of this paper is formed in the idea that the creation of a nation comes from how a social group forms an imagined community that is connected across space and time by shared media and culture, as set forth in Benedict Anderson’s book, Imagined Communities. While Anderson does not refer to music specifically as a means of developing an imagined community, this essay seeks to show how music played a major role in the establishment of a national conception in America during the Civil War, one that has even persisted to the modern day.Item The National Identity of Rhodesia: Colonialism and Contradiction(Keyhole Press, The University of Tampa, 2023-04) Valentonis, Alexander S.This paper examines the mentality and nationalism of Southern Rhodesians and the contradiction inherent in their beliefs. Southern Rhodesian nationalism was built upon contradiction and their colonial past. They formed an identity of settler nationalism that both simultaneously embraced and rejected their British heritage. Southern Rhodesian secession from the British Empire was seen by Rhodesians as if they were forced out, whereas they chose to leave fearing de-colonization. Despite declaring independence to avoid handing the country over to the native Africans, Rhodesians saw their country as being inherently just. Colonial values and mentalities were held at the core of their identity, leading to the perpetuation and enhancement of a system of oppression over the native Africans. However, mistreatment of natives was glossed over and blamed on communism, or new immigrants. There was an inherent contradiction were the Rhodesians believed themselves not to be oppressive, all the while holding all the country’s wealth and political power. It was a country that believed itself to be loved by the native Africans, despite being at war with African liberation groups within the country. This paper was produced in Dr. Palmer’s HIS 400 course.