"The Good Soldier Švejk" and a Sociological Account of National Identification

Abstract

This article is about national identification. The author proposes a conceptual framework for an account of nationality which respects the multidimensional nature of the nation and hence the contextual and multi-level nature of national identification. He thinks that the term "identification" refers to individual nationality more adequately than the term "identity" which is associated with undesirable methodological subjectivism and individualism and often draws upon unrealistic, excessively intellectual conceptions of the individual. Use of the latter term is also often associated with researchers' tendency to confuse individual and group phenomena. To illustrate his claims, the author quotes Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk. In his analysis of the national identification of the novel's heroes, he points out that it is actually multi-level and changes depending on the situation and the obligating institutional framework. This analysis shows that a more appropriate way to approach identification would be to give an account of the configuration of social roles and surrounding institutions which lead to the development of identifications rather than to describe an individual's national identity per se.