Identity Designs: The Sights and Sounds of a Nation

Front Cover
Rutgers University Press, 1995 - History - 252 pages

National symbols, modern totems with ancient roots, remain entities for which men and women continue to march, debate, fight, and die. Modern political leaders still drape their campaigns in such symbols; modern revolutionaries still defile them. Identity Designs explores the source of this long-standing power--the way national symbols are selected, the manner in which their meaning is conveyed, their potential effects, and the sustenance of their power.

In particular, the book charts the role of design in the selection of symbolic images, thus demonstrating that symbols are chosen not just for what they convey, but how they convey their message. Karen Cerulo shows that the symbolic designs of a nation's identity are not simply the products of indigenous characteristics, as conventional wisdom might suggest. Rather, the banners and songs by which nations represent themselves are generated by broad social forces that transcend the peculiarities of any one nation. Cerulo's analysis acquaints readers with a set of social structural factors that delimit rules of symbolic expression. Further, the book suggests the benefits of adhering to these rules and explores the costs of violating them.

 

Contents

Socioeconomic Pockets and the Structure of National
5
We Pledge Allegiance
11
Syntactic Structure
35
Editors of National Symbol Structures
55
Of the People For the People
91
Off Key Strategy Selections
117
Why Do Communicators Deviate?
140
Final Notes on Identity Designs
167
Correlation Matrix for Measures of Melodic Syntax
177
A 2b Correlation Coefficients for Graphic Stability
184
Nation Data
194
Notes
213
Bibliography
227
Index
243
Copyright

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