The eclipse of the nation (1940-1945)

Abstract

The observation of some documents and facts of the cultural history of the period from 1940 to 1945 gives us the impression that the nation and some correlated terms (such as patriotism, people, national community, State) continuously disappear and reappear, especially in the reconstructions of the final facts of the Second World War. A kind of void - in the convergence of world changes and "national" events - was, then, created; which could be called a "nations eclipse". The "histories by historians", briefly presented here, indicate that this void has involved a series of decisive cultural elements in the structuring of national social relations. The void is soon concealed and filled with new contents, but one should be aware of it in order to understand how "new" communities of citizens were formed after the Second World War.