The National myths (sometimes referred to as Nationalistic myths or Nationalist myths) are myths created and propagated by national intellectuals who use them as instrument of political mobilization on the basis of ethnicity.[1] Nationalist myths sometimes have a tendency to stimulate conflicts between the nations[2], to magnify distinctive characteristics of the national group and to overstate the threat to the nation posed by other groups propagating militant fulfilment of the their goals.[3]
The concept of national identity is inescapably connected with myths.[4] Complex of myths are the core of ethnic identity.[5] Some scholars believe that national identities (equipped with invented histories) were constructed only after national movements and national ideologies emerged first.[6]
All modern national identities were preceded by nationalist movements.[7] Although the term "nation" was used in the Middle Ages, it had totally different meaning than in the age of nationalism, where it was linked to the efforts aimed to creation of the nation-states.[8]
Besides their social background, nationalist myths have also a psychological explanation which is connected with nationalist myth of stable homeland community. The complexity of relations with the modern external world and incoherence of the inner psychological world can result with anxiety which is reduced by static self-labelling and self-construction and gaining an imaginary emotion of stability.[9]
Two nationalism's primary myths are connected with beliefs in[10]:
The nationalist myths portray the nation like sleeping and waiting to be awakened, but scholarly discourse avoid such image because national identity either exists or not and can not be asleep and awakened.[11]
Shnirelman (1995) considers nationalist myths ... created by national intellectuals and propagated by the intelligentsia with the aim of using this myths as an instrument of ethno-political mobilization under interethnic conflicts.
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... we do argue that tendency to breed conflicts is inherent to typical nationalist myths
overemphasize the cultural and historical distinctiveness of the national group [and its territory], exaggerate the threat posed to the nation by other groups, ignore the degree to which the nation's own actions provoked such treats, and play down the cost of seeking national goals trough militant means.
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Myth is inextricably linked with the concept of national identity
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The core of the ethnic identity is the "myth-symbol complex" — the combination of myths,...
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We can, for example, certainly encounter term "nation" in the Middle Ages, but the word meant something completely different than in the age of nationalism, where it is inextricably linked with the efforts to create an associated state.
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.. nationalist myths of nation waiting, Sleeping Beauty like, to be awakened....In scholarly discourse this image should be avoided .. national identity is a matter of self-ascription, it either exists or it does not, it can not be asleep and then be awakened...
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