On the basis of the theory of Benedict Anderson on the „imagined political community“, the work analyses the processes of construction of bodily ideal and movement patterns in physical exercises of the Czech sport association Sokol („Eagle“). Through gymnastics based on Greek mythology and Plato, through large-scale floor exercises, through paramilitary marches, body became a tool for constructing national identity. Through ritualized exercise and the use of body symbolics, body became „nationally encoded“. However, Anderson’s concept of „imagined community“ does not suffice for an explication of the fact that at the end of the nineteenth century Sokol achieved great increase of members. Especially for young gymnasts of both sexes membership in the association entailed the fulfillment of concrete social and psychological needs. Contact with coevals and pubertal search for one’s own identity were equally important in mass integration into Sokol as individual pursuit of better performance. The author raises a query if the perception of Sokol as „popular“ (instead of „national“) movement represents a meaningful cathegorial enlargement. Dance figures and Greek myths dealing with the purity of the body indicate a „popular“ ideology of the association, separated from the political ideas of modem nation.
The article draws on the theory of reflexive modernisation (Beck, Giddens) and suggests that the crisis of the welfare state in Europe is triggering a need to strengthen European civil society. Following this idea it is argued that there are pathological elements in the process of the formation of European national identities currently (previously) under way, wherein the constructions of identities are prevailingly negative. It is suggested that Europeans need to maintain and foster feelings of mutuality and belonging in order to protect achieved economic welfare, political liberties, and cultural diversity, and to increase their political and cultural capacity to tackle the challenges of globalisation. First, the author examines the context of identity formation within the process of modernisation, and second, he discusses the arguments put forth in Erik Erikson's well-known theory of identity formation, in order to explore the preconditions, forms, and possibilities of political identity formation within the EU, especially the dynamics between the public sphere and identity-forming processes.
Polka and polkomanie in the Bohemia of the 1830' and 1840' was first a manifestation of the energy of the young dynamic bourgeoisie profiting from all features, which could help to build the national identity and finally result in the creation of the national state. The proofs of the Czech and popular origin of the polka came out at the same time. Many of them were soon considered just a speculation while others played an important role. The aim of the study is to investigate what was the particular reason why polka has always been considered a Czech national dance and what features were picked up from music and dance for building the identity or the national look. This approach involves principal questions such as: when did polka become the national symbol in Bohemia, how, for whom and why and what the concept of polka in Bohemia was when it started to be meaningful in the national movement? To answer these questions we have to look at some crucial facts which enable us to follow polka as a cultural text in different strata of the 19th century society in Bohemia and to identify its power. Polka considered as a myth has to be seen in the socio-cultural context and in ideological and political discourse. Its look of the Czech national symbol was created in symbolic level as a mental representation of the national circle of intellectuels and artists.