Medievalism and (White) Nationalism: From Ossian to Today

Abstract: This article connects strategies of contemporary white nationalist medievalisms with a tradition of invention instigated by James Macpherson's so-called Ossian forgeries (1760–1765). Establishing Macpherson's method as a blueprint for national identity construction, it suggests that Romantic legacies of medieval reinvention continue to permeate nationalist discourse to, at times, pernicious ends. (VKI)