CZESLAW MILOSZ
15
nation
in the French sense. The origins of Romanticism were in Germany,
and the first Romantics were students and young poets - humiliated by
the defeats inflicted on Germany by Napoleon. I wonder whether
someone will write a book on the rebellious groups of the so- called
Young Germany with their fanaticism, burning of books, and killing of
colleagues suspected of treason, in light of what we were able to observe
in the leftist and terroristic movements in West Germany in the 1960s.
Romanticism introduced the notion of the ineffable national soul that
supposedly determines a given man's belonging to a nation . It was not
the free choice of an individual but his birth which was the decisive
factor. One was a member of a given nation by virtue of being born on
a given soil, from parents of the same language as their ancestors, also
because one shared the destiny of a tribe, of a race, or, as some would
say, of a common historical fate. Romanticism in its political aspect was
nothing else than nationalism. Perhaps only now do we embrace the
implication of certain slogans popular in the epoch. Romanticism was
fostered by special groups of people, and their status throws light not
only upon the origins of nationalism but also on its long history
including our century. Those young enthusiasts were mostly students and
young literati. And undoubtedly a distinction introduced by Ernest
Gellner can be useful here, a distinction between the two cultures: the
so-called higher or written culture and the so-called lower or oral cul–
ture. Precisely at the moment of passage from the oral culture to the
written culture in Europe, nationalism was born. And it is significant that
pupils of high schools and universities were its promoters while the mass
of the population was largely steeped in oral culture. It was regarded by
those enthusiasts on the one hand as preserving the true national soul in
its folklore, on the other hand as a passive flock to be lifted up through
education toward the common goal of national dignity or national in–
dependence.
For centuries the written culture was limited to the clergy and the
upper classes while the majority remained on the oral level. In some
countries the higher culture was of a language different from the lan–
guage of the population; thus, for example, German dominated the scene
in Bohemia, in Latvia, in Estonia, while in Lithuania the same place was
occupied by Polish. National movements in such countries were fostered
by the new intelligentsia COIning from the lower classes and speaking the
language of their peasant ancestors.
If it is true that the humiliation felt by young educated people as a
group is usually at the source of nationalism or political romanticism, we
can find a common denominator in the movements among the intelli–
gentsia of various countries, both the countries temporarily subjugated by
big powers and the big powers themselves, thus in Germany, in Poland,
