Political Symbols and National Identity in Timor-Leste

This book explores how national identity has been negotiated and (re)imagined through political symbols in post-conflict Timor-Leste. It develops a Modernist approach to nations and nationalism by incorporating Bourdieusian theories of symbolic capital, power and conflict, to examine how national identity has been constructed and represented in political symbols. Taking case studies of flags, monuments, national heroes and street art, it critically analyses how a diverse population has interpreted and (re)constructed its national identity throughout the first decade of independence, and how the transition from a context of conflict to peace has influenced such popular imaginings. By examining these processes of identification with a wide range of symbols, the book discusses the numerous challenges that this young nation-state still faces, including the legacies of colonialism; victimhood, transitional justice, and recognition; democratization and development; partisan and personality politics; the political role of spirituality, religion and cosmology; and post-colonial generational differences and divisions.