Anti-Modern National Identity Formation: Dutch Depictions of America in Public Debates about Film Fandom, 1919-1939

Abstract

The Netherlands in the interwar years (1919-1939) was a unity in diversity, since several denominational and ideological segments of society lived-apart-together – barely feeling a shared national identity. This article researches how Dutch public media used film fandom to create such an identity. It shows how film fandom, depicted as an embodiment of the American “Other” and objectionable modernization, was used to discursively construct communal feelings of Dutch-ness across the various segments.