A national personification is an anthropomorphic personification of a state or the people(s) it inhabits. It may appear in political cartoons and propaganda.
Some personifications in the Western world often took the Latin name of the ancient Roman province. Examples of this type include Britannia, Germania, Hibernia, Hispania, Helvetia and Polonia.
Examples of personifications of the Goddess of Liberty include Marianne, the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World), and many examples of United States coinage. Another ancient model was Roma, a female deity who personified the city of Rome and his dominion over the territories of the Roman Empire.[1]
Examples of representations of the everyman or citizenry in addition to the nation itself are Deutscher Michel, John Bull and Uncle Sam.[2]
Gallery
Iudaea Capta, "Conquered Judaea", commemorative coin issued by the Roman emperor Vespasian (left) after the Jewish War
Italia und Germania (1828) by Johann Friedrich Overbeck.
In this Allegory depicting the 1576 Pacification of Ghent by Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne, the seated women represent a short-lived unity among the embattled provinces of what would become the present-day Belgium and Netherlands
1909 cartoon in Puck shows (clockwise) US, Germany, Britain, France and Japan engaged in naval race in a "no limit" game.
Columbia depicted in an American Committee for Relief in the Near East poster defending an Armenian woman beneath her flag.
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Personifications by country or territory
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See also
- Afghanis-tan, a manga originally published as a webcomic about Central Asia with personified countries.
- Polandball, a contemporary form of national personification in which countries are drawn by Internet users as stereotypic balls and shared as comics on online communities.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers, an anime about personified countries interacting, mostly taking place within the World Wars.
- Mural crown
- National animal, often personifies a nation in cartoons.
- National emblem, for other metaphors for nations.
- National god, a deity that embodies a nation.
- National patron saint, a Saint that is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation.
References
Further reading
- Lionel Gossman. "Making of a Romantic Icon: The Religious Context of Friedrich Overbeck's 'Italia und Germania.'" American Philosophical Society, 2007. ISBN 0-87169-975-3. [1]
External links
