Re: Imaginaries

On Sat, 01 Aug 2026 11:15:11 +0200, Steve Hayes
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Can anyone give me a definition of "imaginaries"?
>
>I've just come across it in a book, and I recall coming across it in a
>book I was editing a couple of years ago. I made enquiries at the
>time, and thought I had made a not ofn it, but could not find my note.

Thanks to all who replied (mainly in alt.usage.english, to which I
have therefore set follow-ups) and pointed me to sources of more
information. 

I've now found something that is possibly related -- Benedict Anderson
used the term "imagined communities" primarily in relation to
nationalism. 

For him the "nation" was a social construct, an imagined community
whose members did not know each other. 

This helped me to understand another usage that has often puzzled me
-- when people speak of people who have one characteristic in common
as being a "community" -- for example "the deaf community", "the gay
community" or "the white community". 

I have met gay people who hang out with other gay people, and so have
formed what could be called "a gay community" (with the indefinite
article), but they are not "the gay community".

I have been classified as "white" in the sense of being part of the
white population group, but I in no way see myself as being a member
of any "white community", but no doubt there are some white
supremacists who imagine that there is such a thing, and so it is an
"imagined community", or perhaps just an "imaginary". 


-- 
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web:  http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk