Material Cultures

Despite the enormous amount of material on the subject of Nazism, there has been no substantial work on its emblem, the swastika. This original and controversial contribution looks at the popular appeal of the archaic image of the swastika: the tradition of the symbol. Taking as its starting point its use in the twentieth century as self-representation and "mass mnemonic" by Nazism, it is examined as a symbolic phenomenon in a cultural context. Its echoes can be detected not only in "new right" movements in Europe, but also in the rhetoric of corporate design. By identifying the swastika as a trigger image Malcolm Quinn allies visual sense to issues of material culture and history. He shows how in this century, in particular, the atavistic, talismanic swastika appeared in sharper and more grotesque relief. In a micro-historical investigation embracing archaeology, symbolic anthropology and the history of art, this book shows how the swastika first became connected to a race theory in the nineteenth century, and then in Nazism became a sign threatening a colonisation of both East and West. It also suggests ways in which Nazism might be explained or represented by the swastika, showing how the creation of a symbol was linked to the construction of the symbolic identities of nation, speech and race.