Postcolonial Reflections on Azerbaijani Identity: Insights from a Public Podcast Discourse
Abstract
Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Central Asian national identities resurged. This article explores the meanings of Azerbaijani national identity over the last three decades, utilising a non-traditional data source, public podcast episodes. Using Kulkov’s Seven-Step Methodological Guide, this study reveals unique insights underscoring the importance of local epistemologies in reshaping national identities in postcolonial societies such as Azerbaijan. Drawing on Bhabha’s concepts of hybridity, ambivalence, and mimicry, Alatas’s notion of intellectual imperialism, and Brubaker’s binary of civic and ethnic nationalism, the paper examines how Azerbaijani identity is constructed in the post-Soviet period. Thematic analysis revealed three primary themes. (1) Confusion over terminology, which shows that, despite the formal end of colonial rule, ex-colonised societies such as Azerbaijan continue to use deeply rooted colonial concepts and colonial language leftovers, which still shape public discourse on national identity. (2) Azerbaijani national identity is analysed through the concept of the civic and ethnic nationalism binary, demonstrating that neither concept alone is sufficient, and Azerbaijani identity emerges as a hybrid form. (3) The theme of colonialism explores how colonial knowledge production continues to affect identity formation today, particularly through mimicry.
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References
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