This book explores how states in political transition use stamps to promote a new visual nationalism.
Stamps as products of the state and provide small pieces of information about a state’s heritage, culture, economies and place in the world. These depictions change over time, reflecting political and cultural changes and developments. The volume explores the transition times in more than a dozen countries from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe. Specifically addressed are the stamp topics, issues and themes in the years before and after such major changes occurred, for example, from a European colony to political independence or from a dictatorship to democracy. The authors compare the personalities, histories, and cultural representations "before" the transition period and how the state used the "after" event to define or redefine its place on the world political map. The final three chapters consider international themes on many stamp issues, one being stamps with Disney cartoon characters, another on "themeless" Forever stamps, and the third on states celebrating women and their accomplishments.
This volume has wide interdisciplinary relevance and should prove of particular interest to those studying geopolitics, political transition, visual nationalism, soft power and visual representations of decolonializing.
Introduction: Stamps as symbols of a visual nationalism
Stanley D. Brunn
Chapter 1—Images, semiotics and political transitions: Case studies of first issues from eight nations
James H. Grayson
Chapter 2—Using China’s stamp issues to document economic and political changes
Juncheng Dai and Stanley D. Brunn
Chapter 3—Post-liberation Korea – The first postage stamps: A comparative semiotic study of nation building in North and South Korea
James H. Grayson
Chapter 4—From the Netherlands East Indies to Indonesia: A philatelic iconography of political upheaval
Ton Dietz, Ot Louw and Arie Zonjee
Chapter 5—Kazakhstan’s first twenty-five years of postage stamps: Highlighting nature, nationalism, and selective Soviet memory
Kristopher D. White
Chapter 6—Imaging political turmoil through postage stamps in the heart of Africa: Congo/Zaire 1950-1971 from colonialism to national identity
Ton Dietz and Patience Kabamba
Chapter 7—Couriers of change: The semiotics of Senegalese postage stamps
Karen S. Barton
Chapter 8—"Non!" visible: How Guinée stamped its political leadership on Africa's decolonization, 1958-1962
Jan Jansen
Chapter 9—Three marked transitions in Ethiopia’s stamp issues: 1960s to present
Elyas Abdulahi Mahmoued and Habtamu Girma Demiessie
Chapter 10—Transitions in postage stamp iconography: From apartheid to democracy in South Africa
Manfred Spocter
Chapter 11—From UN-mandated territory to independent Namibia
Stephen Rule
Chapter 12—Mauritius and its politics on stamps, 1958-1977
Ton Dietz
Chapter 13—History as stamped by postage stamps: Poland’s transitions in the 20th century
Agnieszka Świętek
Chapter 14—Estonia on stamps: Abrupt and smooth periods of political transition
Jussi S. Jauhiainen and Taavi Pae
Chapter 15—The breakup of Yugoslavia: Territorial disintegration and political transition documented through images on stamps, 1986-2010
Anton Gosar
Chapter 16—Postage stamps as political transition and integration: The case of North Cyprus Europa stamps 1975 and 1998
Dilan Çiftçi
Chapter 17—Stamps of the Palestinian Authority: Asserting national identity while under occupation, 1994-2019
Calvin H. Allen, Jr.
Chapter 18—Cuba: The evolution of revolutionary stamps
Charles O. Collins
Chapter 19—Local political upheaval and global cultural appropriation: The postage stamps of Grenada, 1974-1988
Thomas L. Bell and James Senn
Chapter 20—Cartooning islands for fun and profit: The proliferation of Disney stamps
William Silvester
Chapter 21—Reading contemporary America through Forever stamp themes: A visual analysis and interpretation
Donna Gilbreath
Chapter 22—Feminine philately: Global unevenness in celebrating women on stamps
Stanley D. Brunn
Biography
Stanley D. Brunn is Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA.
