Ilona Pikkanen

Linda Kaljundi

Eneken Laanes

This volume addresses the prominent, and in many ways highly similar, role that historical fiction has played in the formation of the two neighbouring 'young nations', Finland and Estonia. It gives a multi-sided overview of the function of the historical novel during different periods of Finnish and Estonian history from the 1800s until the present day, and it provides detailed close-readings of selected authors and literary trends in their social, political and cultural contexts. This book addresses nineteenth-century 'fictional foundations', historical fiction of the new nation states in the interwar period as well as post-Second World War Soviet Estonian novels and modern historiographic metafiction.

Historical Fiction and Cultural Memory in Finland and Estonia

Novels, Histories, Novel Nations

Since its emergence along with Western nationalism, historical fiction has been one of the key forms for constructing national histories - and it has not lost its importance even today. This volume highlights the cultural work historical fiction performed in Finland and Estonia ca. 1800-2000 in the ongoing articulation of national identities. This book comprises of a theoretical preface, a comparative survey of Finnish and Estonian historical fiction in their socio-political contexts, case studies by literary scholars and historians and a summary chapter by Ann Rigney that places Finnish and Estonian historical fiction in a broader European perspective. This volume is highly relevant to academics and students interested in cultural memory and nationalism studies at large. As one of the very few edited collections of comparative studies on Finnish and Estonian literature, it is also a must-read to those who study Finnish and Estonian subjects in particular. As the volume is situated in the cross-disciplinary field of cultural memory studies, it demonstrates that historical fiction is a stimulating research subject for various disciplines, including history, ethnology, cultural studies, art history and film studies. In all of these fields, this book is also suitable for students at different levels of study and as a reference guide.

Eneken Laanes

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