Ilona Pikkanen | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

The main question of the study is how the Finnish nation was written at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the midst of political, social and cultural changes, by writing about the recent history of the Finnish-language theatre. The study analyses professor Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä´s paradigmatic work, The History of the Finnish Theatre Company, published 1906–1910. The concepts and methods offered by narrative analysis and, to be more precise, by historiographical narratology provided the best tools to do the kind of close reading suggested in the study.

Formulating the question accordingly points to a textualist approach, which sees language not only as an object of contemplation and communication but also as an instrument of action and power. The study asks, how do we actually do history and why the results look as they do? In other words, it is set in the theoretical field of inquiry interested in the questions of historical discourses and the intertextual field of history-writing within which these discourses are formed.

Through a close reading of a major, official historical narrative the study contributes both to the history of history-writing in Finland and to the understanding of the nationalistic discourse around the turn of the century. Aspelin-Haapkylä´s Theatre History is a good example of nationalistic history-writing and as such perhaps of interest outside the disciplinary confines of the theatre studies or the national borders of Finland.