Choosing Influences: Problems of Reception in Creating a National Theatre
Choosing Influences: Problems of Reception in Creating a National Theatre

Summary/Abstract: Like all national movements of the 19th century, the Estonian national awakening cherished cultural originality, putting a high premium on local traits. The guiding light, at least in theory, was Johann Gottfried von Herder’s idea of a unique national spirit informing all artistic expressions of a particular people. The birth and flowering of that spirit was invariably imagined to have taken place somewhere in the distant past, and later periods were usually treated as times of contaminating foreign influences that had brought about the disintegration of a once harmonious and unified national culture. Only remnants of the former glory could still be salvaged from folklore.[…]

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