„Kalevipoeg and Lačplēsi”s: The Way We Imagine our Communities. A Sociological Reading of Estonian and Latvian Epics  Cover Image

„Kalevipoeg and Lačplēsi”s: The Way We Imagine our Communities. A Sociological Reading of Estonian and Latvian Epics
„Kalevipoeg and Lačplēsi”s: The Way We Imagine our Communities. A Sociological Reading of Estonian and Latvian Epics

Author(s): Sergei Kruks
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus

Summary/Abstract: It is common in Latvia to reiterate the difference with the Estonian way of social change manifest despite similar the cultural, religious, and historical background of the two neighbour nations. I would argue that the differences are due to a distinct “imagination of communities”. The epics are peculiar signs of the 19th century ethnic “awakening”, attempts to blueprint the social. Since then both epics have become the national mythomoteurs, reservoirs of symbolic material greatly influencing the subsequent sociocultural development. A recent Latvian school textbook affirms directly: “[Lāčplēsis’s] name serves as a standard for all of us” (Literatūra 1996: 95). Analysis of the epics might reveal the “political unconscious” (Jameson 1981) and provide an interpretation of the contemporary questions.[...]

  • Issue Year: VIII/2003
  • Issue No: 8
  • Page Range: 227-246
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: English