Kalevala | The Kalevala
In the following excerpt, Rexroth examines reasons that the Kalevala has endured as a work of literature that still has meaning for modern readers.
Philosophical critics in the nineteenth century decided that a culture is most solidly based on a great epic which incorporates all the prime factors in the national or folk consciousness—or "unconscious." There is a whole nest of very disputable assumptions hidden here. First, that Greek culture was solidly based. It was not. Its glory was in its dynamic equilibrium—which was short-lived. National consciousness does not come from the Nibelungenlied or The Iliad. It is an intellectual notion, born with the nation-state, which came to fruition with the State as an Armed...
[The entire page is 1533 words long]
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