Dec 24, 2009

Kalevala | Topics for Further Study

Various political factions have re-interpreted the Kalevala to suit their own ideological purposes. What elements of the Kalevala lend themselves to a political interpretation? How could both the political left and right use the same work of literature as a rallying point? Can the Finnish political parties' use of the Kalevala be compared to the Nazi propagandists' use of Nibelungenlied mythology during the 1930s and 40s? Do you know of analogous situations in other countries, where a work of imaginative literature has been pressed into the service of...