History, the historical novel and nation. The first finnish historical novels as national narrative

Abstract

An active construction of the national identity in Finland started in the 1840s. A primary activity was the creation of the national narrative in fictional works. The novels now published were - unlike the dominant epical genre - able to present the national feeling in a modern nationalistic way. Especially the historical novel was the first nationally coloured literary genre in many European countries. It is focal for the forming of a group identity to describe a common prehistory that legitimates the present. The first historical novels in Finland saw daylight in the works of Zacharias Topelius and Fredrika Runeberg. My research looks at the ways their novels present and construct the national historical narrative. Both authors feature a similar idea of the Finnish nation and its birth, but they handle it differently. Topelius writes more about the political history of distinguished men while Runeberg looks at history from a viewpoint that is nearer the everyday life and the common people.