The Estonian song celebration (Laulupidu) as an instrument of language policy

ABSTRACT

There is an established body of literature surveying the role of language policy in identity construction. This paper exposes an angle that has been understudied. It suggests that national song festivals may be seen as a tool of ‘implicit’ language policy in Estonia. Informed by expert interviews and ethnographic, this study explores the tensions arising from the dual function of the festival. On the one hand, it sustains the language as the central ethnic-national attribute of Estonians. On the other hand, the ‘affective solidarity’ stemming from joint singing could support a stronger civic attachment to the language and state (by Russian-speaking minorities).

KEYWORDS:

• Song celebration
• song festival
• choral singing
• joint singing
• Estonia
• language policy
• national identity
• Laulupidu

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Abel Polese and anonymous reviewers for commenting on an earlier draft of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Singing Revolution is a term commonly used to refer to a series of events and political actions between 1986 and 1991 undertaken by Balts with the goal of democratization and political, economic, and cultural restoration of independence (cf. Raun 2002). Its orgins must be sought in Gobrachev’s perestroika and glasnost, which made the public discussion of Soviet shortcomings and threats possible. Mass singing of national songs accompanied political rallies and gave the movement its name (cf. Šmidchens 1996, 2014).

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the REA/EC under the Marie Curie programme [grant number MCA-ITN-2012-TENSIONS].

Notes on contributors

Emilia Pawłusz

Emilia Pawłusz is an early stage researcher in the Marie Curie Initial Training Network Programme in the School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University. She obtained her M.A. in sociology and social anthropology in 2011 from the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland. She was a visiting researcher from 2012 to 2014 with the Swedish Institute Visby Programme at the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies at Södertörn University in Sweden. Her fields of interest include Baltic choral singing, nation building in CEE, and visual anthropology.