Learning to laugh: satire and political thought in the Latvian ‘National Age’

ABSTRACT

Satiric publications are often recognized as an important part of the political communication of the nineteenth century. Their role, however, in the national ‘awakenings’ in central eastern Europe has been rarely addressed. This paper argues that satirical publications provide useful material for the research of the political ideology of early Latvian nationalism. The development of the ‘ethnic Other’ in the figure of the Bizmanis or ‘Plaitman,’ the invention of the ‘dumb minority,’ the Malenians, as well as the representation of imperial and provincial forces in animal fables illustrate the development of the political thinking of the emerging national movement.

KEYWORDS:

• Satire
• nationalism
• empire
• Young Latvians
• political thought
• history

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For example, Juris Alunāns’ letter to the leaseholder Rušmanis, which outlines the political platform of the Young Latvians and was preserved in the archives of the Tsarist authorities (Alunāns 1937).

2. For example, Atis Kronvalds’ conceptual treatise ‘The Love of Fatherland’ was already written in 1871, but published only in 1885 (Kronvalds 1936).

3. Although Hroch himself does not analyze the Latvians, his approach has already been used for this purpose (Raun and Plakans 1990; Wohlfart 2006; Zelče 2009).

4. According to the subscription statistics, in 1864 the largest groups of subscribers were (mostly rural) schoolteachers (17.68%), landowning peasants (11.08%), leaseholders (9.76%), and Lutheran clergymen (8.97%) (Zelče 2009, 431).

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Ivars Ījabs

Ivars Ījabs is an associate professor of political science at University of Latvia, Riga, where he teaches political theory and nationalism. His research interests include the history of political ideas in Baltic states, interethnic and intercultural relations.