Historical re-enactment: narrativity, affect and the sublime

Abstract

The Karelian Evacuation Trail is an annual re-enactment event which commemorates the uprooting of the Finno-Karelian population from their homeland in present-day Russia, and their resettlement in residual Finland in the aftermath of the Second World War. Initiated in 2006 by the Society of Children Displaced by the War, the Trail has since been held annually, each time in a different municipality in Southern Finland. In the Evacuation Trail, plot lines derived from family traditions and national literature act as a Gestalt, within which the empirical phenomena gained via sensorial stimuli are perceived. The embodied experience generates a sublime effect and a grounding sense of community among the participants. Based on my case study, I argue that inter-subjective co-creation through embodied performance provides a more inclusive alternative to the institution of ‘branded authorship’ prevalent in modernist historiography. It is particularly well suited for representing postmodern collectivities, traumatised by major displacements and destabilised by social change and the far-reaching ‘dispersal’ and ‘disembodiment’ of contemporary media.

Keywords::

• Karelia
• Finland
• re-enactment
• narrativity
• affect
• inter-subjectivity
• sublime
• authorship

Notes

^1. According to the organisers, close to 500 people participated in the 2014 Trail in Virolahti (evakkovaellus.fi).

^2. Some of the interviews were conducted in the Finnish language, and subsequently transcribed and translated into English; others were originally conducted in English and then transcribed. I am thankful to my husband, Toivo Talikka, whose help, support and overall enthusiasm for the project have been invaluable. A video I produced of the Kangasala event is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v = PPCX_Y002mw

^3. Kantele is the traditional Finnish string instrument, similar to harp and typically made of birchwood.

^4. The Society, which stands behind the Karelian Evacuation Trail, was founded in 2002 in Vihti, Southern Finland.

^5. The term used in psychoanalysis to denote this method of dealing with trauma is ‘abreaction’ (German, Abreagieren) (Freud and Breuer 2004, 13).

^6. In particular, the refusal of the Swedish-speaking areas to accommodate the evacuees is sometimes still seen as a ‘way of selfishly escaping responsibility’ (Engman 1995, 237).

^7. Liuksiala was Gustav Vasa's (king of Sweden 1523–1560) cattle manor in the early 1500s. The wife of Eric XIV, Karin Månsdotter (Finnish, Kaarina Maununtytär), was given the manor as a donation in 1577. She lived there until her death in 1612. The manor has been in the possession of the Meurman family since 1821.

^8. The Lottas were the Finnish women's auxiliary corps, specialising in social assistance, educational activities, civil defence and, most importantly, support to the military on the frontline. They were named after Lotta Svärd, a fictional character from Runeberg's The Tales of Ensign Stål ([1848] 1952), who cared for the Finnish soldiers in the Finnish War of 1808–1809. Charged as a fascist organisation by the Soviet Union, the Lottas were abolished in the wake of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947.

^9. Following Foucault (1984), I use the term to refer to a name ‘attached’ to a particular discourse, which legitimises its circulation within a society.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union under the FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IIF programme. The beginning stages of research were completed under the auspices of the University of Technology Sydney.

Notes on contributors

Maja Mikula

Having taught extensively in the International Studies and Cultural Studies programmes at the University of Technology Sydney, Maja Mikula is currently based at the School of Arts and Humanities, as a beneficiary of a Marie Curie Incoming International Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IIF). Maja's most recent publications include ‘The Island Monastery of Valaam in Finnish Homeland Tourism: Constructing a “Thirdspace” in the Russian Borderlands’ (Fennia – International Journal of Geography, 2013), Highways of Desire: Cross-Border Shopping in Former Yugoslavia, 1960s–1980s (CEU Press, 2010) and a compendium of Key Concepts in Cultural Studies (Palgrave MacMillan, 2008).