How Theatre Became a Tool for Nation-Building in Early Finland
A new historical study reveals how Swedish actors migrating to Finland in the late 1800s shaped national identity through language and performance. The research shows how cultural institutions—not just politics—drive nation-building, offering insights for policymakers considering cultural soft power and the role of arts in identity formation.
Originaltitel: Transnationality: An Advantage or a Hindrance for a Career in Theatre? Swedish Actors in Finland, the Struggle for National Independence, and the Question of Language on Stage
<p>In a time of rising nationalism and the struggle for independence in Finland at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, theatre became a popular tool for the introduction of a transnational and bilingual identity encompassing Finnish and Swedish as stage languages. Because the Finland-Swedish variant of Swedish had long been dismissed as not being a proper stage language, native Swedish actors were engaged to ‘purify’ the Swedish language on Finland’s stages and help gain acceptance for bilingual theatres. Several of these actors and actresses migrated from Sweden to Finland and became part of the development of the Swedish-speaking theatre. This chapter follows two of these Swedish actors, who were both engaged at the Swedish-speaking national theatre in Helsinki (Svenska Teatern): Ernst Ahlbom and Karin Swanström. Their professional biographies are—as will be shown—a testament to both the transnational character of Scandinavia at the time and the parallel process of nation-building and the construction of national imaginaries through and within the theatre.</p>