Introduction

It is no accident that interest in folk heritage coincided with the period of Romantic nationalism in Europe. From the very start the search for national origins and national identity was inextricably linked with a desire to uncover the 'authentic' culture of the people. To this day, stories, myths and traditions play an important role in providing a sense of national community, identity and belonging, though this has become more complex and controversial in an era of mass migration and multiculturalism.

In this seminar we will examine the links between folklore and nationalism and the ways in which folklore has been used and abused in the development and articulation of European national identities.

Seminar Questions

• Why was folklore so important to the Romantic nationalists of 19th century Europe?
• What is the relationship between folklore and the nation today?

Required Reading

Baycroft, Timothy, 'Introduction' in Timothy Baycroft and David Hopkin, eds, Folklore and Nationalism in Europe during the Long Nineteenth CenturyLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Leiden, 2012)

Gunnell, Terry, 'Grimm Ripples: The Role of the Grimms' Deutsche Sagen in the Collection and Creation of National Folk Narratives in Northern Europe', in Matthew Cheeseman and Carina Hart, eds, Folklore and Nation in Britain and IrelandLink opens in a new window, (London, 2022), 22-47

Wilson, William A., 'Folklore, Nationalism and the Challenge of the Future' in William A. Wilson, The Marrow of Human Experience: Essays on FolkloreLink opens in a new window (Logan, UT, 2006)

Further Reading

Anglickiene, Laima and Klavinska, Antra, 'The Image of the German, the Pole, the Latvian, and the Lithuanian in Lithuanian and Latvian Folklore', Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore, Vol. 84 (2021), pp. 50-76 Link opens in a new window

Aguilar, Jessika, Folklore and the Construction of National Identity in Nineteenth Century Russian Literature (Ann Arbour, 2016)Link opens in a new window

Anttonen, Pertti J., Tradition through Modernity: Postmodernism and the Nation-State in Folklore Scholarship (Helsinki, 2005)Link opens in a new window

Baycroft, Timothy and Hopkin, David (eds.), Folklore and Nationalism in Europe during the Long Nineteenth Century (Leiden, 2012)Link opens in a new window

Bendix, Regina, In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies (Madison, WI, 1997)

Davies, Norman, 'Polish National Mythologies' in Hosking, G. and Schöpflin, G. (eds.) Myths and nationhood (London, 1997)

De Francesco, Antonio, The antiquity of the Italian nation: the cultural origins of political myth in modern Italy, 1796-1943 (Oxford, 2014)Link opens in a new window

Fulbrook, Mary, 'Myth-Making and National Identity: The Case of the GDR' in Hosking, G. and Schöpflin, G. (eds.) Myths and nationhood (London, 1997)

Gibson, Marion, Shelley Trower and Garry Tregidga, eds, Mysticism, Myth and Celtic Identity (London, 2013)Link opens in a new window

Halink, Simon, ed., Northern Myths, Modern Identities: The Nationalisation of Northern Mythologies since 1800 (Leiden, 2019)Link opens in a new window
Pavel Horak, 'Discovering Slavic Mythology between East and West: Folklore Research and the Pagan Past in the Service of Nation-Building', Folklore, Vol. 133, No. 4 (2022), pp. 463-286Link opens in a new window

Ivantis, Linda J., Russian Folk Belief (Abingdon, 2015)Link opens in a new window

McCain, Stewart, Our Ancestors were not Celts: History, Folklore and the Celtic Past in Napoleonic France', European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, (2022)Link opens in a new window

Mandler, Peter, ‘“Race” and “Nation” in mid-Victorian Thought’ in Stefan Collini; Richard Whatmore; B. W. Young (eds.), History, religion, and culture: British intellectual history 1750-1950 (London, 2000)

Oergel, Maike, 'The Redeeming Teuton: Nineteenth-Century Notions of the "Germanic" in England and Germany' in Cubitt, Geoffrey (ed.), Imagining nations (Manchester, 1998)Link opens in a new window

• Oergel, Maike, The Return of King Arthur and the Nibelungen: National Myth in Nineteenth-Century English and German Literature (Berlin, 2010)Link opens in a new window

Polese, Abel, ed., Identity and Nation Building in Everyday Post-Socialist Life (London, 2017)Link opens in a new window

Putelis, Aldis, 'Folklore and Identity: The Situation of Latvia', Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore, No. 4 (1997), pp. 61-76Link opens in a new window

Remmel, Atko and Jonuks, Tonno, 'From Nature Romanticism to Eco-Nationalism: The Development of the Cponcept of Estonians as a Forest Nation', Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore, Vol. 81 (2021), pp. 34-62Link opens in a new window

Trevor-Roper, Hugh, The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History (New Haven, 2008)Link opens in a new window

Wilson, Andrew, 'Myths of National History in Belarus and Ukraine' in Hosking, G. and Schöpflin, G. (eds.) Myths and nationhood (London, 1997)Logan, UT, 2006), Chapters

Wilson, William A., 'Herder, Folklore and Romantic Nationalism' in Wilson, William A., The marrow of human experience: essays on folklore (Logan, UT, 2006)Link opens in a new window

Wilson, William A., 'Sibelius, the Kalevala and Karelianism' in Wilson, William A., The marrow of human experience: essays on folklore (Logan, UT, 2006)Link opens in a new window

Wilson, William A., Folklore and Nationalism in Finland (Bloomington, 1976)Link opens in a new window

Electronic Resources

'The Brothers Grimm', In Our Time (BBC Radio 4, 5/2/09)Link opens in a new window

'The Kalevala: the Finnish epic that inspired a nation', The Forum (BBC World Service, 22/2/21)Link opens in a new window

'The Kalevala: Finland's National Epic', BBC Radio 4 (2/1/10)Link opens in a new window

'My Albion', BBC Radio 4 (Nov. 2020)Link opens in a new window

The Singing RevolutionLink opens in a new window, dir. by James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty (Mountain View Productions, et al., 2006)