Casting the Ideal Past a Narratological Close Reading of Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä´S History of the Finnish Theatre Company (1906-1910)
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ILONA PIKKANEN Casting the Ideal Past a Narratological Close Reading of Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä´s History of the Finnish Theatre Company (1906-1910) ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the board of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities of the University of Tampere, for public discussion in the Auditorium Pinni B 1097, Kanslerinrinne 1, Tampere, on December 14th, 2012, at 12 o’clock. TAMPEREEN YLIOPISTO ACADEMIC DISSERTATION University of Tampere School of Social Sciences and Humanities Finland Copyright ©2012 Tampere University Press and the author Distribution Tel. +358 40 190 9800 Bookshop TAJU [email protected] P.O. Box 617 www.uta.fi/taju 33014 University of Tampere http://granum.uta.fi Finland Cover design by Mikko Reinikka Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1787 Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 1262 ISBN 978-951-44-8985-3 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-44-8986-0 (pdf) ISSN-L 1455-1616 ISSN 1456-954X ISSN 1455-1616 http://acta.uta.fi Tampereen Yliopistopaino Oy – Juvenes Print Tampere 2012 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................. 5 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 7 A HANDBOOK OF FINNISHNESS AND A TEXTBOOK OF CITIZENSHIP ........................................................ 7 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................................................... 13 Research tasks ............................................................................................................................................. 15 How to Read the History: the Method ............................................................................................... 20 The Possibilities and Limits of the Study .......................................................................................... 23 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: NARRATIVE AND NARRATIVITY .............................................................. 27 Literary Critical Approach to Narrative .......................................................................................... 29 History-writing and Narratology ........................................................................................................ 35 ANALYSING THE NARRATIVE OF THE HISTORY OF THE FINNISH THEATRE COMPANY .................... 48 The Tempo of the Historical Narrative ............................................................................................. 49 Telling the Story: the Author-Historian and the Narrator ....................................................... 52 The Spatial World: Stories, Plots and Narratives ......................................................................... 56 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................................................... 59 2 NINETEENTH CENTURY HISTORICAL CULTURE AND THE HISTORY OF THE FINNISH THEATRE COMPANY .................................................................................................. 62 MONUMENTS FOR THE NATION ................................................................................................................... 66 THE PROPORTIONS OF THE NATIONAL PAST ............................................................................................ 73 EARLY ACADEMIC HISTORY-WRITING ........................................................................................................ 77 DEFINITIONS OF FINNISHNESS AND THE NATIONAL HISTORY-WRITING ............................................ 81 THE CLUB WAR AND OTHER KEY PERIODS OF THE NATIONAL PAST .................................................. 88 THE MEANS FOR ’PERFECT AND UPLIFTING IMAGES’ ............................................................................. 92 3 THE IDEAL STORY-LINE AND ITS DIFFICULTIES ............................................................ 99 TITLES AND SUBTITLES: FIRST INTERPRETATIONS ................................................................................. 99 THE STORY-LINE AND ITS TURNS .............................................................................................................. 102 The Beginning: The Prehistorical Chain of Events ................................................................... 104 The Maturation: The Rise and Fall of the Finnish-Language Opera ................................ 110 The High Season or the Disintegrating Theatre ........................................................................ 117 The Ending: National Theatre and a Double Funeral ............................................................. 122 4 THE KEY EPISODES ................................................................................................................. 126 THEATRICAL EVENTS AND THEIR IDEAL AUDIENCE .............................................................................. 128 “A Play Fallen from Heaven” .............................................................................................................. 128 The Finnish Opera as a Continuous Performance ..................................................................... 130 The Enlightened Audience of Ibsen ................................................................................................. 133 The Foreign Admiration ....................................................................................................................... 134 Shakespeare and the Ideal Audience .............................................................................................. 136 HEROES AND VILLAINS OF THE STORY ..................................................................................................... 138 Pombal and the Jesuits and Other Dialogues .............................................................................. 139 Kaarlo Bergbom and his Followers ................................................................................................. 143 Kaarlo Bergbom in Paris ...................................................................................................................... 145 The Unfaithful Prima Donna .............................................................................................................. 148 Gustaf von Numers in Court ................................................................................................................ 151 Minna Canth´s Uncontrollable Passion .......................................................................................... 154 The Savaged and Lacerated Theatre .............................................................................................. 163 The Arrival of Topelius .......................................................................................................................... 165 TOWARDS A BRIGHT FUTURE ..................................................................................................................... 175 The “Troublesome Fuss” or the Underdog Theatre .................................................................. 176 3 In the Corridors of the New Premises ............................................................................................. 177 A Tribute to the Bergboms .................................................................................................................. 181 HISTORICAL REPRESENTATION AND ITS FICTIONS ................................................................................ 182 5 THE VOCABULARY OF NATIONALISM .............................................................................. 188 THE HOME OF THE NATIONAL ART .......................................................................................................... 191 THE IRONIC LOOK ......................................................................................................................................... 196 THE RHETORIC OF SACRIFICE ..................................................................................................................... 198 A PATRIOTIC, ORIGINAL AND NATIONAL THEATRE ............................................................................... 203 TEXTUAL ACTS FOR COHERENCE AND UNITY ......................................................................................... 205 6 THE SOURCES AND THE VOICE ........................................................................................... 208 A NARRATIVE SATURATED WITH SOURCES ............................................................................................. 212 THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ACT AND THE PAST REPRESENTED ........................................................... 216 THE FRINGES OF THE NARRATIVE ............................................................................................................. 224 SELECTION AND RESIDUE ............................................................................................................................ 229 The Theatre Company Looking for Enthusiasm ........................................................................ 233 The Problem of Lea ................................................................................................................................. 235 The Place of the Actors in the Theatre History ........................................................................... 239 THE SELECTED SOURCES OF THE