CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Meiorg, Marianne |
|---|---|
| Title | Gender and Nation in Recent Estonian Historiography |
| Summary | The thesis analyses recent Estonian historiography in the period of the Estonian national movement from 1905 to 1918. In particular, I analyse sections from two texts, one representing an outsider’s view of Estonian history, the author being a Finnish historian, and the other representing an insider’s view, being compiled by a group of Estonian historians. The aim is to investigate the role gender plays in these historical narratives. I draw on the theoretical framework by Joan Scott and other feminist scholars who have analysed gender in the construction of nation, in particular. The analysis shows how the text by Estonian authors, which (re)creates Estonian national narrative, is (re)constructing Estonian national identity as masculine, constructed in a binary relationship with femininity and a certain, less desirable masculinity. The text does so by relying on the (heterosexual) familial iconography, whereby a paternal figure, representing hegemonic masculinity, is the head of the family, leading, guiding and protecting the wife/mother and the children. In the same text by Estonian historians, hegemonic masculinity is represented by the male leaders of the national movement, who are presented as active, progressive, independent and self-sufficient, intelligent, peaceful, and ethical. This positive image is created in contrast to the feminised image of the Baltic-Germans, who ruled the territory that later became Estonia for 700 years, and the image of (tsarist) Russians as aggressively masculine, images that are somewhat complicated in the other text I analysed, by the Finnish historian. The text by the Estonian historians largely portrays women and feminised Baltic-Germans as helpless and passive, in need of a paternal figure. Due to the association of socialism with Russia, the Estonian socialist movement is depicted as aggressively masculine. The language of sexual difference also defined the Baltic-Germans as a non-threat while Russians are constructed as an ongoing threat that must be constrained, along with the socialist movement. |
| Supervisor | Francisca de Haan (primary); Carla Rodríguez González (secondary) |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/meiorg_marianne.pdf |
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