Motherless Girls and the Orphan Myth in the Making of Nation: The Gendered Representation of a Nation in the Repertoire of the Finnish Theatre Company, 1872–76

Abstract

In this article, I argue that orphanhood and motherlessness as presented in drama reinforce the gendered representations used in nationalist processes. I examine the plays presented by the Finnish Theatre Company (founded by the Finnish nationalists in 1872) in 1872–76 and analyse their contribution to the gendering of the nation. In Finland, the idea of collective nationality was established during the nineteenth century by defining an ideal ‘Finnishness’ and creating ‘national’ imagery, especially through the arts. One of the most enduring representations was the embodiment of Finland, the Finnish Maid. As the theatre was one of the nationalist’s central institutions, I argue that it had a strong role in producing imagery for their uses, and that its early repertoire reinforced the gendered representation of the nation, emphasising youth and virginity as its main features. The study’s focus is on orphanhood and motherlessness as vehicles for intensifying the feminine representation of nationality. The ubiquity of orphan girl characters and the absence of mothers emphasise the sexual metaphor of a defenceless virgin, the notions of ‘true’ origin and the nuclear family as a scale model of the nation. Simultaneously the representations naturalise the gender categorisations established in the Western cultures during the nineteenth century.