Historical Culture and the Mediated Narratives of Nation

Academic history is only one of the many forms of mediating history. Popular practices, suchas entertainment, identity projects and policy justifications often have a more effective role inhistorical culture than academic history. Public traditions, such as national commemorations arethe central scenes of historical culture. They call for a discussion of the essence of nations andnationalism in the public sphere. During globalisation and the rise of multiculturalism, national histories are increasingly saidto be a ‘broken mirror’: there are several and contested narratives about a nation. On the otherhand, there is also a strong tendency to emphasise and reinforce national ‘master narratives’among nations evoked by social-national conservatism and the overall rise of populistnationalism. This essay discusses what role historical culture and historical consciousness plays in thenarrating of a nation. The starting point here is Finnish historical culture. The essay suggests approaches how to study historical culture from a perspective that takes into account theproduction as well as the reception context of historical culture in narrating nation. It calls forstudies that analyse the relationship between academic history and other forms of historicalculture, namely media representation of history. The essay emphasises the importance ofmediated and aesthetic forms of historical culture in creating a view of the history of a nation