Rajamaa ja häviämisen mielenmaisema

Kuvastotulkintaa Transilvaniasta ja Karjalasta1

Abstract

The subject of our study is the landscape representations
of two mythical provinces, claimed to
be part of the national cultural heritage. Romanian
Transylvania (in Romanian Ardeal, in Hungarian Erdély,
in German Siebenbürgen) is compared with
the formerly Finnish part of Karelia now belonging
to Russia. Both regions are ever changing interfaces
which define landscape as a part of the national
narrative. Landscape representations from both
ceded areas are mutually compared. Our analysis
is based on popular accounts and documentary
works. We describe the transboundary discourse
of the past decades using the concept of landscape
reading. Heritage appears to be produced by textual
interpretation especially when the main objective is
to rearticulate the meanings of religious landscape.
The past still becomes framed as national or ethnic,
which maintains the image of the Eastern neighbour
as an Other. Portrayals of landscape changes
are based on vanishing buildings. Being faced with
relics activates collective remembrance of loss and
expectations of justifications for history in the form
of heritage safeguard.