Seeing the war through a Finnish lens representation and affect in the World War II photographic heritage

Dissertation, University of Oulu, 2022

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. Verfasser: Matila, Tuuli (VerfasserIn)
Format: UnknownFormat
Sprache:eng
Veröffentlicht: Oulu University of Oulu 2022
Schriftenreihe:Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. B, Humaniora 195
Schlagworte:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Dissertation, University of Oulu, 2022
"Feelings and photography have both been neglected to some degree in heritage research. This is the case both internationally and locally in Finland, where my research was conducted. In this dissertation, I examine one Finnish photograph collection from World War II and trace the photographs’ uses in various heritage contexts. I examine cultural representations of the war in both museums and social media, which I interpret here as an amateur heritage engagement with wartime images. Feelings are an integral part of engaging with visuals, as they are in any other heritage encounter. The purpose of my research is therefore twofold: On the one hand, I examine how the wars are represented; on the other, I examine how images influence the viewer’s emotions. I apply visual methods to study representations of the war and phenomenological methodology to examine the images’ affects. By doing so, I hope to show that studies of representation alone do not account for the entirety of a photographic encounter. I wish to argue that the difficult emotions caused by facing dark histories are not to be feared but can provoke useful discussions of Finnish identity and history. Such difficult histories include Finnish cooperation with the Nazis in the Continuation War (1941–1944) and the imprisonment of Soviet Russian civilians in concentration camps in East Karelia under Finnish rule. Finns have also shied from a critical examination of their relationship with the Holocaust, for example. The images’ power to influence viewers can be used for more inclusive narratives of the Finnish national character and to challenge some of the cultural myths surrounding the wars. Perceptions of Finnish masculinity especially seem to draw a lot from the wartime generation’s imagined qualities. Visual representation plays a significant role in producing these stereotypes [...]."
Beschreibung:140 Seiten, 96 Seiten mit verschiedenen Seitenzählungen
26 cm
ISBN:9789526232782
978-952-62-3278-2