The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands
The Orthodox island monastery of Valaam in Russian Karelia is today a popular destination for Finnish tourists visiting Russia’s western borderlands. Many of these tourists are descendants of the Karelians who had evacuated the area following World War II. The monastery’s institutionally sanctioned...
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Suomen Maantieteellinen Seura,Geographical Society of Finland
2013
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Online Access: | http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26648/ https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26648/1/PubSub3987_Mikula.pdf https://doi.org/10.11143/7031 |
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ftnottinghtrentu:oai:irep.ntu.ac.uk:26648 2024-04-21T08:06:27+00:00 The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands Mikula, M 2013 text http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26648/ https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26648/1/PubSub3987_Mikula.pdf https://doi.org/10.11143/7031 en eng Suomen Maantieteellinen Seura,Geographical Society of Finland https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26648/1/PubSub3987_Mikula.pdf MIKULA, M., 2013. The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands. Fennia, 191 (1), pp. 14-24. ISSN 1798-5617 doi:10.11143/7031 Article NonPeerReviewed 2013 ftnottinghtrentu https://doi.org/10.11143/7031 2024-03-28T00:39:59Z The Orthodox island monastery of Valaam in Russian Karelia is today a popular destination for Finnish tourists visiting Russia’s western borderlands. Many of these tourists are descendants of the Karelians who had evacuated the area following World War II. The monastery’s institutionally sanctioned genealogies construct it as the civilizing force, which had brought Christian enlightenment to the local heathen population. This discursive template is played out in the way the place is presented to visitors, with each highlight telling a carefully constructed story that promotes the monastery’s significance for the Russian religious and national identity. Yet, drawing on lived experience, as well as on popular culture, family lore and meanings from collective memory, the Finnish visitors break the monolithic official discourse and produce a complex "thirdspace" in their own measure. This paper is based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews conducted during a homeland visit to Ladogan Karelia in June 2010 Article in Journal/Newspaper karelians Nottingham Trent University's Institutional Repository (IRep) Fennia – International Journal of Geography 14 24 |
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Nottingham Trent University's Institutional Repository (IRep) |
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English |
description |
The Orthodox island monastery of Valaam in Russian Karelia is today a popular destination for Finnish tourists visiting Russia’s western borderlands. Many of these tourists are descendants of the Karelians who had evacuated the area following World War II. The monastery’s institutionally sanctioned genealogies construct it as the civilizing force, which had brought Christian enlightenment to the local heathen population. This discursive template is played out in the way the place is presented to visitors, with each highlight telling a carefully constructed story that promotes the monastery’s significance for the Russian religious and national identity. Yet, drawing on lived experience, as well as on popular culture, family lore and meanings from collective memory, the Finnish visitors break the monolithic official discourse and produce a complex "thirdspace" in their own measure. This paper is based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews conducted during a homeland visit to Ladogan Karelia in June 2010 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mikula, M |
spellingShingle |
Mikula, M The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands |
author_facet |
Mikula, M |
author_sort |
Mikula, M |
title |
The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands |
title_short |
The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands |
title_full |
The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands |
title_fullStr |
The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands |
title_full_unstemmed |
The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands |
title_sort |
island monastery of valaam in finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "thirdspace" in the russian borderlands |
publisher |
Suomen Maantieteellinen Seura,Geographical Society of Finland |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26648/ https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26648/1/PubSub3987_Mikula.pdf https://doi.org/10.11143/7031 |
genre |
karelians |
genre_facet |
karelians |
op_relation |
https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26648/1/PubSub3987_Mikula.pdf MIKULA, M., 2013. The island monastery of Valaam in Finnish homeland tourism: constructing a "Thirdspace" in the Russian borderlands. Fennia, 191 (1), pp. 14-24. ISSN 1798-5617 doi:10.11143/7031 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.11143/7031 |
container_title |
Fennia – International Journal of Geography |
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14 |
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24 |
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