The End Of Singing Nationalism As Cultural Trauma
The End Of Singing Nationalism As Cultural Trauma'

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses how the Estonian Singing Nationalism as a counter-cultural system of values that served to protect national identity lost its raison d'être after the restoration of independent statehood, consequently bringing about the need for a substantial mental “inventory” and re-estimation of the Soviet past. This sudden and painful conflict where old values collide with a turbulent inflow of new ones is interpreted as a Cultural Trauma. By applying P. Sztompka’s typology of reactions to cultural trauma and A. Hirschmann’s exit-voice model, the authors outline four groups each employing different strategies for coping with the traumatic loss of the Singing Nationalism. The necessity of coping with the crumbling of former identities created a novel assessment of folk cultural activities, relating it with some fresh concepts of Estonian national identity in the global era.

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