Open AccessVisual Stereotypes of Tatars in the Finnish Press from the 1880s to the 1910s
Author(s) -
Ainur Elmgren
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
studia orientalia electronica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2323-5209
DOI - 10.23993/store.82942
Subject(s) - empire , intelligentsia , politics , covert , tatar , peasant , shadow (psychology) , criticism , history , newspaper , sociology , literature , media studies , law , art , political science , ancient history , psychology , linguistics , philosophy , psychotherapist
Visual stereotypes constitute a set of tropes through which the Other is described and depicted to anaudience, who perhaps never will encounter the individuals that those tropes purport to represent.Upon the arrival of Muslim Tatar traders in Finland in the late nineteenth century, newspapers andsatirical journals utilized visual stereotypes to identify the new arrivals and draw demarcation linesbetween them and what was considered “Finnish”. The Tatars arrived during a time of tension inthe relationship between the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland and the Russian Empire, withthe Finnish intelligentsia divided along political and language lines. Stereotypical images of Tatarpedlars were used as insults against political opponents within Finland and as covert criticism ofthe policies of the Russian Empire. Stereotypes about ethnic and religious minorities like the Tatarsfulfilled a political need for substitute enemy images; after Finland became independent in 1917,these visual stereotypes almost disappeared.