Myytillistetty aika: Isänmaallisen Oikeiston Kalevala-nostalgia

Authors

• Kyösti Pekonen

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyse a mythical conception of time. A small Finnish nationalist group called the Patriotic Right is used as an empirical example of a mythical understanding of history and time. The Patriotic Right’s conception of time is studied empirically by analysing the rhetoric of the group in their newspaper Kansallinen Rintama (The National Front). Ernst Cassirer’s definition of a myth forms the theoretical background in defining the mythical conception of time. The main argument of the article is that we can really understand the Patriotic Right itself as a myth in the same sense as Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Jean-Luc Nancy show in their article The Nazi Myth and that the mythical understanding of time and history is an important prerequisite for living the myth devoted to it. The mythical conception of time and history is in opposition to ’linear time’ and seeing history as a progress. For those living the myth the mythical conception of time means the elimination of contingencies and uncertainties hiding in time.