-
Genetic Romanticism—Constructing the
Corpus in Finnish Folklore and Rare Diseases - Configurations
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 24, Number 2, Spring 2016
- pp. 121-143
- 10.1353/con.2016.0011
- Article
- Additional Information
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The role that national epic poetry has played in romantic nationalism during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is well documented. The role that the new genetics has played in such processes, however, is less well known and understood as a form of writing national narratives of origin. This article compares and contrasts the work of two doctors in Finland, Elias Lönnrot and Reijo Norio, working over a century and a half apart, to examine the ways in which they have contributed to the formation of national identity and unity. The notion of