Nineteenth-Century Literary Processes and Folklore

This chapter charts the interaction between Latvian literature and folklore at the end of the eighteenth century and in the nineteenth century, viewing this as following very closely behind cultural processes taking place in Western Europe. Chronologically it traces the influence of literature written by Baltic German authors on the first creative attempts by Latvian writers, thus indirectly delineating the boundaries for Latvian folklore within literary texts. Eventually the use of folklore became a defining element in Latvian literature as part of the processes in the evolution of a national culture.