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LITERATURE AND NATURE UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI/ COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 24.11.2014 PEKKA RAITTINEN FINNISH LITERATURE, HISTORY AND NATURE
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OUR ROOTS IN WILDERNESS?
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”ERÄMAA”AND ”KASKI” Fishing and hunting – erätalous s.c. ”wilderness economy” Runeberg’s Hirvenhiihtäjät (”The Elk- Slayers”) – ”The balance of nature and society” (Wrede, 1999) Seitsemän veljestä – slash-and-burn agriculture and civilization
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”NATURE RENEWED”– RENAISSANCE NEOPLATONIC OPTIMISM Tuomas M.S. Lehtonen (1999) => Dichotomy of optimism and memento mori Robert Cajanus (1675 – 1737) => ”Suvivirsi”; from a Swedish source Memento mori; Juhana Cajanus Etkös ole ihmisparca aiwan arca (1681)
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PANORAMIC VISION Kai Laitinen: Metsästä kaupunkiin, 1984 Runeberg: ”Heinäkuun viides päivä” (”5th of July”) The motif continues in Kivi’s Seitsemän veljestä and poem ”Isänmaa” (”Fatherland”)
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NATION = NATURE Werner Holmberg: Ideal Landscape, 1860 Thomas Cole: A Home in the Woods, U.S.A., 1847
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ALEKSIS KIVI, SEITSEMÄN VELJESTÄ AND NATURE
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ALEKSIS KIVI (1834 – 1872) Born Alexis Stenvall (”Stonewall”)in Nurmijärvi, son of a village tailor Collection of poetry Kanervala (1866); plays; Nummisuutarit (”The Heath Cobblers”) The Seven Brothers (1870) – First Finnish novel proper and source for contoroversy
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IMPIVAARA – A RETREAT TO THE WILDERNESS Seven brothers retreat to the woods and return to civilization after ten years Has often been read as a Bildungsroman Intertexts Schiller The Robbers; Walter Scott Rob Roy
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NATIONAL ROMANTICISM VERSUS ”THE GREEN GOLD”
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”OUR LAND IS POOR…” Famine years 1866 – 1868; and 1695 – 1697 Physiocracy => Wealth of the nations from agriculture Väinö Linna: Under the Northern Star - trilogy (1959 – 62)
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THE QUEST FOR REALISM A National ”Grand Narrative”=> Literature building the nation and language First generation realists: Juhani Aho, Minna Canth, Teuvo Pakkala But also; turn of the century symbolism of Eino Leino, L. Onerva et al.
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JUHANI AHO, SHORT PROSE AND CONSERVATION (HAAPALA 2008) Aho’s short Lastuja (1891 – 1899)(”Woodchips”) and short prose on travelling and fishing Autobiographical stories on fly fishing salmon Plans to conserve Huopana at Viitasaari, ”Heartland of Finland”
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AINO KALLAS, HISTORY, DESIRE AND ECOLOGY (MELKAS 2006; 2008) Finnish-Estonian heir to symbolism 1920’s ”Slaying Eros” trilogy of novellas; The Wolf’s Bride (1928) set in 17th and 18th century Estonia Short story ”Pyhän joen kosto”; ”The Revenge of the Sacred River”
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TIMO K. MUKKA AND ”VIRGIN LAND” (LAHTINEN 2008; 2014) Mukka’s (1944 – 1973) books set in his native Lapland Debut novel ”The Earth is A Sinfull Song” (1964) After Second World War flight from the countryside to the cities of the Southern Finland
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ON THE MARGINS A strong tradition of Finnish wilderness literature => An ideal[ized] subject [Finnish] male Sci-fi writer Johanna Sinisalo => Inheritor of Kallas’s themes of sexuality and transformation Finnish-Swedish contemporary fiction; Monika Fagerholm The American Girl (2004); Ulla- Lena Lundberg Is [’Ice’]
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