Birth of Literature in Finnish

Last Saturday, 10th of October, was Finnish Literature Day, set aside to commemorate Aleksis Kivi (born Alexis Stenvall) and the advent of literature in Finnish. Kivi (1834-1872) was the first modern author to write in Finnish. His best known novel, Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers, published originally by the Finnish Literature Society in 1870) has become a classic of Finnish culture, and has been translated into several languages. Previously in the 19th century, local literary and scientific endeavor had communicated in Swedish: Finnish language and vocabulary did not yet support such activities. Educated members of the society would use Swedish (usually it was their first language), while the common Finnish-speaking population people would have been able to read but less frequently have been able to write. Kivi himself came from a poor rural ramily, but he had learnt Swedish and was able to study at university.

The development of a Finnish language was the key element for Finnish national culture and identity. Although there had been earlier efforts to write novels in Finnish, Kivi was the first Finn successfully to link the form of the novel to vivid descriptions of common Finnish life and language.

Although Kivi had won several prizes in the 1860s as a playwright, the early reception of his prose was notoriously harsh: August Ahlqvist, Professor of Finnish and a leading figure in the development of written Finnish at the time, condemned the novel, its language and its plot: for him, Kivi’s language was too rough and his description on Finnish peasants immoral.

Kivi had important supporters both at the university and at the Finnish Literature Society (SKS), but that support could not immediately dispel the accusations Ahlqvist had put forward. Furthermore, the unstable political situation of the early 1870s, along with SKS’s faltering publishing activities, which suffered from poor finance and nonexistent entrepreneurial drive, combined to withhold Kivi's work from its potential audience. The original edition was issued 500 copies: 134 sold immediately as a part of SKS’s novel series, while the rest languished for three years in storage before brought to any additional book market. In 1877-1878 SKS published Kivi’s Collected Works, but the book series was impossibly expensive for most Finns. A truncated version for young readers was published in 1891, but up to the very end of the century Seven Brothers was a rare sight in book stores.

In a climate of heavy criticism and with no public signs of support Kivi died, his already-weakened mental condition having been brought to a state of collapse. Initial condemnation of Seven Brothers and the low key of its early publishing history have lead scholars to believe that Kivi’s significance and his accomplishments were not understood until the late 19th or early 20th century: thereby creating the figure of a misunderstood genius rescued by future generations.

However, in his Impivaaran kaski. Aleksis Kivi kirjallisuutemme korvenraivaajana (The Burnt Clearing at Impivaara. Aleksis Kivi as Trailblazer of Finnish Literature. SKS, 2009), Esko Rahikainen turns away from the well-studied academic condemnation of Ahlqvist and instead conducts an inquiry into Kivi's popularity among the larger reading audience. Rahikainen begins by showing that Kivi was Finnish theatre's most successful playwright of the late 19th century - and that the audience of theater-goers most likely exceeded that of novel readers. Furthermore, Rahikainen details many of the dispersed examples that show peasants and other rural examples reading or listening Seven Brothers and other texts of Kivi.

Such sources could be used to dispute the earlier assumption of Kivi's neglect. Alternatively, they could be used to open a broader discussion into how popularity and success could be measured in the late 19th century Finland, in a context where the expensive novel in Finnish would be difficult to apprehend by a Swedish speaking bourgeoisie, and at the same time prove remote to Finnish-speaking peasants unused to fiction or even books. To do so, the rivalries and hesitations evident in the academy stand in contrast to the interest and often even enthusiasm of peasants.

It had seemed that after a century of studying early criticism and (dis)approval of Kivi, we already knew the opinions stated and actions taken. However, recent decades have opened up new contexts and viewpoints: what does popularity mean, and where should it be sought; should our concern be for Ahlqvist's revulsion or for the peasants’ admiration? The questions are not only relevant to studies on Kivi. They are also part of new approach in studying both late 19th-century Finnish cultural life and how the common people – the largest part of the society – began to take part in secular cultural activities and create its own visions, opinions and even works of art. Whose opinions and acts count – or indeed interest us?

Jyrki Hakapää

Ordinary Writings in the North

Davíð Ólafsson

The Nordic network The Common People and the Processes of Literacy in the Nordic Countries: Excursions to the Scribal and Print Cultures in the 18th and 19th Centuries, workshop Between Categories – Evaluation of Concepts and Data. Kiljava, Finland, 4–5 June 2009

The Nordic countries have, like many other regions, seen a steep rise in certain sectors of cultural history over the last decade or two. This wave can be attributed with various labels, and among them are components from history of writing, history of the book, vernacular linguistics, post-medieval manuscript culture, history from below and microhistory. Its participants, either individually or linked in small groups, have come from various disciplines - history, literary history, linguistics, folkloristic etc - and have increasingly sought out cross-disciplinary as well cross-national dialogues. Characteristically, discussions are set mostly within the modern period – the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries – rather than the early-modern era as is common in many other countries. Over the last decade Nordic scholars have progressively participated in multi-national collaboration: within the Nordic region, in Europe, and internationally (including SHARP). The network The Common People and the Processes of Literacy in the Nordic Countries: Excursions to the Scribal and Print Cultures in the 18th and 19th Centuries is the latest embodiment of this.

This pan-Scandinavian network is one result of a current Finnish research project called 'The Common People': Writing, and the Process of Literary Attainment in the Nineteenth-Century Finland, led by Professor Lea Laitinen at the University of Helsinki, and funded by the Academy of Finland from 2008 to 2011. Collaboration is also underway with two other research networks in the making: one Swedish, on everyday literary practices, and one Icelandic, on post-medieval manuscript culture that will apply for a local grant of excellence next fall. In 2008, the Nordic network attained a grant from The Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (NOS-HS) to hold two exploratory workshops in 2009 and to prepare further applications for Nordic and international financing.

The first explorative workshop scheduled for 2009 was held 4-5 June at the Kiljavanranta Conference Centre near Helsinki. The leading proponent for this endeavour, Dr. Anna Kuismin, chaired the meeting. Nineteen participants gathered from all five Nordic countries. Three sessions were held on the first day with eight presentations by Anna Kuismin and Kaisa Kauranen, Kati Mikkola, Kati Launis, and Jyrki Hakapää from Finland, by Britt Liljewall and Ann-Catrine Edlund from Sweden, by Arne Apelseth from Norway and by Guðný Hallgrímsdóttir and Davíð Ólafsson from Iceland. Among the themes discussed were self-taught writers and their manuscripts and printed works in Finland, manuscripts of Icelandic women, research on the history of reading and writing in Norway and Sweden and the issue of class and society.

The second day opened with a plenary lecture Analysing class, writing proficiency and pauper documents from 19th century Europe: A minefield between linguistics, history and cultural studies given by Wim Vandenbussche (Professor of Dutch Linguistics at the Vrije Universitet in Brussels). In an illuminating and far-reaching talk, Vandenbussche touched upon a number of subjects that brought the group together, such as extant writings from people of the lower strata, their use of language and the written medium and interaction between different literary practices based on ethnicity, geography, class and other socio-cultural variables.

Prof. Vandenbussche’s lecture was followed by four more presentations, by Finnish scholars Lea Laitinen, Taru Nordlund, and Kirsti Salmi-Niklander, by Elena Rosnes from Norway, and by Matthew Driscoll from Denmark. In their joint presentation, Lea Laitinen and Taru Nordlund discussed Finnish sources on linguistics from below, while Elena Rosnes presented her study on the language of the Kven people of Finnish descendancy in Norway. Matthew Driscoll from Denmark gave an account of the function of scribal culture and its most popular genres in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Iceland. Finally folklorist Kirsti Salmi-Niklander discussed oral-literary tradition and hybrid genres in early twentieth-century Finnland.

The last hour of the workshop was assigned to general conclusions and planning of the Copenhagen workshop that will take place in the coming December. There, the aim is to prepare a Nordic research project on the subject of the attainment and employment of writing among the general public at the advent of modernity.

Davíð Ólafsson is a researcher at the Reykjavik Academy, Iceland