Finnish Romanticism
Description
Collecting the work of international scholars of Finnish culture, this volume introduces the history of Finnish Romanticism to contemporary discussions of British, European, Nordic, Transatlantic, and Russian Romanticisms, in which Finnish achievements have too often been overlooked. Tying the notion of a national character to a spirit of independence was by no means unique to Finland, but the particular expressions of that connection, presented across Finland's arts and literature of the nineteenth century, were unique. This volume addresses early proponents for the promotion of the Finnish language and the influence of the great Finnish national folk epic, The Kalevala , and it explores Finnish Romanticism in novels, popular song, painting, music, and architecture in the later half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The eleven contributing authors and two co-editors are an international group-their chapters will be accessible to scholars and students working in the larger fields of nineteenth-century Arts and Humanities. Each of the essays in this collection strives to highlight the particularities of the dynamic history of Finnish Romanticism. The authors provide fresh angles to contextualizing central themes and individual artistic achievements within the larger movement, occasionally also challenging the received notions of what constitutes Finland's Romanticism.
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Michael Demson is Professor of English at Sam Houston State University, USA. His recent publications include Law, Equity , and Romantic Writing: Seeking Justice in the Age of Revolutions, co-edited with Regina Hewitt, and Romantic Automata: Exhibitions, Figures, Organisms , co-edited with Christopher Clason.
Helena Halmari is a Distinguished Professor of English at Sam Houston State University, USA. She is also a Texas State University System Regents' Professor. Among her publications are The Making of Finland: The Era of the Grand Duchy (2018), co-edited with Hanna Snellman, Scott Kaukonen, and Hilary-Joy Virtanen, and Multilingual Finland , Parts I (2024) and II (2025), co-edited with Lotta Weckström.
Content
.- Introduction: Michael Demson (Sam Houston State University) and Helena Halmari (Sam Houston State University): "'In the Backwoods of Finland': Language, Nationalism, and Suomi Romanticism".- Part I: Turku Romanticism and the Legacy of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson.- Chapter 1: Heli Rantala (University of Turku): "Turku Romantics and the Problem of Finnish Romanticism".- Chapter 2: Juhana Saarelainen (University of Turku): "A Nation's Right to Have a Literature of Its Own: Nineteenth-Century Romantic Notions of the Finnish Language in Relation to Geographical Marginality".- Chapter 3: Outi Pinomaa (University of Turku): "At the Dawn of the National Romanticism in Finland: Italian Loanwords in Finnish Language".- Part II: The Kalevala and the Legacy of Elias Lönnrot.- Chapter 4: Niina Hämäläinen (The Kalevala Society / University of Helsinki): "The 'Other' Language and Knowledge: Romanticism and the Creation of the Kalevala".- Chapter 5: Helena Halmari (Sam Houston State University): "Injustice and the Cycles of Revenge in the Kalevala as Realizations of Romanticism".- Chapter 6: Anu Muhonen (University of Toronto): "Influence, Reception, and the Relevance of the Kalevala: Past and Present".- Part III: Finnish National Romanticism.- Chapter 7: Jyrki Nummi (University of Helsinki): "The Art of Misquotation in Aleksis Kivi's Seven Brothers".- Chapter 8: Marja Lahelma (Academy of Finland / University of Helsinki): "Akseli Gallen-Kallela, National Romanticism and the 'Golden Age' of Finnish Art".- Chapter 9: Carl Rahkonen (Indiana University of Pennsylvania): "The Role of the Kantele in Finnish National Romanticism".- Chapter 10: Timo O. Virtanen (Jean Sibelius Works, The National Library of Finland / University of Helsinki): "Jean Sibelius and 'Kalevalaic Modernism'".- Chapter 11: Pekka Korvenmaa (Aalto University): "'National' and 'Romantic'? Finnish Architecture around 1900".
