INSTITUTE FOR CULTURAL
RESEARCH
FOLKLORE STUDIES
PL 19 (Mariankatu 11)
000140 Helsingin yliopisto
Finland
Phone: +358-9-191 22633
and other useful information!
In Finnish
Latest update February 27, 2002
FOLKLORE
STUDIES
The Department of Folklore Studies, along with the departments of
Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology, belongs administratively to
the Faculty of Arts and the Institute of Cultural Research. The Department of
Folklore Studies is located at Mariankatu 11, right across the street from the
Finnish Literature Society and Folklore Archives.
Folklore
studies enjoys immense popularity at Finnish universities. The University of
Helsinki currently has 173 students with folklore as their major. Every year,
the Department admits 11 new students to study folklore as their major subject.
Folklore is also taught at Joensuu University,
the University of Turku, the University of Jyväskylä, and Åbo Academy in Turku.
Folklore has been recognised as an academic subject in Finland for over a
century. In 1898, when Kaarle Krohn (1863-1933) was appointed professor
of Finnish and Comparative Folklore at the University of Helsinki, he became
the world's first professor in the discipline.
During the history of the Department, two professors (Martti Haavio and
Matti Kuusi) have received lifetime appointments at the Academy of Finland.
Anna-Leena Siikala was recently nominated to be Academy Professor for
the term 1999-2004.
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STAFF
INFORMATION
Professor,
SATU APO, DPhil.
Satu Apo
specialises in cultural models in popular thought, gender systems, fairy tales
and the cultural aspects of alcohol consumption. She is also a literary
scholar.
Professor, LAURI HARVILAHTI, DPhil.
Lauri
Harvilahti’s field of expertise resides in epic poetry, ethnopoetics, discourse
analysis, and identity studies. He has done fieldwork in Mongolia, China,
Bangladesh, the Altai region, and Ingria.
Professor
at the Academy of Finland, ANNA-LEENA SIIKALA, DPhil.
Anna-Leena
Siikala has held the professorship at
the Academy of Finland since 1st August 1999. Prior to her nomination as
Academy Professor, she held the professorship at the Department of Folklore
Studies. Professor Siikala's research interests include Kalevala-meter poetry,
folk beliefs, mythology, shamanism, oral discourse and tradition processes. She
has conducted fieldwork among Finno-Ugric peoples in Europe and in Siberia, as
well as among ethnic groups in Polynesia. Furthermore, she is academically
qualified in cultural anthropology and comparative religion.
Amanuensis,
MERVI NAAKKA-KORHONEN, DPhil.
Dr
Naakka-Korhonen's interests are in traditional folk medicine. She has also
studied ethnology, comparative religion, sociology and communication studies.
Assistant
teacher, KIRSTI SALMI-NIKLANDER, PhilLic.
Kirsti
Salmi-Niklander has studied local festivals in Finland. Other interests include
industrial lore, immigrant culture and ethnographic filmmaking. The topic of
her doctoral thesis concerns the transition period between oral and written
tradition in a Finnish industrial community in the early 20th century.
Assistant teacher, LOTTE TARKKA, PhilLic.
Lotte Tarkka
specialises in Kalevala-metre poetry and its interpretation from an
anthropological perspective. Her research
interests include questions of genre, symbolic anthropology, epic
studies and the problems of interpreting archaic folk poetry. lotte.tarkka@helsinki.fi
Department
secretary, IRMELI SCHWARZ
RESEARCHERS
Approximately 20 researchers are also working closely with the Department.
Those most actively involved at the University of Helsinki are Anna Anttila,
LicPhil, Docent Pertti Anttonen, Sanna Heikkilä, LicPhil, Pia Isojärvi, MA,
Jouni Hyvönen, MA, Eeva-Liisa Kinnunen, LicPhil, Pauliina Latvala, MA, Docent
Helena Saarikoski, Docent Laura Stark,
Arno Survo, DPhil, and Leila Virtanen, MA.
They can be contacted through the amanuensis.
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TEACHING
IN ENGLISH
EUROPEAN
WITCHCRAFT AFTER THE TRIALS:
MAGIC AND MODERNITY 1650-1940
Credits
possible: 2
Instructor:
Laura Stark-Arola
Dates:
March 5 - March 23, 2002
Days
and times: Tuesday 14-16, Thursday 16-18
Place:
Mariankatu 11 (M11), lecture room 1
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FINNISH FOLKLORE SCHOLARSHIP
Folklore and folklore research
have always enjoyed high esteem in Finland; and the reasons why reside in the
country’s history. Prior to being ceded to the Russian Empire as a Grand Duchy
in 1809, Finland had long been a part of the Kingdom of Sweden. This change in
governance coincided with a general climate of national and cultural awakenings
throughout Europe. Although Swedish had persisted as the language of
officialdom, literature, and science, the educated classes began to work
towards establishing Finnish as a language. Acquainted with the ideas of
Herder, young Finnish intellectuals now understood that the soul of their
people was to be found in the Finnish periphery, expressed in rustic songs,
tales and beliefs. Elias Lönnrot, a country doctor with a passion for
folk poetry, noted down vast amounts of folk poetry from which he compiled the
national epic, The Kalevala (1835, 1849), which further added to the
prestige of folklore. The Kalevala and its lyrical companion, The Kanteletar
(1840), have had a powerful and lasting impact on the Finnish language,
literature, visual arts, music, theatre and film.
Inspired by
Lönnrot, many scholars, students and enthusiasts of folk culture collected
folklore during the second half of the 19th century in what is now eastern
Finland and Russian Karelia. These field trips were organised and promoted by
the Finnish
Literature Society, which was established in 1831. Their
field notes came to comprise an enormous and systematically organised
collection in the Society's Folklore Archives. As the 19th century drew to a
close, more and more researchers began to draw upon this vast collection of
data in order to investigate the roots of Finnish folklore and the culture's
remote past. From the very beginning, research was characterized by a
comparative approach: Finnish researchers sought to learn about cultural
development in Finland in comparison to that of neighbouring regions in Europe
and in Northern Eurasia. To tackle these research questions, Finnish
folklorists (Julius and Kaarle Krohn, Antti Aarne) developed the
historic-geographic method, which, for many decades remained the
discipline's most influential method both internationally and nationally.
After
Finland gained independence in 1917, folklore research played a significant
role in constructing the young state's cultural identity.
Until the 1960s, Kalevala meter poetry, mythology and folk belief were the most
highly valued research topics. During the next three decades, however, the
field of research began to expand. Professor Matti Kuusi (1914-1998)
introduced the study of both Finnish and international popular culture. At the
same time, new theoretical approaches were being borrowed from linguistics.
Anthropological ideas also made their way into Finnish folklore studies and
this prompted folklorists to come to terms with the living tradition and people
who use it.
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CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH TOPICS
Currently, historicism is undergoing a renaissance. The great majority
of our researchers and graduate students are tackling questions bound up in
archaic cultural forms and periods. Their primary data are Kalevala poetry and
prose traditions. Finnish mythology and folk belief are attracting the most
interest.
Professor Anna-Leena Siikala's international project Mythology of the Uralic
Peoples is a prime example of this.
In the 1980s and 1990s, researchers have returned to the old archival materials
equipped with new research questions. These correspond well to contemporary
historical research, e.g., studies on mentality. Finnish folklorists have begun
to (re)construct archaic folk thought by using folklore texts collected from
the 1500s to the 1800s. Drawing on such data, researchers grapple with topical
concerns in European cultural debates. At this moment, the favoured topics are
gender, the body, sexuality, nature and the environment, power relationships,
as well as the emotions.
A number of researchers are also fascinated by Finland's rapid development from
a poor agrarian country to the modern and post-industrial culture it has become
by the turn of the century. One form of data that has helped us to understand
the significance of this swift and profound change is the autobiographical narrative.
These written documents have been collected since the 1960s. In these stories,
ordinary Finnish men and women recount their life experiences and allow readers
an intimate view of their working lives, relatives and families, child-rearing,
attitudes to alcohol consumption, and personal healthcare.
A significant part of today's folklore research is concerned with contemporary
and popular culture. Professor Leea Virtanen (born 1934) was the first to
bring scholarly attention to the folklore of children and young adults.
Fieldwork is an effective way to learn about the ever-changing cultural world
of children and teenagers.
Professor Satu Apo's multidisciplinary project, "The Changing
Models of Girlhood", is now investigating pre-adolescent (10-12-year-olds)
concepts of love and dating, a girl's reputation, and children's humour. In
addition, the project covers other areas such as the way girls think and feel
about protecting animals and the environment.
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INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Although the study of folklore is often regarded as a national
discipline, some prominent Finnish folklorists have looked beyond Finland and
its nearby regions. Today, there is a growing scholarly interest in
non-European cultures. The increasing internationalisation of the past decade
can be seen on every level: the high number of student exchanges, Finnish
researchers taking part in international conferences, and guest lecturers and
international scholars visiting the University of Helsinki. Senior researchers
at the Department are also actively involved in the administrative and leading
organs of national and international scientific and cultural organisations.
The projects under the direction of Professor Anna-Leena Siikala, The Uralic
Peoples' Myhologies and Ethnic Traditions and Societies in Transition,
are bringing together scholars from Finland, Russia, Estonia and Hungary.
Professor Siikala and PhD Pertti Anttonen are taking part in a Nordic project
entitled Folklore, Heritage Politics and Diversity.
Professor Lauri Harvilahti has been directing the international project
Ethnocultural Identity in Asia. The project focuses on ethnic minority
cultures in Russia's Altai Mountains, Northern China and Bangladesh.
In 2002 two new research projects have been launched: Ethnopoetics, Processes
of Textualization, and Cultural Dynamics directed by Professor Harvilahti and
Modernization and Popular Experience in Finland 1860-1960 directed by Doc.
Laura Stark.
Folklorists from the
University of Helsinki publish a significant number of their books and articles
in English, Swedish, German and Russian. They are also involved in the
international scene through various Finnish publication series. The most
important of these are Folklore Fellows' Communications (FFC) and
Every second year, the international research course, Folklore Fellows'
Summer School, is held in Finland. The Summer School attracts researchers
and graduate students from around the world to exchange ideas and enjoy first-class
instruction from internationally renowned folklorists. The University of
Helsinki's Department of Folklore Studies, along with other Finnish
universities, takes part in organising this highly successful research course.
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LINKS
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