'The Common People', Writing, and the Process of Literary Attainment
in Nineteenth-Century Finland
A multidiciplinary project funded by the Academy of Finland. Responsible leader Professor Lea Laitinen, University of Helsinki, Department of Finnish Language and Literature. Co-operating with the Department of Social Science History, Department of History and Finnish Literary Society (SKS).
This project seeks to understand how the great majority of Finnish people took hold of the literary attainment and used it to react to the modernisation and the national reshaping of their traditional society. An important uniting factor of the researchers in the projects stems from the so called from below -approach that links social and book history as well as literary and cultural studies and socio-historical linguistics represented in the network's projects. The history of the linguistic situation, nation building, print culture and literary attainment proper are seen from the point of view of the lower strata of the society.
Three researchers of the project are funded by the Academy of Finland in 2008–2011: Kaisa Kauranen, doctoral student in social history, Kati Mikkola, postdoctoral researcher in comparative religion, and Jyrki Hakapää, postdoctoral researcher in Finnish and Scandinavian history. Each of them will contribute to the deeper understanding of the process of literary attainment in the 19th century Finland. Selftaught common people will be examined by them from three angles: (1) as original writers and active participants in society (Kauranen), (2) as collectors of folklore and contributors to nation building (Mikkola) and (3) as authors, producers and distributors of printed matter (Hakapää).
The role of mentors in the project is taken by five senior reserachers, carrying out their own projects: Dr Taru Nordlund (University lecturer in Finnish at the University of Helsinki) Dr Kirsti Salmi-Niklander (postdoctoral researcher of folklore studies funded by the Academy of Finland), Dr Anna Kuismin (director of The Literary Archives of the Finnish Literature Society, Dr Lea Laitinen (professor of Finnish linguistics, University of Helsinki) and Dr Tarja-Liisa Luukkanen (senior researcher of history of ideas and learning at the University of Helsinki). Several international contact researchers have expressed their interest to cooperate with the project: Professors Krassimira Daskalova (St. Kliment Ohridski University, Sofia), Jason Lavery (Oklahoma State University,), Martyn Lyons (University of New South Wales), Jonathan Rose (Drew University, New Jersey) and Wim Vandenbusche (Vrije Universitet Brussel). Many national and Nordic contact networks and research projects are relevant for the project as well.
The project will increase self-understanding and awareness of Finns of their own history. From the international perspective, it helps us to understand the process of language societies creating their literary culture at present. In addition, the distinction between the oral and written is getting blurred, and the texts on the internet have a lot in common with texts of the early selftaught writers. In the history of the Finnish language, the sharp differentiation between speech and writing, private and public, or the vernacular and standard language, was actually limited to a period of less than a hundred years. Focusing on this border area, the project will shed light on these nondichotomical forms of communication, known in different times and cultures.
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