Week 3 Notes

 

Lecture1: Realist Writers Minna Canth and Juhani Aho

10/14/02

 

I.                    Minna Canth and Juhani Aho

a.       History 1: Economic and Social Change

b.      History 2: Changing Ideas

c.       Canth and Aho’s Realism

d.      Case Studies:

                                                               i.      “The Nursemaid”

                                                             ii.      “The Watch”

e.       Study Questions

 

II.                 History 1: Economic and Social Change

a.       Economic change

                                                               i.      Agrarian economy

1.      In-kind exchange

2.      Yearly contracts

                                                             ii.      Forest industry

                                                            iii.      First railroad 1862

                                                           iv.      Towards a cash economy

b.      Social change

                                                               i.      Increasing movement of people

                                                             ii.      Growth of production centers

                                                            iii.      appearance of poverty and inequality

 

III.               History 2: Changing Ideas in Europe as a Background for Realism

a.       Engineering social progress

b.      Science

                                                               i.      Empiricism (observation to determine collect data)

                                                             ii.      Positivism (Deriving laws of nature and society from observations)

                                                            iii.      Charles Darwin

c.       Industrialization

d.      Liberalism

                                                               i.      Emancipation

1.      gender

2.      class

3.      race

                                                             ii.      John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (1859)

 

IV.              Canth and Aho’s Realism

a.       Realism

                                                               i.      Style of writing

                                                             ii.      Period of literary history (1880s in Finland)

b.      Realism in Finland

                                                               i.      Not “expression”

1.      Lönnrot

2.      Runeberg

                                                             ii.      Description

                                                            iii.      Social questions and problems

 

V.                 “The Nursemaid”

a.       Description

                                                               i.      Emmi’s feelings presented through exterior description

                                                             ii.      Events provide dramatic action

b.      Not idealization, but ugly, everyday problems

                                                               i.      Disadvantage protagonist—as the title suggests

                                                             ii.      Emmi wins our sympathy through suffering

c.       Not expression of national culture, but attention to social inequality

                                                               i.      Gender

                                                             ii.      Class

 

VI.              “The Watch”

a.       Observation

                                                               i.      Social change seen through a particular experience

                                                             ii.      New urban habits

b.      Impressionistic

                                                               i.      Sketch-like (“shavings”)

                                                             ii.      Realistic picture quickly drawn

 

VII.            Modern technology and its effects

a.       New ambitions

b.      New symbols

 

VIII.         Study Questions

a.       How do you feel toward Emmi? How do you feel toward Martti?

b.      Are different attitudes expressed toward Emmi and Martti by each author? How?

c.       How would you compare the attitude of these authors toward their characters with texts we’ve read earlier in the quarter?

d.      Do you think these stories would have been judged “beautiful” by readers of the time? 

 

 

Discussion: Canth, Aho, Pakkala

10/15/02

 

I.                    Study Questions for Canth and Aho

 

a.       How do you feel toward Emmi? How do you feel toward Martti?

b.      Are different attitudes expressed toward Emmi and Martti by each author? How?

c.       How would you compare the attitude of these authors toward their characters with texts we’ve read earlier in the quarter?

d.      Do you think these stories would have been judged “beautiful” by readers of the time? 

 

II.                 Teuvo Pakkala

 

a.       Are “Liars” and “The Bishop’s Pointer” told in a similar way to Canth and Aho’s stories?

b.      Do you relate toward Lyylia and Hanna in a similar way to the one in which you relate toward Emmi and Martti? Why or why not?

c.       What do you think about Aukusti and Santeri in the “Bishop’s Pointer?” Does this story differ in “tone” from the others?[1]

d.      What kind of attitude does it encourage in the reader?

 

III.               Young characters

a.       How would you compare children and young people in the stories we’ve read with adult characters? 

b.      Are they described in different ways?

c.       Why do you think young characters figure so prominently in the stories we’ve read?

d.      Do you think the prominence of young characters tends to make these stories pessimistic or optimistic?

 

Lecture 1: Symbolism and Karelianism

10/16/02

 

I.                    Symbolist Poetry in Finland

a.       Culture as conversation

b.      What is symbolism?

c.       What’s the connection between symbolism and Karelia?

d.      Why is Valter Juva and Otto Manninen’s poetry symbolist?

 

II.                 Culture as Conversation

a.       Social Struggles and Realism

                                                               i.      Problems of emergent industrial society

                                                             ii.      Realism describes problems

                                                            iii.      External perspective

b.      Symbolism rejects literature of realism

c.       Symbolists escape inward to imagination

                                                               i.      Myths (Kalevala, Greek myths, Dreams)

                                                             ii.      Ideal pictures

 

III.               What is symbolist poetry?

a.       Symbol: “a real object which represents, or “stands for” something else.

b.      1890-1900s poetic movement in Finland

                                                               i.      1850s onward in continental Europe

                                                             ii.      Reaches Scandinavia at turn of the century

c.       Belief in fallen, decaying world

                                                               i.      Creation also destroys

                                                             ii.      Pessimism

                                                            iii.      Death

d.      What are sources of beauty and escape?

                                                               i.      Removal from suffering reality

                                                             ii.      Art as beautiful illusion

                                                            iii.      Ancient myth and fantasy

                                                           iv.      Ambiguity and interpretation

 

IV.              Examples of Symbolism

a.       Symbolist art in Finland

                                                               i.      Akesli Gallen-Kallela

                                                             ii.      Painter and graphic artist

                                                            iii.      “Lemminkäinen’s Mother”

b.      Symbolist music in Finland

                                                               i.      Jean Sibelius

                                                             ii.      Composer

                                                            iii.      Karelian Suite (1892)

c.       “Karelianism”

                                                               i.      Artists go to Karelia to search for symbols and myths of ancient Finnish society

                                                             ii.      Sibelius, Gallen-Kallela, Juva, Leino

 

V.                 Why is Valter Juva and Otto Manninen’s Poetry Symbolist?

a.       Valter Juva (1865-1922)

                                                               i.      Images of nature and symbols of national past

                                                             ii.      Famous Karelianist

                                                            iii.      “Karelian hills” “Cuckoo” “Longing”

b.      Otto Manninen (1872-1950)

                                                               i.      Writings from 1905, 1910

                                                             ii.      Compressed images of longing, death

                                                            iii.      “sea,” “singing swan,” “embers”

 

 


[1] By tone, I mean the reflection of the narrator’s attitude toward his characters and the reader in the manner, mood, and moral outlook of the writing. How does the way the story is told convey an attitude toward its events, and how you read them?