Two perspectives on the literature from the North of Finland. The Czech anthology and a quiet mainstream in Finland's literary canon
Abstract
Pohjois-Suomen kirjallisuushistoria (2010; The History of North Finland Literature) is the first overall work, published in Finland, aspiring to present the literary history of one relatively homogeneous area, originating from an intention to promote North Finland's literature. This study reads Pohjois-Suomen kirjallisuushistoria in a dialogue with two works, one being a literary one (1) and the other a scholarly one (2), and also develops the theory on North Finland's literature.
The literary work (1) is the output of a translation project performed at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. Texts depicting North Finland, written by twelve Finnish authors, were translated by eleven bachelor's and master's students of Finnish programme and published in a Czech language translation anthology Za letních nocí se tu nespí lehce.
Antologie povídek z finského severu (2019; On Summer Nights It Is not Easy to Sleep Here. Anthology of Short Stories from the North Finland).
This part of the study thus discusses how the North Finland themes and topics are treated in the anthology texts. On the basis of it, a discussion on the specific features of North Finland literature is performed and developed.
The scholarly work (2) is the last, fourth revised and completed issue of Kai Laitinen's traditional literary history Suomen kirjallisuuden historia (1997; The History of Finland's Literature), representing the whole canon of Finland's literature. In its second part, the study discusses how North Finland's authors are treated in Laitinen, i.e. it discusses the position of North Finland's literature in its wider frame of the whole of Finland, and tries to find out if it can be considered as marginalised.
In the end, the study leads into a discussion on the definition of the North Finland author / literature, crucial for the position of the North Finland's literature in Finland's literary canon overall.