- Onnimanni 3/2000
SUMMARY
Kaisu Rättyä's editorial and Raija Raussi's article both deal with the latest research on Finnish children's literature based on a questionnaire directed to the universities. In her survey Raija Raussi asked for information about the number and the contents of theses and found, for instance, that authors of classics and the established favourite writers of contemporary literature are the most common targets for research today. Kaisu Rättyä encourages researchers to look for uncovered ground in literature in order to avoid overlapping.
Terhi Rannela has interviewed author Marja-Leena Tiainen, who talks about the beginnings of her career as a writer and her professional goals. Tiainen has written easy-to-read-books for children, novels and short stories for teenagers, as well as light reading for adults. In her opinion, an engaging story and appealing characters with whom the reader can identify, are the most essential components of a book. Favourites among her own books are "Miikan salainen tehtävä" ("Miika's secret mission") and "Rakas Mikael" ("Dear Mikael"), which soon will be available in Danish and Swedish translations.
Miia Vatka has studied diaries and their conventions concluding that many of the rules applied when writing a diary stems from L.M. Montgomery's "Emily of New Moon"-series and even older sources. Such conventions are, e.g. the issue of address in the diary, the protection of secrets and the demand to write on a regular basis. It has also been popular to address one's diary-writing to a fictitious person or depositing messages to one's own future self.
Antti Immonen explores Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe", as well as its many versions and interpretations. He tells us about the birth of the story and the tradition of the Robinsonade, which he regards as a reflection of "everyman's existentialism", i.e. when man is left alone in the world to fend for himself. On the other hand, the Robinsonades are also symbolic expressions of human beings trapped inside their own minds. Defoe was, however, preoccupied with an even grander theme: man's effort to find a unified explanation to the world or how to establish contact with the highest order of life, God or destiny, through religion. Immonen also explores Jean-Jacques Rousseau's influence on the popularity of "Robinson Crusoe" concluding that it was Rousseau's very influence that turned the book into an educational narrative. Also in Finland one of the most long-lived classics is Siviä Heinämaa's version of "Robinson Crusoe" (1911), which has been purged of all incidents of violence and even of Friday himself! The most courageous interpretations of Robinson, such as reading Robinson's and Friday's relationship from a homosexual point of view, Immonen finds exaggerated, emphasising that Robinson has to be read against the background and the time when it was created. "Robinson Crusoe" and the Robinsonades can also be regarded as upholders of colonial and imperialistic myths, as well as protestant ethics. According to Immonen, an interpretation that appeals to modern man can be found in the foreword to the latest Finnish edition (2000). Here Robinson is regarded as a human being whose view of the world becomes clearer because of his isolation - "what is left is a human being, who has time to teach his parrot to speak".
Kaisa Laaksonen has compared Finnish picturebooks from the 1970s and the 1990s finding in them both similarities and differences. Both decades deal mostly with everyday subjects and Finnish basic values, such as home, family and simple pleasures in life. Instead of the instructive and society-oriented themes of the 70s, idyll and security have become predominant as fantasy and humour, as well as animal characters, have increased.
In the news section we learn for instance, that publishing company Otava has unveiled a mural in their yard featuring Mauri Kunnas' "The Canine Kalevala". Bibliophile Markus Brummer-Korvenkontio has published a bibliography called "Lapsuuden kirjat Suomessa 1799-1899" ("Childhood Books in Finland 1799-1899"), comprising not only children's books but a wide variety of childhood reading ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Doré's illustrated bible. The book descriptions are in Finnish, Swedish and English according to the original language of each work.
Translation: Maria
Lassén-Seger
