Seekers of Secret Worlds in Finland’s Early Twentieth Century Literature

Authors

  • Viola Parente-Čapková University of Turku

Abstract

In my article, I look at Finland’s early twentieth century literature, concentrating on the work of two writers, L. Onerva (1882-1972) and Eino Leino (1878-1926) from the point of view of modern Western esotericism. As the central notion, I employ the concept of seekership, used lately by Nina Kokkinen vis à vis visual arts. The concept proves most viable when analysing E. Leino’s and L. Onerva’s literary œuvre and the mélange of esoteric, mystic, occult, spiritualist, theosophical and other trends. I give some background to the trend of seekership in Finland’s literature around the turn of the 19th and the 20th century, concentrating mostly on Leino’s work and considering the interaction of the “little” and “great” traditions, i. e. the local tradition of Finnish mythology as manifested in the folk poetry, and the tradition of European literature. In the latter section of the paper, I discuss L. Onerva’s work from the perspective of seekership, concentrating on her ways of gendering the figure of the seeker. My research enters in dialogue with the recent research on esotericism in Finnish cultural history, namely the current project Seekers of the New.

Author Biography

Viola Parente-Čapková, University of Turku

Viola Parente-Čapková is an Adjunct Professor of Finnish Literature at the University of Turku, Finland, where she is currently working as a Senior Lecturer and as a Project Leader of Texts on the Move: Reception of Women’s Writing in Finland and Russia 1840–2020 (Emil Aaltonen Foundation, University of Turku & University of Tampere). She is also an Adjunct Professor of Theory of Literature at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. Her major specialization is fin de siècle and early twentieth century literature with a focus on Finland and women’s writing. She has published extensively on women writing decadence (e. g. Decadent New Woman (Un)Bound: Mimetic Strategies in L. Onerva’s Mirdja, 2014) and has worked on fin de siècle women writers’ cultural transmission, cultural agency and transnational reception (e. g. Matilde Serao’s reception in Finland). She co-edited various volumes, including Nordic Literature of Decadence (2019) and since 2017, she has acted as a Board Member of the DARIAH-EU Working Group Women Writers in History.

Published

15-09-2019

How to Cite

Parente-Čapková, V. (2019). Seekers of Secret Worlds in Finland’s Early Twentieth Century Literature. Elephant & Castle, (20). Retrieved from https://elephantandcastle.unibg.it/index.php/eac/article/view/333

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