Finnish literature today

By Iris Schwanck and Hannele Jyrkkä of FILI (Finnish Literature Exchange), September 2003

The title of Ranya El Ramly’s much praised, award-winning debut novel Auringon asema (The Position of the Sun, 2002) refers in a variety of ways to a search for one’s own place under the sun. Indeed, many Finnish novels of recent years also fit into this schema.

A surprising number of recent Finnish novels have focused on finding a balanced place for the self and for individual identity. The narration in El Ramly’s novel leads the reader towards the sources of a new kind of narrative technique; the metaphor could indeed be extrapolated further in that the sun, with its associations of light and a vast array of colours, in a far wider sense reveals much about Finnish literature of the 21st century.

Over the last few decades a wealth of diverse narrators has grown alongside conventional prose and the spectrum of styles and colours has begun to widen even further. Writers taking inspiration from many different backgrounds are gradually bringing their stories to a wider audience, and therefore literature as a whole is becoming ever more polyphonic.

Historically speaking, written culture and reading have always been highly respected in Finnish society. Väinämöinen, the central figure in the national epic Kalevala (1835) was a master of words and songs, and his actions were founded on the power of the word. Finland’s young written culture was created at the same time as written Finnish, some 150 years ago.

National identity was also largely founded on the written word. Compared to many others, Finns are still very keen readers, buyers and borrowers of literature, and reading and the publishing of literature both seem to be on the increase. Based on sales figures published in 2002 by the Finnish Publishers’ Association, it would appear that the best-selling literary works were Finnish. The size of an average print edition is, however, relatively small due to the size of the language base: Finnish language books have a potential readership of around five million and Finland-Swedish of 300,000.

Many ways to read

According to PISA research conducted by the OECD, Finnish young people are some of the world’s best readers. The figures for 2002 showed that 50 percent of young Finnish readers reached the highest level of achievement in the tests, whereas in other OECD countries the number was only 32 percent.

One of the factors behind these excellent reading skills is the diverse network of libraries, which has consistently remained at the forefront of developments in the world of information technology; a wide selection of books are available both locally and nationally, and children and young people are amongst the most eager library-goers in the country.

The respect for reading throughout our society is of course crucial to developing children’s interest in reading in schools and homes alike. Almost every household in Finland subscribes to at least one daily newspaper. New media also encourage reading and play their part in developing different aspects of people’s reading skills: foreign television programmes and films with subtitles, the internet and even text message culture all ensure that young Finns spend many hours a day reading in a variety of different ways.

Prized grants and granted prizes

The effort of the state to promote art and culture is a conscious social development strategy. The goal is to raise the amount of funding going towards culture to 0.4 percent of the annual budget. Because of the small market, public funding of this nature is important for writers trying to earn a living. State support for writers in Finland dates back to 1865, when three prizes were awarded to writers. Nowadays there are far more means of support.

The single largest state grant goes to libraries, whose grants are in turn linked to the size of their book allowance. Ten percent of the annual book allowance is awarded as grants supporting writers’ work or as artistic pensions; this is approximately 2.5 million euros. However, due to cutbacks in the book allowance itself, these grants, of critical importance to many writers, have been cut by one-third over the last ten years.

Each year around 40 Finnish writers are awarded an artist grant; this enables them to concentrate on writing for periods ranging from six months to five years. Allocated awards are also granted to both writers and translators. Additionally, discretionary grants are awarded to state organisations and individuals working in the literary world. The selection of prizes for literature is also very broad. Alongside the largest single accolade, the Finlandia Prize, there are almost 100 literary prizes of varying sizes.

Found in translation

Over the past few decades, Finnish literature has been forging a stronger footing abroad. According to the translation database of the Finnish Literature Exchange (FILI), more than 4,000 works of Finnish literature and nonfiction were translated into other languages between 1977 and 2001. Languages with a particularly large number of translations from Finnish are Swedish, English, German, French, Estonian, Danish, Russian, Hungarian, Norwegian, Spanish, Japanese and Czech.

About 2,000 works of either prose or poetry have been translated, about 400 illustrated books for children, about 700 anthologies, several hundred plays and almost 750 works of nonfiction. The Kalevala, the Finnish national epic compiled by Elias Lönnrot, exists in 120 different translations in more than 60 languages.

Tove Jansson’s beloved stories of Moomin Valley have been translated about 200 times into several dozen languages, whilst Aleksis Kivi’s classic Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers, 1870) appears in almost 20 languages.

In recent years many new writers have succeeded in passing the threshold of language and cultural barriers. Some prominent examples are Kari Hotakainen, Leena Lehtolainen, Hannu Raittila, Asko Sahlberg, Johanna Sinisalo and Kjell Westö. Interest in all literary styles and genres continues to grow.

Happy reading!

Links

Finnish Literature Exchange
The Union of Finnish Writers
Modern Finnish Authors