Finland Swedish literature

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Tove Jansson's books on the Moomins found an international readership (1956)

As Finland-Swedish literature refers to the area of Nordic literature , of the work and the works of Finland-Swedish prose writers and poets goes back and usually in Finland laid is. It has a long tradition with representatives such as Johan Ludvig Runeberg , Edith Södergran and Tove Jansson . The literature of the autonomous Åland Islands is often counted as part of Finnish-Swedish literature. The older literary epochs coincide with Swedish literature .

history

Johan Ludvig Runeberg and Zacharias Topelius (1863)

Until 1809 Finland formed the so-called eastern half of Sweden . The same written languages were originally used throughout the country - in addition to Swedish, for example. B. Latin , French and Low German . In connection with the Reformation , Mikael Agricola had translated the Bible into Finnish , but other Finnish-language publications were rare, because the upper class in the country was predominantly Swedish-speaking and educated Finnish-speakers also spoke predominantly Swedish in public. During the 19th century, however, a movement called fennomania emerged that led to the establishment of the Finnish national language . During this period, many Swedish-speaking Finns began to use Finnish, and the first works of Finnish literature were written . The Finnish Swedish was also used and still holds its role as the second national and literary language in the country.

While the older literary periods in Finland and Sweden coincide and even Runebergs Fänrik Ståls sägner (1848-1860) in both countries as a national epic was considered Söder Grans have dikter ( "Poems", 1916) with the Finland-Swedish modernism in a new era in the Nordic literature justified . The more recent Finnish-Swedish literature has not only produced its own currents, but also its production and reception takes place in bilingual Finland under different conditions than in Sweden.

Writer of the 19th and 20th centuries

Important authors of the 19th century are Johan Ludvig Runeberg , Zacharias Topelius and Josef Julius Wecksell . Well-known representatives of Finnish-Swedish literature of the 20th century are z. B. Edith Södergran , Runar Schildt , Elmer Diktonius , Bo Carpelan , Gösta Ågren , Lars Huldén , Märta Tikkanen , Jörn Donner , Ulla-Lena Lundberg and Lars Sund .

For the children's literature were Lisa Cawen , Nanny Hammarström , John Berg and Viola Renvall important representatives during the first half of the 20th century. The internationally best-known children's book author, however, was Tove Jansson , especially with her stories about the Moomins .

Current writers

The publication of Finnish-Swedish novels is relatively extensive, and established novelists such as Kjell Westö , Peter Sandström and Monika Fagerholm are read in Sweden as well as Finland. The latter was the first Finnish-Swedish author to win the prestigious August Prize of the Swedish book market and is one of the most translated authors in contemporary Finnish-Swedish literature.

Younger, very successful writers are e.g. B. Karin Erlandsson , Philip Teir and Maria Turtschaninoff . Merete Mazzarella is known for her essayistic and autobiographical books. The internationally renowned lyric poet Tua Forsström was elected to the Swedish Academy in 2019 . In 2014 Finland was the guest country of the Frankfurt Book Fair , and the latest Finnish-Swedish literature - along with Finnish and Sami literature - was presented under the motto “Finland. Reading. ”Presented.

Importance to Finnish-Swedish culture

Original literature in the mother tongue is generally very important in Finland, where only one in five books published is a translation. Finnish-Swedish literature also exists in a country with a relatively strong publishing industry. The number of published book titles per inhabitant in Finland is the largest in the EU and the second largest in the world (as of 2007). Although most of the titles are published in Finnish - in 2005, for example, For example, only about 5% of all almost 14,000 books published in Finland are in Swedish - Finnish-Swedish literature is extremely lively. Around 200 titles appear annually for a population of only around 300,000. However, the trend is downward. In the 1930s, the share of Swedish titles was still a fifth.

Publishing

Seat of the Swedish Literature Society in Finland ( Swedish Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland ) in the Kronohagen district in Helsingfors

Even if the number of authors - relative to the Finnish-Swedish population - is high, most of the works appear in only about 10 different publishers, which - compared to the other publishers in Finland - are very small. After the merger of Schildts (founded 1913) and Söderström & Co (founded 1893), the then dominant publishing house Schildts & Söderström was created in 2012 . Other important companies are Förlaget M , Scriptum, Litorale, PQR (in Åland ), which was founded in 2015, as well as Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland and Åbo Akademi , which also publish scientific and popular science books.

The market for these publishers is limited to the small Swedish-speaking readership in their own country because the book market in Sweden (with around 9 million readers) exists completely independently and the few Finnish-Swedish writers read there have their own Swedish publishers. Also, few Finnish-Swedish authors are translated into Finnish. The FILI organization supports the translation, printing and publication of Finnish-Swedish literature (as well as other literature from Finland) and promotes its knowledge and marketing in the world.

Writers Association

The Association of Finnish-Swedish Writers (Swedish Finlands svenska författareförening ) was founded in 1909.

Literary prizes

Several works by Finnish-Swedish writers have been honored with the Nordic Council Literature Prize , the Finlandia Prize or Runeberg Prize . Important purely Finnish-Swedish awards are the Tollanderska priset and Svenska Yles litteraturpris .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Maria Antas: The Finnish-Swedish literature . In: Contemporary Finnish Literature - A Variety of Voices . This is Finland ( finland.fi ).
  2. ↑ Uppslagsverket.fi ( Memento of August 22, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Fredrik Hertzberg: Novel constants strong i svenska Finland (sv) . In: Svenska Dagbladet , December 20, 2014. Accessed August 20, 2020. 
  4. ↑ Anneli Jordahl: Litterär sisu (sv) . In: Svenska Dagbladet , December 20, 2013. Accessed August 20, 2020. 
  5. ↑ Finland. Cool. Frankfurt book fair. Guest of Honor 2014. , accessed on August 20, 2020
  6. ↑ a b c "Boken i Finland: en succé med lång historia". Stat.fi, 2007-04-16, accessed on August 20, 2020.
  7. ↑ "28: e finlandssvenska bokkatalogen kör i gång!" Biblioteken.se, 2013-08-14, accessed August 20, 2020 (Swedish)
  8. ↑ a b c Tiia beaches: The Finland-Swedish Literary Landscape Today . In: Cool Swedish Titles from Finland 2013/2014 Special Issue of Swedish Book Review . 2014, ISSN  0265-8119 , p. 3–6 (English, swedishbookreview.com ).
  9. ↑ Tapani Ritamäki: När Svenskfinland krympte (sv) . In: Hufvudstadsbladet , February 8, 2012. Retrieved August 20, 2020.