Minna Canth

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Minna Canth
Minna Canth painted by Kaarlo Vuori
Finnish postage stamp for 100th birthday in 1944
Minna Canth's grave in Kuopio

Minna Canth , born as Ulrika Wilhelmina Johnsson (born March 19, 1844 in Tampere , Grand Duchy of Finland , † May 12, 1897 in Kuopio , Grand Duchy of Finland), was a Finnish writer and suffragette.

Life

Canth came from a Finnish-Swedish family as the daughter of the textile craftsman and later trader Gustaf William Johnson and his wife Lovisa Ulrika. The working-class daughter sought a higher educational qualification against the will of her parents, but failed because of the male-dominated educational institutions. She was well read and familiar with the writings of many contemporary authors, including Hippolyte Taine , Herbert Spencer , Henrik Ibsen, and John Stuart Mill .

She married the seminary director Johan Ferdinand Canth (1835–1879), who left her penniless with seven children after his death. Shortly after his death, she published her first major play.

plant

Although she also spoke Swedish as her mother tongue and had learned French, she wrote mainly in Finnish . In literary terms she is regarded as the leading representative of naturalism and Finnish realism. Politically, through her articles, plays and stories she fought against alcohol abuse, for an improvement in the situation of working class women and especially for women's rights . Several of their works were temporarily banned. She was one of the first women to address the issue of women as a legal issue, to demand a fundamental reform of women's rights in marriage, and perhaps the first to see a visible success. In her best-known play Työmiehen vaimo (“ The Worker's Wife ”), she describes how a woman loses all of her property due to the patriarchal matrimonial property law of the time, because the alcoholic husband wastes it in a short time. The right is on the man's side, the woman has no way of preventing him. Canth wrote this drama in 1885. Her aim was, by her own admission, to censure the injustice of the law against women, alcoholism and illiteracy of men, but also stupidity, superficiality and prejudice of women.

Just a few months later, the Finnish congress of estates fundamentally changed the law of matrimonial property and introduced the separation of property, according to which women could freely dispose of assets and earnings. It is doubtful, however, whether this reform was directly influenced by the play Minna Canths.

Women in conflict with the law also play the leading role in Canth's two other outstanding works. In the short story Kauppa-Lopo (Die Trödel-Lopo, 1889) a wandering peddler plays the main role who spends hard times in prison because of a theft. The drama Anna-Liisa (1895) deals with the fate of a child murderer in a small-scale setting. Other well-known works are the dramas Papin perhe (The Pastor's Family ), Murtovarkaus (The Burglary), Kovan onnen lapsia (Unlucky Children ) and Sylvi as well as the novels Hanna and Köyhää kansaa (Poor People).

Her works were translated into German in 1920, in four volumes.

Honors and aftermath

In 1907, ten years after Minna Canth's death, Finland was the first European country to introduce women's suffrage , largely thanks to her work. Since 2007 Canth's birthday, March 19, has been celebrated in Finland as Equal Rights Day, with flags on official buildings .

Minna Canth's work is commemorated in Finland with coins, postage stamps, monuments, paintings, plays and other events.

Works (selection)

  • Työmiehen vaimo. WSOY, Porvoo 1885 ( digitized version )
    • The worker's wife. German by Nadine Erler , Verlag 28 Eichen. Barnstorf 2008
  • Sylvi. Otava, Helsinki 1893
    • Sylvi. German by Emilie Stein, Hamburg 1908; German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen. Barnstorf 2008
  • Spiritists istunto. Telén, 1894
    • The spiritualistic session. German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2013.
  • Salakari. Edlund, Helsinki 1887
    • Blind cliffs. German by Emilie Stein, 1907
    • Hidden cliffs. German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2013.
  • Roinilan talossa. WSOY, Porvoo 1885
  • Papin perhe. Otava, Helsinki 1891
    • The pastor's family. German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2008
  • Murtovarkaus. WSOY, Porvoo 1883
    • The break-in. German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2013.
  • Kauppa-Lopo. / Lehtori Hellmanin vaimo. Weilin & Göös, Espoo 1889
    • Die Trödel-Lopo / Die Frau des Studienrat: two stories in German by Heinz Goldberg, Leipzig 1969 ( Lehtori Hellmanin vaimo - dt. Die Frau des Studienrat - published in 1892 in the anthology Novelleja 2 )
  • Köyhää kansaa. Edlund, Helsinki 1886
    • Poor people. German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2008
  • Kovan onnen lapsia. Edlund, Helsinki 1888
    • Unfortunate children. German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2008
  • Kotoa pois. Otava, Helsinki 1895
  • Hän on Sysmästä. WSOY, Porvoo 1893
  • Hanna. Edlund, Helsinki 1886
    • Hanna. German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2008
  • Anna Liisa. WSOY, Porvoo 1895
    • Anna Liisa. German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2008
  • Agnes. Otava, Helsinki 1911
    • Agnes. German by Nadine Erler, Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2008
  • Omaelämäkerta. Weilin & Göös, Espoo 1897.
    • Autobiography. German by Nadine Erler. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2011.
  • Lain mukaan. Weilin & Göös.
    • According to the law. German by Nadine Erler. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2012.
  • Kuinka mostly tuli kirjailijoita. Otava, Helsinki 1916.
    • How I became a writer. German by Nadine Erler. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2012.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 94.

literature

  • Toward equality: proceedings of the American and Finnish Workshop on Minna Canth, June 19 - 20th, 1985, Kupio / Ed .: Sinkkonen, Sirkka. Kuopio: Yliop., 1986. ISBN 951-780-823-2 .
  • Marija Semjonova: Minna Kanta, Aspazija un Jevdokija Rostopina: Jauns laikmets literatūrā . Riga: Latvian University (Master thesis), 2011

Web links

Commons : Minna Canth  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Canth, Minna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Canth, Ulrika Wilhelmina (full name); Johnsson, Ulrika Wilhelmina (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish writer and women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Tampere , Grand Duchy of Finland , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1897
Place of death Kuopio , Grand Duchy of Finland , Russian Empire