Pentti Haanpää

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pentti Haanpää, 1950

Pentti Mikael Haanpää (born October 14, 1905 in Pulkkila ; † September 30, 1955 in Pyhäntä ) was a Finnish writer who mainly wrote stories and novels about common people, such as tramps, shoemakers, raftsmen, soldiers. The farmer's son and "master of the small form" knew how to give shape to episodes that seem insignificant in numerous short stories. His language is crude and subtle at the same time. In the established critics, "natural talent" Haanpää made himself unpopular around 1930 due to his socialist and anti-militarist positions, so that he could only publish in small left-wing publishers. In 1948 the President awarded him the Pro Finlandia Medal . Haanpää died at the age of 50, probably as a result of an accident.

life and work

The ancestors of Haanpääs, also simple farmers, were already writing. Some of them held public offices in their region. Haanpää saw himself as a writer at the age of 16, after elementary school, and published in magazines. He completed a couple of distance learning courses at the community college. He did not learn a trade. He earned his living from agriculture and fishing, when the income as a writer was just insufficient. For Richard Semrau, Haanpää and Teikka , a migrant worker, created the first demanding proletarian figure in Finnish prose. Despite their sympathy for the neighboring Soviet Union, both Teikka and its creator remain lone fighters due to the lack of a union movement in the area. Aside from military service, Haanpää spent his entire life in his home village of Piippola. Now and then he traveled to Helsinki , once to the Arctic Ocean and to China. Some attempts to take up an urban profession or even to emigrate to Canada failed. Although he suffered from the narrowness and monotony of his home, he accepted it for the sake of his roots.

Vicious circle of wage dependency

Haanpää made his debut as a book author at the age of 20: Maantietä Pitkin (1925). This tale earned him mostly praise. In 1925/26 he did military service. How reluctant he was to be a soldier is shown in his book Kenttä ja kasarmi (parade ground and barracks) from 1928, which promptly earned him displeasure and even triggered "one of the biggest literary scandals in the country", as Manfred Peter Hein reports. "The acclaimed 'natural talent' had sold out, the nation had spat, intellectual had committed suicide." Two other works with strong social criticism, Noitaympyrä (vicious circle) and Vääpeli Sadon Tapaus (The boots of nine) from the 1930s, were until 1956 appear. The publishing house Kirjailijain Kustannusliike published several volumes of Haanpääs stories. With colleagues like Arvo Turtiainen, Katri Vala , Viljo Kajava and Elvi Sinervo, Haanpää belonged to the Marxist-oriented literary group Kiila (Keil) at this time .

Haanpää was drafted into both wars against the Soviet Union, much to his displeasure. Works like Korpisota (jungle war) and the aforementioned Yhdeksän miehen saappaat show his association of war with poverty and suffering. In the novel Jauhot (The Governor's Incursion) from 1949, the “unmistakable undertone of socially critical accusation” is masked by the “woodcut-like, naturalistic and humorous drawing of people”, says Kindlers . Haanpää renounces any moralizing. "The language is scarce, unsentimental, but not without restrained poetry."

A boat accident

Married to the accountant Aili Karjalainen since 1940, Haanpää's daughter Elsa was born in 1945. Even with increasing popularity in the country, he remained true to his simple way of life. In addition to the unpretentiousness, one appreciates sincerity, friendliness, and the lack of conformity to Haanpää, writes Semrau. In 1953 he was part of a Finnish delegation of writers who visited China. Although he had occasionally criticized the restrictions on freedom of speech in the USSR, he refrained from criticism in his praised work on China, which appeared a year later. In the 1960s, Haanpää's complete works were published in 10 volumes.

He himself did not live to see this complete edition. Haanpää died in September 1955 on Lake Iso-Lamujärvi near Pyhäntä as a result of a storm on a boat trip. According to Robert Brantberg, suicide cannot be ruled out. All those present were also very drunk.

German-language publications

  • The incursion of the governor (Jauhot), Rostock 1965
  • Stories (Juhut), Helsinki / Stuttgart 1982
  • The vicious circle (Noitaympyrä), Helsinki / Stuttgart 1983
  • The Boots of the Nine (Yhdeksän miehen saapaat), Helsinki / Stuttgart 1983

literature

  • Kai Laitinen: "Pentti Haanpää", in: Suomen kirjallisuus , Volume 5, Helsinki 1965, pages 385-408
  • Elsa Erho: “Tie ja kulkijat Pentti Haanpään tuotannossa”, in: Sananjalka 8, 1966, pages 169–183
  • Eino Kauppinen: Pentti Haanpää I. Nuori Pentti Haanpää 1905-1930 , Helsinki 1966
  • Elsa Erho: "Pentti Haanpään ilmaisuraivo", in: Sananjalka 9, 1967, pages 214-232
  • Kai Laitinen: Finland's modern literature , Hamburg 1969, page 105-109
  • Kai Laitinen: “Escape from the Vicious Circle. An Introduction to Pentti Haanpää “, in: Books from Finland , 1976, pp. 54-58
  • Aarne Kinnunen: Haanpään pitkät varjot. Pentti Haanpään kertomataiteesta , Helsinki 1982
  • Vesa Karonen: Haanpää elämä , Helsinki 1985
  • Kari Sallamaa: Kaksisuuntaiset silmät , 1996
  • Juhani Koivisto: Leipää huudamme ja kiviä annetaan , 1999

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kindler's New Literature Lexicon , Munich 1988 edition
  2. ^ A b epilogue to vicious circle , Helsinki / Stuttgart 1983
  3. ↑ a b Manfred Peter Hein, epilogue to stories , Helsinki / Stuttgart 1982
  4. ↑ Petri Liukkonen 2008 , accessed September 19, 2011
  5. ↑ Robert Brantenberg 2009 , accessed 19 September 2011

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Haanpää, Pentti
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haanpää, Pentti Mikael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Pulkkila
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1955
Place of death Pyhäntä