Johan Ludvig Runeberg

Keywords: Dream, music, modern music, Finnish composers, Finnish poetry, Kalevala, Jean Sibelius, Kaija Saariaho, Tapio Tuomela, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Elias Lönnrot, Finland, Sámi, Nordic cultures.

Based on a presentation given at the international symposium of the DFG-Graduiertenkolleg ‘Europäische Traum-kulturen’ (University of Saarland, Saarbrücken, 24–25 May 2019): ‘A Gateway to Secret Existences. Dream, Body and Soul in Kaija Saariaho’s Music,’ hosted by Dr Mauro Fosco Bertola.

Il presente scritto si propone come obiettivo l’analisi e la traduzione di alcuni testi poetici di Aleksis Kivi, padre del romanzo finlandese. Nel primo capitolo viene descritto brevemente il contesto letterario e vengono presentati alcuni autori di spicco dell’epoca. In seguito è invece analizzata la produzione poetica di Kivi, accompagnata da un commento personale teso a illustrare le principali tematiche e le particolarità stilistiche dell’autore. Particolare attenzione viene prestata alle interazioni tra gli elementi di innovazione delle poesie d’amore e le componenti tradizionali che rimandano alla mitologia ugro-finnica. Questa compresenza dà vita a una poetica profondamente originale e rinnovata, in contrasto con gli scritti dei contemporanei.

ABSTRACT
This thesis investigates the relationship between Johan Ludvig Runeberg and the Central South Slavic
oral songs that he had read in the collection Serbische Volkslieder (1827), translated into German by
Peter Otto von Goetze and in Herder’s anthology Stimmen der Völker in Liedern. The encounter with
Goetze’s translations of oral songs collected by Vuk Karadžić led to a short, but intense translation
activity as well as to changes in Runeberg’s own poetics. Shortly after he had read Goetze’s
translation, Runeberg decided to imitate oral poetry. The elements that he was trying to preserve in his
translations were the same elements that he later used in his own poetry.
Despite the fact that the Central South Slavic influence on Runeberg’s writings has always been
known, the nature of this influence was not sufficiently investigated. The influence affects Runeberg’s
translations of Central South Slavic oral songs and can also be seen in his own poetic activity inspired
by these songs, as well as in his view of the relationship between the Finnish-Swedish literary system
and the Swedish one. The main question of the thesis therefore relates to the significance that the
Central South Slavic oral songs have had for Runeberg’s literary activity as a whole. The analyses
concern different areas in which the influence of these songs stands out: Runeberg’s translation
strategies, artistic practices, poetics, criticism, and his position in the Finnish-Swedish literary system.
In my thesis I demonstrate the role that translations of Central South Slavic oral poetry have played
in constructing the Finnish national identity. Strongly influenced by the cultural nationalism of Herder,
the Finns chose cultural consolidation as the main strategy for strengthening their national identity.
This was done in two ways: by turning to Finnish oral poetry and by creating a new Finnish literature
based on a non-Swedish foundation. As I have shown, Central South Slavic oral poetry had a small,
but certainly important role in both of these strategies.
KEYWORDS: translation, oral poetry, J. L. Runeberg, Central South Slavic, national identity

Mit Skandinavien assoziieren heute die meisten Menschen eine wohlhabende Weltregion, die vorbildliche soziale Sicherungssysteme hat. Dieses Buch erzählt davon, dass dieser Wohlstand jedoch mühsam errungen werden musste und historisch relativ jung ist.
Literarische Darstellungen armutsbedingten Hungers geben Aufschluss über skandinavische Konstruktionen von Identität und deren Wandel. Die Vorstellung von einer im Hunger geeinten Nation wich einer Kritik gesellschaftlicher Ungleichheit, die zu neuen politischen Idealbildern führte. Hunger erweist sich darüber hinaus als poetologisch produktives Thema und Motiv.

Die Studie untersucht Repräsentationen von Hunger in einflussreichen und bekannten Texten der skandinavischen Literatur, z. B. den Nationalhymnen Finnlands und Norwegens, Knut Hamsuns ‚Sult‘ (‚Hunger‘, 1890), Martin Andersen Nexøs ‚Pelle Erobreren‘ (‚Pelle der Eroberer‘, 1906–1910) oder Vilhelm Mobergs Auswanderer-Tetralogie (1949–1959), und setzt diese in Beziehung zu ihren historisch-diskursiven Kontexten.