| Abstrakt: |
The defining moments of Finland-Swedish modernism took place in 1922 and in 1928-1929, with the publication of the journals Ultra and Quosego respectively. Because of their bilingual/multilingual and 'doubly peripheral' position in relation to Russia and Sweden, the Finland-Swedish modernists were at the intersection of international literary and artistic currents at the time. The two journals created a sense of new possibilities in Finland-Swedish (as well as Scandinavian) literature. Edith Södergran (1892-1923) was one of the pioneers of modernism in Scandinavian literature. She introduced German expressionist, Russian symbolist and futurist tenets to Finland-Swedish audiences. Some literary critics take Södergran's avant-garde status for granted. However, her verse hovers between romanticism, idealism, and modernism. Södergran's most radical avant-garde features are the ideological motifs that exceed simple concepts of literary schools and styles, even those of sex, gender and power in the period of early modernism. Södergran was the only Finland-Swedish poet read and valued by her Finnish contemporaries; there were few connections between the Swedish and the Finnish-speaking modernists at the time. The Tulenkantajat movement played an important role in channelling new European trends to a Finnish-speaking audience, but lacked literary achievement: the most significant poet of the Finnish-language "avant-garde" from the inter-war period, Aaro Hellaakoski (1893- 1952), was not associated with the Tulenkantajat movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
