Die finnische Kinder- und Jugendliteratur und ihre Präsens in Polen

In the article the authors presented the chosen aspects of the works of Katri Vala, one of the most interesting Finnishspeaking poets in the 1920s and 30s. She was part of the Nuori voima (Youth power) group, formed by young Finnish poets and writers, and later of the Tulenkantajat (The Torch Bearers). Her early poems are marked by the modernist tendencies which prevailed in the Sweedish-language poetry in Finland, foremost in the works of Edith Sodergran. The new way of writing, which Katri Vala perceived as something natural and coming from her heart, was never difficult for her and she never elaborated on it in theory. The poems written by Katri Vala are considered to be a modernist breakthrough in the poetry written in Finnish. The author, however, did not strive to substitute the whole of the Finnish writing until then, but rather to gain an equal status for the new poetry. Her attempt, as well as those of her colleagues, was unsuccessful in the 1920s and 30s

Johan Ludvig Runebergs idyllische Wirklichkeit. Einige Bemerkungen zum Frühwerk

In the paper the early works of J.L.Runeberg, the Finnish national romantic, are analysed. The paper presents Runebeig’s idealistic and romantic views on the Finns and the Finnish reality in the first half of the 19th century. Runeberg developed his opinions in the years 1823-26 which he spent among common people of Saarijärvi parish. In his early works Runeberg gave a , picture of an idealistic utopia in which all conflicts disappeared and everyone and eveiything lived in total harmony

Literarische finnisch-deutsche Beziehungen bis 1918

The article ‘Literary Finnish-German relations until 1918’ broaches less known and less frequently analysed aspects of literary and cultural contacts between Finland and Germany. First of all, the author brings into focus the development of the Finnish literary production in the 16th century. It took place in close connection with the Reformation, which reached Finland from Germany (especially Wittenberg) via Sweden. As a centre of learning, Germany drew most of the Finnish students who were to play a major role in the religious and cultural life of Finland. Among other were the Reformer Peder Särkilax and the bishop M. Agricola, the author of the first ABC-book in Finnish and the translator of the New testament. Second, the article emphasises that until the 19th century, it were the Fins who were influenced by the German literary achievements. After the publication of the Finnish literary epic ‘Kalevala’ in 1835–49, the direction of literary impulses changed. The articles and lectures of Jacob Grimm on Finnish literature (1845) generated avid interest in Germany, a tendency which has lived on ever since

Ein Superstar der neueren finnischen Prosa. Einige Bemerkungen zum finnischen Roman "Fegefeuer" von Sofi Oksanen

The article is devoted to Sofi Oksanen, one of the most recognizable Finnish authors of the young generation whose literary production has been an unbroken streak of success for the last ten years. It addresses in particular her groundbreaking novel Purge (Puhdistus). In the analysis, the article focuses first and foremost on the aspect of a woman’s corporeality as well as shame and exclusion resulting from sexual abuse. It is one of the central motifs in Osanen’s production. On the example of Aliide the writer depicts, from the feminist point of view, the effects of physical violence towards women used as an element of humiliation and oppression of a conquered nation. The metaphor of a woman’s body as an occupied country gives the novel a universal character and draws attention to the fact that destroying womanhood is a subtle and slow way to the fall of societies. Therefore the deeds of both women are not unambiguously condemned in the novel

Schwedisches, Finnisches und Polnisches in Mika Waltaris historischem Roman 'Karin, Magnustochter'

The article is an attempt at analysing the Swedish, Finnish and Polish elements in Mika Waltari’s first historical novel, Karin Månsdotter (1942), which is based on an earlier movie script (1941). The novel describes historical events at the time when Sweden was ruled by King Erik XIV. The story of the king’s life, his efforts aimed at strengthening his position in the country and Sweden’s position in the Baltic Sea region in the 16th century, as well as the connected historical events, are presented with the king’s private life in the background, including his love for a common woman whom he married and made queen of Sweden. The author points out that the novel in question seems to portray historical events somewhat freely. In creating the stories of the main characters, Waltari used unverified sources, such as motives that had been told and retold by common people and some historiographers. This is not the case in his later novels, which are based on verified historical sources. Waltari created a very conventional, highly contrasted image of his female characters: Karin has only positive features, while Catherine the Jagiellonian and her husband John III (the Prince of Finland and later on the King of Sweden) have utterly negative ones

Finnland und Finnische Literatur in Polen

The article describes the presence of Finland in the consciousness of Poles (since 14th-16th century) as well as the presence of the Finnish literature on the Polish publishing market since 1860s until today. Finnish literature became broadly known in Europe only in 1835, when the first edition of the national epic Kalevala appeared and directed European intelligentsia’s attention to Finnish nation and its struggle for their own national identity. Selection of Finnish literary works (including those written in Swedish) which were translated in that times into Polish proves that the Polish publishers and translators were consciously looking for similarities between the situation of Poland and Finland which both were under the reign of tsarist Russia. The rich Finnish literature of the next decades fully shows the difficult process of becoming a Finn and finding one’s own identity under new political and social conditions

Daniel Katz - ein Fremder in der finnischen Literatur?

The focal point of the article is the position of Daniel Katz, a writer of Jewish origin who has published in Finnish, in the Finnish literature of the second part of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. Katz has introduced new elements to Finnish writing, which until the 1960s was limited to purely Finnish problems and motifs. Literary critics and scholars have been for years engaged in a debate on whether Katz is a Finnish writer or a foreign author who writes in Finnish about problems marginal to Finns. This article attempts to answer this question