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Neologisms in Finnish-speaking children’s language
This book examines innovative derived words and compounds used by Finnish-speaking children.
The first derivational type of verbs has the productive and transparent TTA-suffix (e.g. kaatua ‘fall over’ → kaaduttaa ‘overturn’), and most early adjectives have the inen-suffix (e.g. kasvi ‘plant’ → kasvinen ‘with many plants’). As for the nouns, children produce such derivational innovations as instruments derived with the in-suffix (e.g. paistaa ‘to roast’ → paistin ‘grill’, pelastaa ‘rescue’ → pelastin ‘rescue tool’), local nouns derived with the lA-suffix (e.g. Timo → Timola ‘Timo’s home’), and mUs-derivatives (e.g. piirtää ‘draw’ → piirtämys ‘drawing’).
The first compound neologisms are based on the transparent models of the caregivers. Later innovative compounds are diversified but mostly so transparent that they are easily understood, such as isosormi ‘big finger’ in the meaning of ‘thumb’, kalatelevisio ‘fish television’ in the meaning of ‘aquarium’, takanimi ‘back name’ in the meaning of ‘family name’, takaruoka ‘back food’ in the meaning of ‘dessert’, and yöaurinko ‘night sun’ in the meaning of ‘(full) moon’.
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This study examines experienced space in Maarit Verronen’s works of prose fiction. The study aligns itself with the contemporary approach often referred to as spatial literary studies, a movement connected to the spatial turn within the humanities. Theoretically, the study draws on multiple fields of spatial studies, from semiotics of space to critical theory and poststructuralism. By providing a categorization on different approaches within spatial literary studies, the study promotes literary studies that utilize spatial theory and explores how spatial concepts can be effectively used as tools for close reading.
Since the study aims to provide a longitudinal section of Verronen’s oeuvre, the selected material spans the author’s early works, from the 1990s to the late 2000s. The corpus involves six novels and two short stories. The analysis begins with the fantastic realms of Verronen’s early career, proceeds to consider wilderness and wild spaces, turns to visions of dystopic futures, and concludes in the narratives of homecoming and homesteading. The study shows that Verronen’s fantasy draws its allegorical potential from the juxtaposition of spatialized binary semantic oppositions. By analyzing Verronen’s dystopian novels, the study unravels the spatial nature of the genre and the critical potential it encompasses. Verronen’s narratives on wilderness are approached through the notion of spatial practices and in the context of alienation and postpastoralism. Finally, the analysis on the literary homes and the acts of homesteading in Verronen’s novels foregrounds the open, connected, and inclusive nature of the contemporary notion of home and new forms of attachment to place, both of which are under an active debate in spatial literary studies.
By bringing together spatial literary studies and Verronen’s works, this research adds to the study of Finnish literature and contemporary literature’s emphasis on space, spatiality, and environmental issues. Moreover, the study contributes to the knowledge on the genres of fantasy and dystopia, as well as to the study of classic literary tropes and their contemporary manifestations. As the study contextualizes Verronen’s works within Nordic and European literatures, it draws attention to the thematic and stylistic connections that link her writing to broader literary trends and traditions.
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Nationalism and language
This book looks at the relationship between nationalism and language through a theoretical introduction and case studies focusing on Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It encourages readers to reflect on language-related phenomena and their own language attitudes – and at the same time reconsider concepts such as “mother tongue” and “national language” that guide language policies and debates on language issues. The scholarly knowledge of the history of language, language learning, the relationship between language and the production of knowledge that the authors highlight is often at odds with how nationalist narratives frame the status of language and guide language policies and education. The book is useful for students and professionals working with language: language teachers, researchers, language planning authorities and experts in multilingualism. It provides food for thought for all those interested in the relationship between language and society.
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How Do We Read? The Possibilities for Literary School Education
This collection of articles examines literature education in Finnish upper secondary schools. The authors of the articles are literary scholars who present current perspectives on the study of literature. The central argument is that literary education in upper secondary schools has been overly focused on textual analytical close reading, while experiential and reflective methods of dealing with literature may motivate young readers in new ways.
The book consists of three sections. The first section delves into the current state of upper secondary school literature education by examining curricula and comparing upper secondary school literature teaching to the diploma programme offered by the International Baccalaureate. The second section then examines how materiality, intersectionality, and gender-conscious reading can be incorporated into literary education. The third section highlights experiential approaches to literature. The articles discuss the starting points of experiential learning, bodily and reflexive close reading, the experience of reading ecological dystopian literature, and the potential of audiobooks in school education in light of what listening means to literary education.
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The road across the sea
For over six centuries, Sweden and Finland were one and the same realm. This volume highlights the enduring connections between the central areas of both countries by exploring the interactions between Uppsala, Stockholm and Turku, particularly from the perspectives of urban mobility and the flows of knowledge, goods and people.
The authors examine Turku as one of the key university towns in the early-modern Swedish realm and as a centre of administration and trade in its heartland, with strong links to the rest of Europe and the world. By emphasising the ties between Turku and other cities as well as the connections between academia and various other spheres of life in Sweden, the volume offers a fresh perspective on the intellectual, cultural and social history of the university. Key themes include the experiences of students and scholars in university towns, the relationships between the bourgeoisie and the academic community, intellectual networks and the cultural expressions of urban life.
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Approaches to Literature
Literature is a complex phenomenon that can be analysed and studied from a multitude of perspectives. Approaches to Literature presents a wide range of scholarly approaches that take different views on what literature is and how it should be examined.
The volume is divided into four sections. They present approaches that take as their starting point (1) the author, (2) the text, (3) the reader, and (4) the world. The fourth section ranges from social, historical, and cultural approaches to ecocriticism, posthumanism, and such interdisciplinary approaches as cultural memory studies and contextualist narrative studies.
The volume is written in an accessible style for educators and students of literature. It discusses approaches to literature by taking into account both their historicity and the ways in which many approaches developed in the past are still present in how literature is examined today.
The contributors represent a wide variety of literary studies and other disciplines.
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Hunger and Cold. Journeys to a Horrible North
This book examines a range of Arctic histories as narrative forms of telling and retelling. Most of the material – texts, images and a film – builds on the Romantic concept of the Arctic sublime. The methodological framework is that of artistic research.
The concept of polarlore and themes such as a failed journey and bad food are explored from Fridtjof Nansen’s works from the 1890s and Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s books and statements from the 1920s. These are read in parallel with texts such as the travelogue of the Sami expedition member Samuel Balto and the diary of the Inuit seamstress Ada Blackjack, an original counterpoint to the male narratives of the North. Other topics include the new Arctic sublime of the 1930s as depicted in the film S.O.S. Eisberg by Arnold Fanck and in contemporary Soviet narratives of the rescue of the comrades from the sunken steamship Chelyuskin. Hunger and Cold juxtaposes new findings with critical discourses of arcticality and arcticism.
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Arctic Hysteria and Other Strange Northern Emotions: Case Studies in Finnish Literature opens a new perspective on the thriving area of research on the imagined North by studying emotions in the light of case studies in Finnish literature. The volume addresses the cultural history of Arctic hysteria and maps other strange emotions depicted and evoked in literature of the Finnish North. The volume comprises seven case studies which range from the works of internationally renowned authors, such as Rosa Liksom, Emmi Itäranta and Tove Jansson, to the affectively controversial and provocative writings of Timo K. Mukka, Marko Tapio and Pentti Linkola. Drawing from the study of the imagined North and theories and tools in the study of literature and emotions, the analyses show how such moods as melancholia, ecstasy or a peculiar sense of November are generated in texts and how literary emotions entangle with the Northern environment they depict. By focusing on the imagined North in Finnish modernism and contemporary literature, the authors offer original views on experiences of late modernity merging with the changing Northern environment in the age of the Anthropocene.
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Finnish Children’s Film
Children’s films have been an integral part of the Finnish film industry throughout the 2000s. Several films are produced annually, attracting vast audiences among both children and adults. Despite the significant role of children’s films in Finnish film culture as a whole, only little research has been conducted on the subject so far.
This collection of articles provides a fascinating overview on the past and present of Finnish children’s film and its complex role in today’s Finnish film culture. The contributors approach children’s film from a cross-disciplinary viewpoint, including perspectives from Film Studies, History, Childhood Studies and Educational Sciences. The book explores children’s film as a professional choice for Finnish filmmakers and as an international business card, while also assessing the pedagogical possibilities of strengthening multiliteracy. Lastly, through analyses and close-readings of different Finnish children’s films, the articles discuss themes such as girlhood, child-animal-relationships, imagery of death, and resistance to neoliberalism, and do so in novel ways.
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Exploring Pathways to Private Archives. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Historical, Cultural, and Literary Research
This anthology showcases a methodologically diverse range of archival research across literary studies, cultural history, folklore and memory studies, and historiography. It illuminates contemporary perspectives and challenges associated with archive usage. The chapters collectively advance the interdisciplinary dialogue on the utilization of private archival materials in literature and cultural traditions, underscoring the pivotal role these resources—whether ancient, recent, or emerging—play in research, and tackling the ethical dimensions of archival research.
The volume illustrates the breadth of questions that can and should be posed in archival research. It also delves into the element of surprise often encountered in the research process. Furthermore, the book discusses how the description and organization of materials, the availability of metadata, and the physical or digital nature of the archives shape scholarly investigations.
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