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ISSN: 0355-0311 (print); 2737-1662 (web)
Flexible Genders – Changing Meanings
Gender is now understood as something versatile and changing. It is seen as part of identity and as a means of expressing oneself, but it is also a product of social and cultural structures. The Kalevala Society Foundation’s Yearbook 103 Joustavat sukupuolet – muuttuvat merkitykset (Flexible Genders – Changing Meanings) explores the cultural contradictions, processes of change and persistence of gender and sexuality. The authors of the articles use their research materials to critically assess why and in what ways old ideas about gender are maintained and new ones are constructed – on the other hand, the same materials open up perspectives on what makes it possible to act and be differently. The authors come from the fields of folklore research, ethnology, and comparative literature.
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From National to Transnational. Culture, Tradition, and Literature
Tradition and literature are not held back by borders. Transnationality is, for example, geographic, symbolic, or linguistic movement and action. Different kinds of cultural transitions and migrant traditions are connected with transnationality. Studying the multilingualism of literary texts or diverse cultural identities, transnationality is a prolific angle. In the 102nd Yearbook of the Kalevala Society Foundation, the topics cover for example migration and return migration, material things crossing borders, and places of music culture. At a more theoretical level we are asking how studying transnationality enriches the disciplines with roots in the national sciences.
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Why the Kalevala and not the Kanteletar? The Kalevala Society’s 101st Yearbook maps the processes of canonizing and marginalizing in traditions, cultural heritage and literature by focusing on the fringes of cultural ideals and norms. How and using which criteria have researchers, artists and materials of cultural production been lifted up or pushed aside? What kind of nations would have emerged if writing the nation had rested on the alternatives: the marginal rather than the canonical genres? A look into the blind spots and fringes of culture and research reveals the endless movement in and between hierarchically positioned spheres of culture. Listening to margins changes not only the canon but also the idea of canon.
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The theme and title of the 100th Yearbook of the Kalevala Society is ”Paradigm”. Paradigm is a framework of prevalent principles, beliefs, values, and norms, and incorporates ideas about what is correct in terms of theory and methodology. Accordingly, paradigm always leads to struggles of authority in relation to other trends and ways of thinking. This book grapples with the historical, contemporary, and ever-shifting paradigms and methods of cultural research. What was being researched in the early 20th century and how was the research conducted? What happened in the 1960s–1980s in this field of research? What methods do our peers use? What kinds of affiliations and antagonisms emerge with the changing paradigms? And how do the different ’turns’ direct research?
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