The early 20th century

By the end of the 19th century, Finnish-language literature had caught up with the country’s Swedish literature in volume and quality. While lyric poetry and an urban outlook, with a focus on the educated classes, came to characterize Finland-Swedish literature, Finnish writers favoured the novel, the countryside, and the common folk.

During the early part of the 20th century, the major writers included Teuvo Pakkala, whose stories of childhood became classics, and Johannes Linnankoski, who wrote a well-knit novel of peasant life as well as the best-selling Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta (1905; The Song of the Blood-Red Flower), describing the amatory adventures of a Finnish Don Juan. Aino Kallas’s works had an Estonian setting, and her best were prose ballads, written in an archaic style, about illicit love: Barbara von Tisenhusen (1923), Reigin pappi (1926; Eros the Slayer), and Sudenmorsian (1928; The Wolf’s Bride).

Many writers continued the tradition of “folk portrayal” but in a more critical spirit; after civil war followed the country’s independence in 1917, an attitude of self-criticism became general. A leading Finnish prose writer was Joel Lehtonen, whose Putkinotko (1919–20) was a colourful, humorous, and bitterly critical study of the lives of the rural poor. His last novel, Henkien taistelu (1933; “Struggle of Souls”), sharply satirized contemporary conditions. In his important novel Alastalon salissa (1933; “In the Parlour at Alastalo”), Volter Kilpi used interior monologue, long flashback episodes, and detailed description, spreading events of six hours over more than 900 pages. Kilpi was an exponent of the experimental novel; his interest in the problem of time and in the re-creation of the past linked him with such novelists as Marcel Proust and James Joyce. The stories of Heikki Toppila set people’s lives against a background of superstition, and his writing was grimly effective. Frans Eemil Sillanpää viewed his characters from a biologist’s standpoint: he considered them an integral part of their surroundings. This attitude is especially apparent in his most important novels, Hurskas kurjuus (1919; Meek Heritage) and Nuorena nukkunut (1931; The Maid Silja). He was the first Finnish writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1939).

Among poets, Eino Leino was in a class by himself. The scope of his talent ranged from the visionary and mystical Helkavirsiä (1903–16; Whitsongs) to topical novels, plays, pamphlets, and critical journalism. He plumbed Finnish folk poetry for motifs, revived the old metres, and utilized the whole range of the Finnish language in his art. However, rather than herald a new era in Finnish poetry, Leino’s work marked the culmination of the previous one, national Romanticism. Other notable poets of the period were Otto Manninen, a master of laconic compression and a brilliant translator, and Veikko Antero Koskenniemi, who was contemplative, pessimistic, and academic and followed Continental trends more closely.

In the mid-1920s a group of young writers emerged called Tulenkantajat (“Torchbearers”), who took as their slogan “Open the windows to Europe!” Through them, Finns were introduced to free verse, exotic themes, and urban romanticism. The group’s original ideals were realized in the early verse of Katri Vala; at first a prophet of sensual joys, she later turned to social criticism and socialism. One of the Torchbearers’ leaders was the essayist Olavi Paavolainen, a brilliant travel writer and analyst of the times, who in Kolmannen valtakunnan vieraana (1939; “As a Guest in the Third Reich”) expressed prophetic alarm at—but also his fascination with—the developments in Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Paavolainen’s last published work was a war diary, Synkkä yksinpuhelu (1946; “Gloomy Soliloquy”), a skeptical report of Finnish wartime politics with superb nature descriptions of eastern Karelia, the cradle of the Kalevala. The book was met with harsh criticism. Mika Waltari’s achievements were short stories and a series of historical novels. Sinuhe, egyptiläinen (1945; The Egyptian), set in ancient Egypt but reflective of postwar disillusionment, became an international success.

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Among the chief poets of the years between the world wars were Uuno Kailas and Kaarlo Sarkia, both of whom returned to classical ideals of poetry and traditional metres. The former wrote Uni ja kuolema (1931; “Sleep and Death”) and upheld a rigid moral code; the latter was a fastidious stylist and sensitive seeker after beauty. Aaro Hellaakoski and P. Mustapää (pseudonym of Martti Haavio) were recognized as major poets only after World War II; both broadened the traditional style, especially in rhythm.

Leading prose writers included Pentti Haanpää and Toivo Pekkanen, two autodidacts. In his short stories and novels, Haanpää observed with sharp irony and a keen sense of social justice the life of the rural poor, revealing himself as a skillful stylist who frequently criticized the army and the church, two sacrosanct institutions in the newly independent Finland. Pekkanen portrayed the industrial worker; many regard his account of his own childhood in a working class family, Lapsuuteni (1953; My Childhood), as a masterpiece.

In the years immediately before World War II, many literary trends were discernible: colourful romanticism, depth psychology, bitter social criticism. In 1936 a group of left-wing writers known as Kiila (“The Wedge”) was formed, most of their important work appearing after the war (e.g., Elvi Sinervo’s novel Viljami Vaihdokas [1946]). Haanpää’s work also expressed left-wing ideas, as did that of the period’s most notable dramatist, Hella Wuolijoki, who collaborated in 1940 and 1941 with German playwright Bertolt Brecht in writing Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti (performed 1948; Mr. Puntila and His Man Matti).