From Period Costume to Historical Disguise:
T. Vaaskivi and the Change
in the Finnish Historical Novel in the 1930s and 1940s

1. Introduction
2. Theoretical bases
3. The main lines of development of the historical novel
4. T. Vaaskivi as a writer: some points of departure
5. Loistava Armfelt ('Glorious Armfelt')
6. Yksinvaltias I–II ('The Autocrat')
7. Pyhä kevät ('The Holy Spring')
8. Tracing the changes
9. The three traditions of the Finnish historical novel

ENGLISH SUMMARY

1. Introduction

The historical novel is a genre which continues to interest researchers. Despite this, no specific and unified theory of the historical novel exists. In Finland the historical novel is a popular genre, but theoretical studies on the problematics of the historical novel have been few.

The historical novel has undergone significant changes in Finland from the 1930s onwards. This study examines in detail the changes that took place in the 1930s and 1940s, and looks particularly at the historical novels of the writer T. Vaaskivi (1912–1942) against the background of this development. By change in the genre is meant primarily change in the discourse within the genre, in other words in the way the historical past is presented and the way this presentation is reflected upon in the text. Observations are also made on aspects outside Vaaskivi's works themselves, such as the origin of his works, the way they were received, their intertextual relations and impact on the cultural life of the time.

At the beginning of this study, a general and operational definition of 'historical novel' is given, leaning principally on studies by Ina Schabert (1981) and Harry E. Shaw (1985). This is not, however, a context-free definition of the concept of historical novel, but rather an analytical description of what is meant by the concept of historical novel when talking about works from the period under investigation.

The primary material in this study consists of T. Vaaskivi's historical novels Loistava Armfelt ('Glorious Armfelt', 1939), Yksinvaltias I–II ('The Autocrat', 1942) and Pyhä kevät ('The Holy Spring', 1943). Background material includes other Finnish historical novels and historical novels in other languages, and other writings by Vaaskivi, including critical reviews, essays, and articles and the following books: F.E. Sillanpää (1937, a biography); Vaistojen kapina ('Instincts in Revolt', 1937, a long essay); Huomispäivän varjo ('The Shadow of Tomorrow', 1938, a long essay); Rooman tie ('The Road to Rome', 1940, a travelogue); Kurjet etelään... (The 'Cranes Fly South...', 1946, a travelogue); and Arkaadiset jumalat ('Arcadian Gods', 1990 [1934], a long essay). Other sources of material have been the Finnish Literary Society's Vaaskivi collection and Vaaskivi's own library.
 

2. Theoretical bases

In this study, 'history' is understood as the representation of the past in historiography or in human memory. By 'the past' is meant all events and states of affairs which have factually taken place or been in existence. History is to be understood as a construction, or reconstruction, of the past.

As a literary genre, the historical novel has a history of almost 200 years. Over this period the genre has naturally undergone many changes. Moreover, historical novels often contain elements of other types of novel, and these may in any given work be in complex interrelationship. It is not possible, therefore, to give 'historical novel' a definition independent of the historico-cultural context.

Historical novels are analysed here using discourse analysis and narratology. These methods are used relatively freely. A narrative work of art is seen as a multilayer construction and at the same time as a dynamic process in which the different elements contribute in different ways to this construction. The approach is thus in accordance with structuralist-formalist theory.

The historical novel is an exceptionally intertextual type of literature. Reading a historical novel, readers recognise what is being related as something they have read before in history books. Indeed, the historical novel demands to be read in two ways. Reading the work as a work of history, the reader will constantly make use of prior knowledge of the events related, while reading it as fiction the reader knows of the characters and surrounding circumstances only what is related in the text.
 

3. The main lines of development of the historical novel

The study outlines the general history of the historical novel to the extent that is necessary for an understanding of the work of T. Vaaskivi. The historical novel has its origin in the work of Sir Walter Scott (1772–1832). The tradition of the historical novel started by Scott may be termed conventional or classical. A different, exotic historical novel developed in the middle of the 19th century, the prime example being Salambbô (1862) by Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880). In Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, a type of novel developed which Georg Lukács terms the historical novel of democratic humanism.

Vaaskivi was particularly familiar with the German and Austrian literature of his time, especially with Lion Feuchtwanger (1884–1958), Franz Werfel (1890–1945) and Stefan Zweig (1881–1942), and used their works as models in his own writing. He also adopted rather uncritically the philosophy of history of Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) and Egon Friedell (1878–1938).

Finland was until 1809 part of the Swedish realm (Finland still has a significant Swedish speaking minority). From 1809 to 1917 Finland was an Autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia. The Finnish historical novel has its origin in the days of the so-called national awakening in the middle of the nineteenth century in the writings of the Swedish-speaking journalist, writer and historian, Zacharias Topelius (1818–1898). Prose literature in Finnish largely began to develop at around the same time. Topelius's Romantic work Fältskärns berättelser ('Tales of a Barber-Surgeon', 1851–1866) influenced the development of the historical novel in Finland until the 1940s. More realistic historical novels were written by writers such as the Finnish-speaking Santeri Ivalo (1866–1937).

At the turn of the century, Russia increased its pressure on Finland over its autonomous status. The challenge was met in Finnish cultural life with great intensity, and the historical novel became an important genre. After independence in 1917 and the failure of the leftist revolution in 1917–1918, a right-wing society became established. The writing of history, and with it the historical novel, accommodated in the 1920s and 1930s to the new conservative and nationalist ideology. The past was seen through the filter of the Greater Finland myth, and Russians and Swedes were seen in a very negative light. Formally, the historical novel followed in many respects the conventional tradition of Scott and Topelius.
 

4. T. Vaaskivi as a writer: some points of departure

T. Vaaskivi was a well-known young newspaper critic in the 1930s. He studied, by himself, modern psychology, especially Freudian psychology. Indeed, he was to become the best known popularizer of psychoanalysis of his time.

At the beginning of his career as a newspaper critic he was an admirer of Scott and Topelius, but from the mid-thirties onwards he consciously began to call for a renewal of the historical novel. He condemned contemporary Finnish historical novels for their psychological naivete and hero-worship. He put forward the idea, referring to contemporary German literature, that the historical novel should reflect the problems of the time of writing "in the disguise of history".
 

5. Loistava Armfelt ('Glorious Armfelt')

Loistava Armfelt was Vaaskivi's first historical novel. The main character is the Finnish-born, Swedish-speaking baron, Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt (1757–1814), who attained a high position at the court of Gustaf III, "the Rococo King", in Stockholm. The novel describes, daringly, many of Armfelt's affairs with women, and the portrayal of character makes use of psychoanalysis.

In writing the novel, Vaaskivi used as models Zweig's biographies Marie Antoinette (1932) and Maria Stuart (1935). The novel is indeed partly a Zweigian "modern" biography, which emphasizes not the political activity of the historical characters but rather the intimate details of their everyday lives. The work breaks away from the typical nationalist accent of the Finnish historical novel in the thirties.
 

6. Yksinvaltias I–II ('The Autocrat')

For Vaaskivi, the outbreak of the Second World War was an extremely oppressive experience, from which he never recovered. Just before the war he spent almost a year in Italy planning his next novel, about the Roman Emperor, Tiberius. The novel, entitled Yksinvaltias I–II, appeared in 1942. The Second World War is reflected in it in many ways; this was indeed Vaaskivi's intention. He considered Tiberius "the prototype of all dictators" and "a Stalin before Stalin, raised to the power of ten!"

Yksinvaltias I–II is in its way a study of power, the abuse of power, and the morality of dictators. At the same time it is a more general treatment of the problematics of guilt and innocence. At the end of the novel, the Emperor is informed of the crucifixion of the innocent Jesus of Nazareth; this causes him to ponder on his own guilt. Portraying the birth-throes of the Christian era, Vaaskivi is also treating the problem of awareness in modern man.

7. Pyhä kevät ('The Holy Spring')

Since the middle of the thirties, Vaaskivi had been planning to write a historical novel about Jesus. He began work on it immediately after Yksinvaltias, but the work remained unfinished when he died. It was published posthumously under the title Pyhä Kevät in 1943.

Pyhä Kevät seeks to break free of conventional readings of the New Testament. On the one hand there is an abundance of historically correct details, but on the other hand the discourse of the novel is constructed in such a way that it can not be read simply as a recounting or paraphrase of the Gospel. The names used in the novel, for example, are in the original language, such as Jeshua (Jesus), Simon Keefas (Simon Peter) and Jirmia or Jirmejahu (Jeremiah), and the miracles performed by Jesus are found to be very ordinary.

The thematic idea running through the novel is the conflict between the realms of light and goodness on the one hand and those of darkness and misery on the other. The chief character, Jeshua, is not a god, nor the Son of God in the normal sense. In fact the novel makes him into a Great Pan, a kind of incarnation of universal innocence. The novel leaves us with the impression that after Jeshua, people are to be tormented by guilt, from which there is no escape. The novel thus treats the emergence of Christianity in the same way as Yksinvaltias.

8. Tracing the changes

The study demonstrates that Vaaskivi's works were distinctly different from earlier Finnish historical novels and renewed the Finnish historical novel in several ways.
1. The subjects of Vaaskivi's novels are not national ones. The subjects of Yksinvaltias and Pyhä Kevät in particular are distant both geographically and in time.
2. Vaaskivi's novels break away clearly from nationalist ideology. Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt was a diplomat of considerable importance when Finland came under Russian control at the beginning of the 19th century, and his historical role was still much discussed in the 1930s. This discussion is completely sidestepped in Loistava Armfelt.
3. Vaaskivi's novels adopt the form and approach of biographical writing. Biographical form was extremely rare in the Finnish historical novel before the Second World War.
4. Vaaskivi's novels make use of conscious analogies between the present and the past.
5. The portrayal of characters in Loistava Armfelt and Yksinvaltias exploits popular psychological theories, and especially psychoanalysis.
In critical reviews of these works appearing in newspapers, these innovative features generally went unnoticed. The time perspective was too short. Later studies have also failed to recognise Vaaskivi's pioneering role, as the Finnish historical novel has not been sufficiently researched. Vaaskivi's historical novels are works from a period of literary transition and do not thus clearly belong to any normal category of historical novel.

Vaaskivi's historical novels were very popular in his time, at the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s, but did not become "steady sellers". Finland's defeat in the Second World War meant a drastic political and ideological turn, a break away from nationalist ideology and the establishment of good relations with the Soviet Union. The historiography and historical novels typical of the 1930s had no chance of success in the post-war years. The conventional type of historical novel remained in obscurity until the end of the 1950s. During this period the genre was dominated by the new type of work developed by Vaaskivi and Mika Waltari (1908–1979).

9. The three traditions of the Finnish historical novel

In the light of this study, it is possible to speak generally of three traditions of the historical novel in Finland.

The main tradition is represented by the conventional historical novel pioneered in Finland by Topelius. Also seen as belonging to this category are the realistic trilogy by Väinö Linna (1920–1992) Täällä Pohjantähden alla ('Here Beneath the North Star', 1959–1962) and the nowadays popular historical novels written by women authors. In the historical novels by Kaari Utrio (1942–), for example, there are at the same time lighter elements and feminist emphases.

The modern historical novel that openly reflects on narrative means, disregards chronology and exploits the collage technique is rare in Finland. Such works can be regarded as belonging to a second tradition of the historical novel. The most notable representative of this type is Det har aldrig hänt ('This never happened', 1977) by Ralf Nordgren (1936–).

The third tradition of the Finnish historical novel is that represented by the novels of Vaaskivi, Waltari and their followers. This type was dominant at the end of the 1940s and in the 1950s, after which it was edged out by the conventional type. After a long period of silence, two works were published in 1990 that belong to this third tradition.

The study shows that the position of the historical novel in Finland has always been strongest when Finnish literature has been reluctant to absorb influences from abroad. Historical novels have served important functions for the nation, and the historical novel has generally adapted to changes in national ideology.

The study also shows that the historical novel in Finland, and in particular the conventional type, has not functioned to any measurable extent as a source of structural or formal innovations for other novels. Rather, innovations in narrative technique have slowly been taken up by the historical novel.

Translation by Ian Gurney