 
Choose another writer in this calendar:
by name: by birthday from the calendar.
TimeSearch |
Maria Jotuni (1880 - 1943) - originally Maria Haggrén, Maria Haggren-Jotuni |
|
|
Novelist, playwright, one of the classic feminist authors in Finland. Maria Jotuni was influenced by postnaturalism and impressionism, which is expressed in her choice of form: short stories, fragments of prose, impressions and dialog. She often shows the society from a woman's point of view, as in her major novel, HUOJUVA TALO (1963). Jotuni depicted the battle of the sexes in cultured urban circles and in poor villages in the countryside. Marriage was for Jotuni a financial deal between two people, in which the woman is bought - she was disillusioned about the sentimental ideas of real love. "Rakkaus, rakkaus ihmiseen ja kaikkeen olevaiseen, sen ehkä harhauttava voima väkevöitti hänen sielunsa pidättyväksi. Mitä käytäntöä se oli tätä maailmaa varten? Sillä tehtiin myönnytyksiä, kunniaa ilmiöille, sillä kiellettiin oma kipu, ruumiin oikeudet tuntea, ja palkaksi saatiin parhaimmillaan hengen tasapaino, kieltäytyvä liikkumattomuus, kuulaus, joka heijasti, mutta ei enää säteillyt. Mitä teki sillä tässä hänen elämässään, jossa vain toimeentulosta oli tapeltava." (from Huojuva talo) Maria Jotuni (Maria Gustava Tarkiainen) was born in Kuopio as the daughter of Petter Johannes Haggrén, the son of a tinsmith, and the former Greta Lovisa Miettinen, whose father was a farmer. Petter Johannes helped his father in his business, but was not very ambitious - he was a passionate reader, disappointed in life, and greedy for liquor. Jotuni composed her early stories at the age of 12-13. At school she wrote for the school magazine Wesa. After graduating from Kuopion Tyttökoulu (the Girl's School of Kuopio) Jotuni moved to Helsinki. She studied history and literature at the University of Helsinki, wrote for the student magazine, and published short stories in the newspaper Päivälehti. In 1905 appeared her first collection of short stories, SUHTEITA, which did not attract much attention, although Eino Leino considered it mature work for a debutant writer. It was followed by another collection, RAKKAUTTA (1907), which sold well, and the collective novel ARKIELÄMÄÄ (1909). In its description of a rural village the central character, "Reverend" Nyman listens people's confessions, their secret sorrows and pleasures, within a period of a day and night. "Don't you pity these people? Don't you think that each one of them has his little sorrows, that life isn't anything like what it seems?" (from Rakkautta) Rakkautta was translated into Swedish. Jotuni sent a copy to the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, who thanked her in a letter and praised the beauty of Finnish women. In the magazine Valvoja Jotuni published an essay on Hamsun; she also wrote for it book reviews. In 1908 Georg Brandes expressed his interest in the "young lady, who had written Rakkautta (love)." The title story was translated into France, and appeared in the magazine Lettres scandinaves. Jotunis's short stories were often based on dialogue, in which she confronted two different world views. In Finland women became in 1906 the first in Europe to gain the right to vote, but the political victory was not fulfilled in everyday life and in marriages, which Jotuni saw as contracts in which women are chattels to be traded. Among her best works are Hilda Husso stories. The masterful use of dialogue led her soon to drama. In 1910 appeared the play VANHA KOTI (1910), which was first performed in Kotka, then in Helsinki at the National Theatre, and in Estonia in 1911. It was followed by KUN ON TUNTEEN (1913), MARTININ RIKOS (1914), and MIEHEN KYLKILUU (1914), which arose doubts in advance on account of its morality. However, the play became highly popular and was also translated into German. In 1918 Jotuni attacked on wartime speculations in her satire KULTAINEN VASIKKA (The Golden Calf). Ritva Arvelo's film version of the play from 1961 received State film award, but failed commercially. HERMAN: Katarina has speculated. Jotuni's play TOHVELISANKARIN ROUVA (The Armchair Hero's Wife, 1924) provoked a parliamentary debate about the funding for the National Theatre. The award-winning tragedy KLAUS, LOUHIKON HERRA was based on a folk ballad, "Elinan surma". It premiered at the National theatre in October 1942. The performace, in the middle of the the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union, was interrupted by air-raids. A number of the actors served at the front. Jotuni also wrote aphorisms, children's stories, and little pieces for newspapers. In the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat she examined ironically what horrors new technology, in this case the automobile, brings with it. The text was written in 1912 as a male under the pseudonym 'Nix': "Thick clouds of smoke rise from the street and flutter against our windows. There looms the outside world, which we do not see. We hear only the awful blare of the cars, which obliterates the voices and laughter of the carefree folk. We wait until night-time to rest our nerves. No, the hooting and clattering of cars, laughter and hooting. The homeliness of home has disappeared." (trans. by Hildi Hawkins, from Helsinki: a literary companion, 2000, ) In her aphorisms Jotuni examined several subjects: society, art, human relations and different personality types. Jotuni was especially interested in natural sciences, underlining that instinctive needs must be recognized - she also dreamed of a better man without implication to Nietzschean ideal of the Übermensch. Jotuni's first collection of aphorisms, AVONAINEN LIPAS, appeared in 1929, and the last, JÄÄHYVÄISET, was published posthumously in 1949. In 1911 Jotuni married Viljo Tarkiainen (1879-1951), who became Professor of Literature at the University of Helsinki. Her massive, posthumously published novel Huojuva talo (1963, the swaying house) depicts a destructive marriage - perhaps a miniature model of the contemporary totalitarian ideologies. The tyrannical husband Eero, a cultivated person outside his house, tortures psychologically and even physically her wife Lea at home. Parallelly Tarkainen once hit his wife so hard that her left eardrum was broken. The book was written in the 1930s and contained elements of the author's own marriage and her alienation from her husband, who had encouraged Jotuni in its early writing process. Jotuni participated with the manuscript in a writing contest, but when Auni Nuolivaara's already forgotten novel Paimen, piika ja emäntä won, Jotuni drew it back and never published novels. Nearly similar unlucky contest history was with Helvi Hämäläinen's Säädyllinen murhenäytelmä, although it was published later in censored edition. Huojuva talo was adapted in 1995 for an acclaimed five-part television drama directed by Eija-Elina Bergholm. After the Civil War (1917-18) Jotuni occasionally felt irritated, perhaps due to hormonal disturbances. In the 1920s she started to have heart symptoms, which troubled her for the rest of her life. The family moved in 1921 to Cygnaeus street. It became the Tarkiainens permanent address in Helsinki, and Jotuni began to collect antiquities for her home, she was especially interested in "Le style Louis XIV". The comedy Miehen kylkiluu was filmed in 1937, but the screenplay, written by Ilmari Unho and the director Orvo Saarikivi, did not have the sharpness and humor of the original work. In 1938 Jotuni received the Aleksis Kivi Award. Her play, AMERIKAN MORSIAN, written after the award, was not performed until 1966. Jotuni died on September 30, 1943 in Helsinki. For further reading: Maria Jotunin näytelmät by Irmeli Niemi (1964); Orfeus nukkuu by Annamari Sarajas (1980); Huojuva talo: romaanista teatteriesitykseksi ed. by Maaria Koskiluoma, Pekka Kyrö (1986); Viljo Tarkiainen by Kari Tarkiainen (1987); Rikkautta jos rakkauttakin : Maria Jotunin naiskuva by Liisa Hakola (1993); Portraits of Courage, ed. by S.E. Wilmer (1997); A History of Finland's Literature, ed. by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Suomen kirjallisuushistoria 2, ed. by Lea Rojola (1999); Arki ja tunteet: Maria Jotunin elämä ja kirjailijantyö by Irmeli Niemi (2001) Selected works:
© 2000 |
