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Volter Kilpi (1874-1939) - surname until 1886 Ericsson | |
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Essayist and novelist, pioneer of Finnish modernist literature. Kilpi's major novel is ALASTALON SALISSA (2 vols, 1933), a long and nostalgic book compared to the works of Proust and Joyce. Kilpi's family name was really Ericsson, but he and his two brothers adopted the Finnish surname. Kilpi was born in Kustavi on the coast north of Turku. His father was a sea captain, and his childhood's milieu, a stable peasant life with shipbuilders and connections to exotic countries, also influenced his choice of literary subjects. Kilpi studied in Turku and entered in 1895 the University of Helsinki, receiving his M.A. in 1900. In the same year his first book, BATHSEBA, appeared in which the central theme was the difficulty of human communication. The novel consisted of first-person fragments in prose-poem style, colored with strong biblical tone and changes of moods from the ecstasy of love to pain and emptiness. It was followed by PARSIFAL (1902), and ANTINOUS (1903), which took up in turn three great themes of the European fin de siècle: overwhelming passion, artistic vocation and purity, and the contemplation of beauty. Kilpi's early novels were influenced by Oscar Wilde, Pre-Raphaelites, Nietzsche's works, and 19th-century New Romantics. Only thirty-odd years separated his works from Aleksis Kivi's backwood realism, and his aesthetic focus on man's inner life, the beauty of life and art did not gain much wider success. Kilpi's collection of essays, IHMISESTÄ JA ELÄMÄSTÄ (1902), presented his thesis about art and morality, and stated that 'art is only the awakening of the inner man.' According to the author, only through and with the help of art can life be experienced to the full and valued. After his graduation Kilpi continued his career as a librarian in Turku and Helsinki. In 1907 he married the playwright Hilja Vanhakartano. From 1912 to 1918 he worked at the Public Library of Helsinki, then from 1921 to 1939 at the University Library of Turku. At the time of the Finnish Civil War (1917-18), Kilpi broke his silence and published two books, advocating a monarchy for Finland and participating in a somewhat old-fashioned standpoint toward cultural debate. Plans to import a king from Germany failed and Kilpi found himself more alienated, especially from the young and progressive leftist cultural movements. Kilpi stopped publishing fiction in 1903 for fourteen years, although he made translations and articles for encyclopedias. In 1919 he started to plan his major work: the depiction of islanders' life on the Western Coast of Finland. Kilpi left his neo-romantic beginnings far behind and associated himself with the tradition of sly humor and tragic undercurrents begun by Kivi. His giant work Alastalon salissa appeared in two volumes in 1933. It described the peasant sea captains of the southwestern coastal community of Kustavi, and the integration of their common interest. Kilpi's stream of consciousness novel was among the first of its kind in the Finnish language, and he himself compared it to such landmarks of European modernism as James Joyce's Ulyssess (1922) and Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (1913-27). Although the novel had similarities with those of Proust and Joyce: long sentences, odd syntax, neologism, Kilpi went further in creating a text that is a world in itself. On publication, Kilpi's modernist experiment met with incomprehension, and it never became a favorite of the reading public, but later the work has been accepted among the greatest classics of Finnish literature. "Kun voita levitetään kakun viipaleelle paksulti ja läämäkaupalla ja niin että silmäkin mittaa palasen maistuvaksi vehnäseksi, niin alkaa ravittuakin vatsaa uskoa suunsa näkevän nälkää ja tuntea haukkaamisen kutia ikenissään, ja kun oikein mojooviltaan ja täydeltä suun sarvelta mäjätään muhkean uhkua korviin, minkä kehua sulloomilta kuuloläppiin mahtuu, niin alkaa laiskakin veri virkistyä ja paatumukset sulata sellaisenkin lahnan suomuilta, joka ei vuosimuistoihin enää ole purston loiskille viskautunut ja viilettäminen liukuille viitsinyt! " (from Pitäjän pienempiä, 1934) The novel in set in the1860s, and depicted in some 900 pages a six hour long event, when some ship-owners decide on the building of a new bark. The discussion takes place in the house of Captain Mattsson. One of the men in attendance is Pukkila, his resentful rival. Another memorable chararter is Härkäniemi, a philosophical bachelor. The second part, The Humbler People of the Parish (1934), investigated the lives of those 'humbler' people who will become involved in the venture. One especially effective story is 'Merimiehenleski', written in the form of a sequence of meditations of an old woman, whose prayers turn into imprecations against an indifferent God. The last part of the trilogy, On the Way to the Church (1937,) is centered on a Sunday morning service at midsummer, the gathering of the congregation, the journey to the church, and the arrivals at the service. Although Kilpi analyzed the churchgoers' feelings, his attitude towards religion was almost agnostic in nature. During the writing process of Alastalon salissa, Kilpi suffered a personal loss - his wife died in 1927 - and he began to feel himself more or less misunderstood. Over his lifetime Kilpi grew increasingly deaf. In 1935 he married Gunborg Grönroos. His last works, SULJETUILLA PORTEILLA (1938), religious meditations, and unfinished GULLIVERIN MATKA FANTOMIMIAN MANTEREELLE (1944), a satire on the future, in which Gulliver is transported into the modern world, revealed his pessimism. Kilpi died on June 13, 1939 in Turku. His letters to Anto Jansson (surname later Säynäslahti) between the years 1899 and 1918 reveal that the author did not comment much on current political and social events but dreamed about an idyllic, peaceful life enlightened by the company of the great writers of world literature. "Kuinkas oli professori puhunut meistä ikäänkuin rdinrrn kuvioista edessään, joita kyllä hoidettiin, mutta joihin nähden ei tule ajatuksiinkaan se seikka, että niiltä kysyttäisiin niiden omaa mieltä? Elävät ihmiset täällä siten toistensa likistyksissä, että ihmisyys on kulunut ihmisten väliltä, ja että ihmisestä ihmiseen täällä menetellään samalla asiallisuudella, jolla puuseppä käsittelee työkaluaan?" (from Gulliverin matka, 1944) For further reading: A History of Finnish Literature by J. Ahokas (1975); MacMillan Guide to Modern World Literature by Martin Seymour-Smith (1986); World Authors 1900-1950 (1996); Nuori Volter Kilpi by Vilho Suomi (1952); Kirjailija ja hänen kustantajansa, ed. Pekka Tarkka (1990); Mielen meri, elämän pidon. Volter Kilven Alastalon salissa by Pirjo Lyytikäinen (1992); Vieras minä olen kaikille. Volter Kilven ja Vilho Suomen kirjeenvaihto 1937-1939 ja muita kirjeitä by Pirjo Lyytikäinen (1993); Varmuuden vuoksi. Modernin representaatio Volter Kilven Saaristo-sarjassa by Lea Rojola (1995); A History of Finland's Literature, ed. by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, ed. by Steven Serafin (1999, vol. 2) - Note: David Barrett tried translating Kilpi into English, but gave up the work. However, Thomas Warburton succeeded in translation of Alastalon salissa into Swedish. - See also: Volter Kilven Seura; Alastalo salissa; Volter Kilpi kirjallisuusviikko Kustavissa Selected works:
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