Playing "Nordic": The Women of Niskavuori, Agri/Culture, and Imagining Finland on the Third Reich Stage

The theatrical censorship of the Third Reich considered the playwright's race and politics alongside the content of the drama. Given the political stigma of its "leftist" author, it is rather surprising that Hella Wuolijoki's Niskavuoren naiset opened in 1938 at the Staatliches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. The play ran for fourteen performances before being closed by the Reichsdramaturgie, apparently at the instigation of Finnish critics. Yet this was not the end of the play's or its author's fortunes in the Third Reich, as the possibility of staging the play was raised several times over the next four years, coming to a close in 1942. Playing "Nordic" examines the ideological and theatrical background of this extended "cultural performance," as a means to reopening and reconstructing the work of the 1938 Die Frauen auf Niskavuori. Written by a Finnish, northern, "Nordic" author, and preoccupied with the dynamics of rural culture in an increasingly urbanized world, Niskavuoren naiset was understood in the Third Reich to illustrate and reinforce the racial, agri/cultural themes of Blut und Boden ("veri ja maa"). Playing "Nordic" examines this thematic relationship in three phases. The first phase uses archival materials to investigate the Reichsdramaturgie's understanding of the play and its author, and its ongoing discussion of Wuolijoki from 1937 to 1942. Play evaluator Sigmund Graff's description of Niskavuoren naiset as hamsunartig, or "Hamsun-esque," inspires the second phase of the dissertation, which first elaborates the meanings of Blut und Boden through a reading of contemporary "racial" theory and anthropology, and then assesses the representation of Finland within this discourse, one of the dominant cultural paradigms of the Third Reich. Imaging Finland for German audiences, the play stood among analogous, continued efforts to represent Finland and the rural life in the Third Reich, colored by Blut und Boden: art and agricultural exhibitions, essays and propaganda literature, mass demonstrations of the peasantry. This wider framework for the performance of "Finland" materializes the abstract or theoretical program of Blut und Boden in its everyday performed meanings; as such it provides the essential background for reading the Hamburg production of Die Frauen auf Niskavuori, which sustains the third and final phase. The German translation and the Hamburg photographic record are compared with the Helsinki premiere to assess the impact of Blut und Boden on the representation of Wuolijoki's play in the Third Reich. The journalistic critical response illuminates the effect that the dramatic complex of rural and racial values - generically identified as Bauerndrama in the Third Reich - had on the reception of the play; at the same time, both visual and critical documents also suggest possible moments of theatrical dissent in the Hamburg production. Playing "Nordic" undertakes a documentary and cultural reading of the changing theatrical meanings of Wuolijoki's Niskavuoren naiset as it crossed the frontier from Finland to the stage of the Third Reich. It also provides a model for the ways theatrical signification operates within a network of cultural and ideological meanings, suggesting the ideological work of theatrical production depends on, reinforces, and contests that tissue of values. Although Finnish criticism of Niskavuoren naiset has assumed the play's Blut und Boden resonance contributed to Wuolijoki's success in the Third Reich, this study shows a considerably more complex situation. This revealing production dramatizes the changing uses of plays in a politicized national and transnational context. As part of the framing of "Nordic" identity on the wider stage of the Third Reich, Die Frauen auf Niskavuori exemplifies the conjunction of concurrent - sometimes independent, sometimes interlocking - "racial" and national ideologies.

Wipert von Blücher und Finnland : Alternativpolitik und Diplomatie im 'Dritten Reich'

This dissertation explores the role of the German minister to Helsinki, Wipert von Blücher (1883-1963), within the German-Finnish relations of the late 1930s and the Second World War. Blücher was a key figure – and certainly one of the constants – within German Finland policy and the complex international diplomacy surrounding Finland. Despite representing Hitler’s Germany, he was not a National Socialist in the narrower sense of the term, but a conservative civil servant in the Wilhelmine tradition of the German foreign service. Along with a significant number of career diplomats, Blücher attempted to restrict National Socialist influence on the exercise of German foreign policy, whilst successfully negotiating a modus vivendi with the new regime. The study of his political biography in the Third Reich hence provides a highly representative example of how the traditional élites of Germany were caught in an cycle of conformity and, albeit tacit, opposition. Above all, however, the biographical study of Blücher and his behaviour offers an hitherto unexplored approach to the history of the German-Finnish relations. His unusually long tenure in Helsinki covered the period leading up to the so-called Winter War, which left Blücher severely distraught by Berlin’s effectively pro-Soviet neutrality and brought him close to resigning his post. It further extended to the German-Finnish rapprochement of 1940/41 and the military cooperation of both countries from mid-1941 to 1944. Throughout, Blücher developed a diverse and ambitious set of policy schemes, largely rooted in the tradition of Wilhelmine foreign policy. In their moderation and commonsensical realism, his designs – indeed his entire conception of foreign policy – clashed with the foreign political and ideological premises of the National Socialist regime. In its theoretical grounding, the analysis of Blücher’s political schemes is built on the concept of alternative policy and indebted to A.J.P. Taylor’s definition of dissent in foreign policy. It furthermore rests upon the assumption, introduced by Wolfgang Michalka, that National Socialist foreign policy was dominated by a plurality of rival conceptions, players, and institutions competing for Hitler’s favour (‘Konzeptionen-Pluralismus’). Although primarily a study in the history of international relations, my research has substantially benefited from more recent developments within cultural history, particularly research on nobility and élites, and the renewed focus on autobiography and conceptions of the self. On an abstract level, the thesis touches upon some of the basic components of German politics, political culture, and foreign policy in the first half of the 20th century: national belonging and conflicting loyalties, self-perception and representation, élites and their management of power, the modern history of German conservatism, the nature and practice of diplomacy, and, finally, the intricate relationship between the ethics of the professional civil service and absolute moral principles. Against this backdrop, the examination of Blücher’s role both within Finnish politics and the foreign policy of the Third Reich highlights the biographical dimension of the German-Finnish relationships, while fathoming the determinants of individual human agency in the process.

Das Übersetzen von Texten der Musikgattung Lied : am Beispiel von zehn Liedern aus dem Zyklus Winterreise von Franz Schubert und deren Übersetzungen

Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tarkoituksena on edistää ja kehittää saksalaisen liedmusiikin suomennosten tutkimusta. Tutkimusaineistona on käytetty kymmentä laulua Franz Schubertin säveltämästä laulusarjasta Winterreise (1827), joka pohjautuu Wilhelm Müllerin runoihin, ja Kyllikki Solanterän suomennoksia (1960) kyseisistä lauluista. Lähtökohtana oli lähtökielinen teksti, johon suomennosta verrattiin. Hypoteesina oli, että tavulukujen merkitys liedmusiikin kääntämisessä on suurempi kuin muiden lingvististen tai semanttisten ominaisuuksien, koska musiikki ja nuotit asettavat tiukat rajat käännökselle, eikä kääntäjä voi muuttaa kappaleen musiikillista rakennetta. Sanatarkan käännöksen sijaan kääntäjän tulee pyrkiä säilyttämään kappaleen semanttinen sisältö ja tunnelma riimejä unohtamatta. Aluksi kerrotaan taustatietoja säveltäjästä, sanoittajasta, teoksesta, liedmusiikista ja kääntäjästä. Teoriaosiossa kartoitetaan, mihin kategorioihin liedtekstien kääntäminen voidaan luokitella kuuluvaksi. Analyysi pohjautuu Wittbrodtin luokitteluun (1995). Teoriaosiossa käsitellään myös ekvivalenssia, adekvaattisuutta, näennäiskäännöksiä, tyyliä, uskollisuutta alkuperäisteokselle, vapaan kääntämisen rajoja ja käännösvirheitä tutkittavasta materiaalista valikoitujen esimerkkien pohjalta. Esimerkkejä edeltää aina teoriaosuus. Varsinainen vertailuosio, jossa vertaillaan lähtö- ja kohdetekstejä, on jaettu kuuteen osioon: säe- ja säkeistöluvut, sanaluvut, tavuluvut, kirjaimien poisjättö, suorat ja epäsuorat kysymykset sekä kappaleiden nimet. Sana- ja tavulukujen eroavaisuuksista esitetään myös taulukot. Sana- ja tavulukujen kohdalla pohditaan, mistä erot johtuvat. Kaiken kaikkiaan pohditaan myös, ovatko käännösratkaisut onnistuneita, ja miten kääntäjä on niihin päätynyt. Laulettavuutta käsittelevässä osiossa esitetään ensin aikaisempia pohdintoja ja tutkimustuloksia kyseisestä aiheesta. Lopuksi teen Mannilan Blueprint-metodin (2005) mukaiset testit. Metriikkatestin teen esimerkinomaisesti yhdelle säkeistölle ja musikaalisen testin teen kaikille kymmenelle laululle. Musikaalisessa testissä analysoidaan tarkemmin lähtökielisiä säkeitä ja niiden suomenkielisiä vastineita, joiden tavuluvut eroavat toisistaan. Loppupäätelmiä edeltävässä luvussa esitetään vielä suomalaisen lauluntekijän ajatuksia sanoittamisesta. Hypoteesi tavuluvuista osoittautui oikeaksi. 146 säkeestä vain viidessä eivät lähtö- ja kohdetekstin tavuluvut olleet identtiset, mikä todistaa sen, että kääntäjä pyrkii säilyttämään kappaleen rytmin. Kääntäjä on myös säilyttänyt kappaleiden riimit, mikä vaikuttaa osaltaan rytmin säilymiseen. Sanalukujen kohdalla taas vain 16 säkeellä oli identtiset sanaluvut, mikä kertoo siitä, että niitä tärkeämpää on säilyttää kappaleen semanttinen sisältö ja tunnelma. Käännösten voidaan katsoa kuuluvan useaan kategoriaan. Kappaleiden käännökset ovat suurimmalta osin ekvivalentteja, mutta osittain ne voidaan luokitella näennäiskäännöksiksi. Tyyli ei ole säilynyt virheettömänä aivan jokaisessa käännöksessä, mutta yhtään kääntäjän puutteellisesta kieli- tai kääntämistaidosta johtuvaa käännösvirhettä kappaleissa ei ole. Suomentaja ei ole tuottanut yhtään täydellisen sanatarkkaa käännöstä, vaikka leksikaalinen ero on osittain vain hiuksenhieno. Tämä osoittaa sen, että vapaan kääntämisen aste on liedmusiikin suomennoksissa suhteellisen korkea. Kaiken kaikkiaan Solanterän käännöksiä voi pitää suhteellisen onnistuneina.

Itsenäisen Suomen puolesta : Sotilaskomitea 1915-1918

For Independent Finland. The Military Committee 1915–1918 In the course of the First World War, several organizations were founded with the purpose of making Finland independent or, at least, restoring her autonomous status. The Military Committee was the most significant active independence organization in Finland in the First World War, in addition to the activist student movement, i.e., the Jaeger Movement. The Military Committee was an organization founded in 1915 by officers who had attended the Hamina Cadet School, with the goal of creating a national army for a liberation war against the Russian troops. It was believed that the liberation war should succeed only with the help of the German Army. With the situation in society continually tensing up in the autumn 1917, the Military Committee also had to figure on the possibility of a Civil War. The activities of the Military Committee started in the early part of 1915 when they were still small-scale, but they gained significant momentum after the Russian Revolution in March 1917. In January 1918, the Military Committee formed the general staff for the White Army, the Senate’s troops. The independence-related activities of the Hamina cadets in the years of the First World War were more extensive and multifaceted than has been believed heretofore. The work of the Military Committee was divided into preparations for a liberation war in Finland, on one hand, and in Stockholm and Berlin, on the other hand. In Finland, the Military Committee took part in intelligence gathering for Germany and in supporting the recruiting Jaegers, and later in founding the civil guard organization, in solving the law and order authorities issue, and finally in selecting the Commander-in-Chief for the Senate’s troops. The member of the Military Committee, especially Captain Hannes Ignatius of the Cavalry contributed greatly to the drafting of the independence activists’ national action plan in Stockholm in May 1917. This plan preceded the formation of the civil guard organization. The Military Committee’s role in founding the civil guards was initially minor, but in the fall of 1917, the Military Committee started to finance the activities of the civil guards, named several former officers as commanders of the civil guards and finally overtook the entire civil guard movement. In Stockholm and Berlin, the representatives of the Military Committee were in active contact with both the high command of the German Army and with the representatives of the Swedish Army. Colonel Nikolai Mexmontan, who was a representative of the Military Committee, collaborated with Swedish officers and Jaeger officers in Stockholm in coming up with comprehensive and detailed plans for starting the Liberation War. Under Mexmontan’s leadership, there were serious negotiations to enter into a confederation with Germany. Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Thesleff, on the other hand, became the commander of the Jaeger Battalion 27. The influence and importance of the Military Committee came to the forefront in independent and conflict-torn Finland. The Military Committee became a Senate committee on the 7th of January 1918, with its chairman, for all practical purposes, as the Commander-in-Chief in an eventual war. Lieutenant General Claes Charpentier was the chairman of the Military Committee from mid-December 1917 onwards, but on the 15th of January 1918 he had to resign in favour of Lieutenant General Gustaf Mannerheim. Soon after that, Mannerheim got an order from the chairman of the Senate P. E. Svinhufvud to organize and assume the leadership of the law and order authorities. The chairman of the Military Committee became the Commander-in-Chief of the Senate troops in January 1918, and the Military Committee became the Commander-in-Chief’s general staff. The Military Committee had turned from a clandestine organization into the first general staff of the independent Finnish Army.

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN.

Knowledge Sharing in Multinational Corporations - A Social Captal Perspective (summary section only)

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are commonly perceived as networks of differentiated units, dependent for their competitive edge on the sharing of different kinds of internal resources. This ‘differentiated network’ view of the MNC strongly emphasizes the crucial role of interunit knowledge sharing, the topic of this thesis. The five essays presented here contribute to the research on interunit knowledge sharing in MNCs by focusing on the roles played by language, identity, and feedback seeking in the knowledge sharing process. While these factors have occasionally been brought up in previous research as potentially relevant for interunit knowledge sharing, they have so far been subject to limited empirical examination – an important omission which this thesis is an effort to redress. Furthermore, the treatment of the topic is anchored in a theoretical framework based on social capital. This perspective contributes to MNC research by providing a comprehensive framework for examining the significance of social relationships in interunit interaction. The findings can be summarized in two main points. Firstly, language skills and shared identity appear to promote the accumulation of interunit social capital. Secondly, high levels of interunit social capital seem to promote interunit knowledge sharing and feedback seeking. These observations raise a number of both theoretical and practical issues of considerable relevance for MNC management.

Cross-Border Competence Management in Emerging Markets: Voices from China and Russia

This book is on cross-border competence management in Russia and China. Corporations are facing a number of problems and challenges in their international operations, to which there typically are no simple solutions. For instance, they need to understand and respond to cultural and institutional diversity and ascertain that their foreign units are integrated with the rest of the corporation. Throughout this report we will discuss a range of challenges confronting firms as they seek to develop their capabilities to operate internationally. Some of the challenges are clearly case specific, and although this book aims to offer research-based advice to practicing managers there is a potential danger in applying lessons from other companies to the own firm. Our hope is that our analyses of the challenges facing Finnish corporations in China and Russia reported together with extensive quotes from our interviews and insights from other recent studies will help readers draw their own conclusions as to how to deal with issues related to competence management across borders. With this book we also aspire to contribute to the academic literature by providing new insights into cross-border competence management in general and the operations of Finnish corporations in Russia and China in particular.

Elämästä autofiktioksi : Lajitradition jäljillä Pirkko Saision romaanisarjassa Pienin yhteinen jaettava, Vastavalo ja Punainen erokirja

Pirkko Saisio's trilogy Pienin yhteinen jaettava (The Smallest Shared Dividend, 1998), Vastavalo (Against the Light, 2000), and Punainen erokirja (The Red Book of Separation, 2003), depicts the development of a masculine girl who at the end of the trilogy comes out as a homosexual women, a mother, and a writer. The main character is named Pirkko Saisio, and many of the events are picked from Saisio's real life. Nevertheless, the author wants the trilogy to be read as a novel, not a memoir. The present study analyses the generic elements of Saisio s trilogy and contextualizes the narrative identity that Saisio is creating in her fiction. Following Alastair Fowler s theory of genres as types without strict borders and a tendency to hybridity, the trilogy is linked to several genres. Serge Doubrovsky s genre concept of autofiction is the basis for the analysis: it explains the trilogy s borderline identity between autobiography and novel, and designates the main elements that render Saisio s autobiographical narrative into fiction. Both Doubrovsky and Saisio emphasize the role of the unconscious in writing, and at the same time stress the importance of a skilled composition. As well as autofiction, the trilogy is analyzed as a Bildungsroman, a confession and conversion narrative, a coming-out -narrative and a portrait-of-the-artist novel. Each genre is illuminated by its paradigmatic work: Wilhelm Meister s Apprenticeship by Goethe, The Confessions by St. Augustine, and The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. The parallelisms between Saisio s trilogy and the typical plots of the genres and thematics of the classics show how the tradition works in Saisio s text. The thematic parallelisms highlight Saisio s concern for the conflicts that occur between an individual and the surrounding society, while the similarities in plots question the autobiographicality of Saisio s narrative but also clarify how Saisio refines the traditional genres. Read in the light of Saisio s trilogy, the classics are shown to have their gender-transgressive elements that the non-normative reader can identify with. Saisio s text also challenges universalizing claims about genre and gender. As a narrative of identity it follows the example of 1970s essentialistic coming-out stories, but at the same time depicts the notion of identity in a manner that manifests postmodern ideas about identity as multiple and ever-transforming. Keywords: autobiographicality, autofiction, identity narrative, genre research, Bildungsroman, conversion narrative, confession, coming-out story, a portrait-of-an-artist novel