Arkeen pudonnut sibylla : Modernin naisen identiteetin rakentuminen Marja-Liisa Vartion romaanissa Kaikki naiset näkevät unia

A Sibyl fallen into everyday life. The enfolding of the identity of modern woman in Marja- Liisa Vartio s novel Kaikki naiset näkevät unia ( All Women Have Dreams ). --- Marja-Liisa Vartio played a remarkable part in renewing Finnish literature. My thesis examines her novel Kaikki naiset näkevät unia (1960), which describes the life of a middle-aged housewife, Mrs. Pyy ( Mrs. Hazel Hen ). She has moved from country to city and lives now in a suburb, in the Helsinki of the 1950 s. In Finnish literature, the novel is the first significant description of a modern city woman accomplished by modernistic means. My research examines the identity of a woman in the Finland of the 50 s, an epoch marked by the inevitable transition into modernity. My aim is to look into the ways in which the female identity enfolds in Kaikki naiset näkevät unia, how it takes its form, how it is described and commented. The primary method is contextual close reading; the novel is seen in the social, cultural and historical context of the time it was published. Essential elements in this study are literary motifs and images in the novel, and particularly transtextual relations as defined by Gérald Genette. The focus is on hypertextuality, intertextuality and paratextuality. Kaikki naiset näkevät unia emerges as a modern version of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. A woman s life spent in illusive dreaming is transferred from a 1900th century bourgeois town in France to a middle class Finnish suburb in the 1950 s. Vartio s novel is a variant of an ancient Finnish ballad I, a bird without a nest , making it into a modern narration of transition. The inner, mental journey from country to city is of great length, and the liminal life in a suburb does not make the passage any easier. Like the lyrical voices in the poetry of Edith Södergran, also Mrs. Pyy finds it hard to discover any values of sisterhood or those of ideal femininity in modern times. In earlier studies of Marja-Liisa Vartio s prose, stress has been laid on the discourse of her narrators and characters, as well as on its modern literary form. In this research, however, urgent allusions to paintings, old and new, are taken into account, since Mrs. Pyy mirrors herself against art, both classical and modern. Principal images in this context are Michelangelo s Sibyls in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and a modern painting, which remains unidentified. Mrs. Pyy turns out to be a tragicomic character, who has magnanimous illusions about herself, but is compelled to accept the fact the she is only a mediocre person. She is nothing more than a first generation city dweller; she is not a modern, aloof outsider but a mere dilettante, who desperately tries to live out modern city life. Kaikki naiset näkevät unia is a striking picture of the 1950 s, a picture that is construed in the consciousness of Mrs. Pyy. We are shown everyday life growing more and more modern after the war and woman s role growing more and more subject to increasing pressure for change.

Le naturalisme finlandais : Une conception entropique du quotidien

Le naturalisme finlandais. Une conception entropique du quotidien. Finnish Naturalism. An Entropic Conception of Everyday Life. Nineteenth century naturalism was a strikingly international literary movement. After emerging in France in the 1870s, it spread all over Europe including young, small nations with a relatively recent literary tradition, such as Finland. This thesis surveys the role and influence of French naturalism on the Finnish literature of the 1880s and 1890s. On the basis of a selection of works of six Finnish authors (Juhani Aho, Minna Canth, Kauppis-Heikki, Teuvo Pakkala, Ina Lange and Karl August Tavaststjerna), the study establishes a view of the main features of Finnish naturalism in comparison with that of French authors, such as Zola, Maupassant and Flaubert. The study s methodological framework is genre theory: even though naturalist writers insisted on a transparent description of reality, naturalist texts are firmly rooted in general generic categories with definable relations and constants on which European novels impose variations. By means of two key concepts, entropy and everyday life , this thesis establishes the parameters of the naturalist genre. At the heart of the naturalist novel is a movement in the direction of disintegration and confusion, from order to disorder, from illusion to disillusion. This entropic vision is merged into the representation of everyday life, focusing on socially mediocre characters and discovering their miseries in all their banality and daily grayness. By using Mikhail Bakhtin s idea of literary genres as a means of understanding experience, this thesis suggests that everyday life is an ideological core of naturalist literature that determines not only its thematic but also generic distinctions: with relation to other genres, such as to Balzac s realism, naturalism appears primarily to be a banalization of everyday life. In idyllic genres, everyday life can be represented by means of sublimation, but a naturalist novel establishes a distressing, negative everyday life and thus strives to take a critical view of the modern society. Beside the central themes, the study surveys the generic blends in naturalism. The thesis analyzes how the coalition of naturalism and the melodramatic mode in the work of Minna Canth serves naturalisms ambition to discover the unconscious instincts underlying daily realities, and how the symbolic mode in the work of Juhani Aho duplicates the semantic level of the apparently insignificant, everyday naturalist details. The study compares the naturalist novel to the ideological novel (roman à these) and surveys the central dilemma of naturalism, the confrontation between the optimistic belief in social reform and the pessimistic theory of determinism. The thesis proposes that the naturalist novel s contribution to social reform lies in its shock effect. By means of representing the unpleasant truth the entropy of everyday life it aims to scandalize the reader and make him aware of the harsh realities that might apply also to him.

From a "Student" to a Lifelong "Consumer" : Constructions of Educability in Adult Students' Narrative Life Histories

The focus of this study was to examine the constructions of the educable subject of the lifelong learning (LLL) narrative in the narrative life histories of adult students at general upper secondary school for adults (GUSSA). In this study lifelong learning has been defined as a cultural narrative on education, “a system of political thinking” that is not internally consistent, but has contradictory themes embedded within it (Billig et al., 1988). As earlier research has shown and this study also confirms, the LLL narrative creates differences between those who are included and those who fall behind and are excluded from the learning society ideal. Educability expresses socially constructed interpretations on who benefit from education and who should be educated and how. The presupposition in this study has been that contradictions between the LLL narrative and the so-called traditional constructions of educability are likely to be constructed as the former relies on the all-inclusive interpretation of educability and the latter on the meritocratic model of educating individuals based on their innate abilities. The school system continues to uphold the institutionalized ethos of educability that ranks students into the categories “bright”, “mediocre”, and “poor” (Räty & Snellman, 1998) on the basis of their abilities, including gender-related differences as well as differences based on social class. Traditional age-related norms also persist, for example general upper secondary education is normatively completed in youth and not in adulthood, and the formal learning context continues to outweigh both non-formal and informal learning. Moreover, in this study the construction of social differences in relation to educability and, thereafter unequal access to education has been examined in relation to age, social class, and gender. The biographical work of the research participants forms a peephole that permits the examination of the dilemmatic nature of the constructions of educability in this study. Formal general upper secondary education in adulthood is situated on the border between the traditional and the LLL narratives on educability: participation in GUSSA inevitably means that one’s ability and competence as a student and learner becomes reassessed through the assessment criteria maintained by schools, whereas according to the principles of LLL everyone is educable; everyone is encouraged to learn throughout their lives regardless of age, social class, or gender. This study is situated in the field of adult education, sociology of education, and social psychological research on educability, having also been informed by feminist studies. Moreover, this study contributes to narrative life history research combining the structural analysis of narratives (Labov & Waletzky, 1997), i.e. mini-stories within life history, with the analysis of the life histories as structural and thematic wholes and the creation of coherence in them; thus, permitting both micro and macro analyses. On accounting for the discontinuity created by participation in general upper secondary school study in adulthood and not normatively in youth, the GUSSA students construct coherence in relation to their ability and competence as students and learners. The seven case studies illuminate the social differences constructed in relation to educability, i.e. social class, gender, age, and the “new category of student and learner”. In the data of this study, i.e. 20 general upper secondary school adult graduates’ narrative life histories primarily generated through interviews, two main coherence patterns of the adult educable subject emerge. The first performance-oriented pattern displays qualities that are closely related to the principles of LLL. Contrary to the principles of lifewide learning, however, the documentation of one’s competence through formal qualifications outweighs non-formal and informal learning in preparation for future change and the competition for further education, professional careers, and higher social positions. The second flexible learning pattern calls into question the status of formal, especially theoretical and academically oriented education; inner development is seen as more important than such external signs of development — grades and certificates. Studying and learning is constructed as a hobby and as a means to a more satisfactory life as opposed to a socially and culturally valued serious occupation leading to further education and career development. Consequently, as a curious, active, and independent learner, this educable but not readily employable subject is pushed into the periphery of lifelong learning. These two coherence patterns of the adult educable subject illuminate who is to be educated and how. The educable and readily employable LLL subject is to participate in formal education in order to achieve qualifications for working life, whereas the educable but not employable subject may utilize lifewide learning for her/his own pleasure. Key words: adult education, general upper secondary school for adults, educability, lifelong learning, narrative life history

Effects of environmental variation on ecological and evolutionary dynamics

Environmental variation is a fact of life for all the species on earth: for any population of any particular species, the local environmental conditions are liable to vary in both time and space. In today's world, anthropogenic activity is causing habitat loss and fragmentation for many species, which may profoundly alter the characteristics of environmental variation in remaining habitat. Previous research indicates that, as habitat is lost, the spatial configuration of remaining habitat will increasingly affect the dynamics by which populations are governed. Through the use of mathematical models, this thesis asks how environmental variation interacts with species properties to influence population dynamics, local adaptation, and dispersal evolution. More specifically, we couple continuous-time continuous-space stochastic population dynamic models to landscape models. We manipulate environmental variation via parameters such as mean patch size, patch density, and patch longevity. Among other findings, we show that a mixture of high and low quality habitat is commonly better for a population than uniformly mediocre habitat. This conclusion is justified by purely ecological arguments, yet the positive effects of landscape heterogeneity may be enhanced further by local adaptation, and by the evolution of short-ranged dispersal. The predicted evolutionary responses to environmental variation are complex, however, since they involve numerous conflicting factors. We discuss why the species that have high levels of local adaptation within their ranges may not be the same species that benefit from local adaptation during range expansion. We show how habitat loss can lead to either increased or decreased selection for dispersal depending on the type of habitat and the manner in which it is lost. To study the models, we develop a recent analytical method, Perturbation expansion, to enable the incorporation of environmental variation. Within this context, we use two methods to address evolutionary dynamics: Adaptive dynamics, which assumes mutations occur infrequently so that the ecological and evolutionary timescales can be separated, and via Genotype distributions, which assume mutations are more frequent. The two approaches generally lead to similar predictions yet, exceptionally, we show how the evolutionary response of dispersal behaviour to habitat turnover may qualitatively depend on the mutation rate.

Personporträttet som tidningsgenre : En närläsningsstudie med fokus på innehållsliga teman, berättarkonventioner och kön

The thesis The portrait interview as a newspaper genre. A qualitative close reading focussing on topical motifs, conventions of narration, and gender defines the portrait interview as a newspaper genre and analyses how the personalities in the portraits are constructed textually. The main body of material consists of 107 portrait interviews in two morning newspapers, Dagens Nyheter (published in Stockholm, Sweden) and Hufvudstadsbladet (published in Swedish in Helsinki, Finland), during two one-week periods (week 46/1999 and week 38/2002). There is also complementary material of 59 portraits from four magazines. The study is carried out within the research traditions of journalistic genre studies, gender and journalism, and critical text analysis. It is comprised of a qualitative close reading focussing on content (topical motifs or themes), conventions of narration, and gender. The methods used to carry out the study are qualitative close reading and quantitative content analysis. The analysis identifies the stylistic elements that differentiate the portrait genre from other journalistic genres, as well as from the autobiographical genre, and explores what opportunities and limitations these elements present for the inclusion of even more women protagonists in the portrait genre. The portrait interview is an exception from the critical mission of journalism in general, with its position as a genre of politeness. Since a typical characteristic of the portrait interview genre is that it pays tribute to the protagonist, the genre reveals the kind of personalities and lives that are seen as admirable in society. Four levels of portrait interview are defined: the prototype portrait, the pure portrait, the hybrid portrait and the marginal portrait. The prototype is a raw version of a portrait that fulfils the criteria but may be lacking in content and stylistics. The pure portrait does not lack these qualities and resembles an ideal portrait. The hybrid is a borderline case which relates to another genre or is a mixture between the portrait and some other genre, most commonly the news genre. The marginal portrait does not fulfil the criteria, and can therefore be seen as an inadequate portrait. For example, obituaries and caricatures are excluded if the protagonist s voice is never quoted. The analysis resulted in three factors that in part help to explain why the portrait interview genre has somewhat more female protagonists than journalistic news texts do in general. The four main reasons why women are presented somewhat more in the portrait genre than in other journalistic genres are: (i) women are shown as exceptions to the female norm when, for example, taking a typical male job or managing in positions where there are few women; (ii) women are shown as representing female themes ; (iii) use of the double bind as a story-generating factor; and (iv) the intimisation of journalism. The double bind usually builds up the narration on female ambiguity in the contradiction between private and public life, for example family and career, personal desire and work. The intimisation of journalism and the double bind give women protagonists somewhat more publicity also because of the tendency of portrait interviews to create conflicts within the protagonist, as an exception to journalism in general where conflicts are created or seen as existing between, for example, persons, groupings or parties. Women protagonists and their lives create an optimal narration of inner conflicts originating in the double bind as men are usually not seen as suffering from these conflicts. The analysis also resulted in gendered portrait norms: The feminine portrait norm and the masculine portrait norm or more concretely, professional life and family life as expectation and exception. Women are expected to be responsible parents and mediocre professionals, while men are expected to be professionals and in their free time engaging fathers. Key words: journalism, genre, portrait interview, gender, interview, newspaper, women s magazine.

Sense of Coherence : Determinants and consequences

ABSTRACT Sense of coherence (SOC) is a core concept within Antonovsky s salutogenic theory and is argued to be a psychological determinant of health. The present social-epidemiological study explores the associations between a wide range of generalized resistance resources of SOC among Finnish- and Swedish-speaking women and men with a view to gaining deeper insight into its developmental circumstances and determinants. Secondly, a five-year follow-up study was conducted in order to assess the stability of SOC in difficult life events. Finally the role and effect of SOC in the intentions to retire early was investigated in a prospective study. The above studies were based on two data sets: the Finnish 'Survey on Living Conditions' (ELO-94) conducted in 1994 by means of personal face-to-face interviews (N=6506), and a prospective postal survey of the 15-year Health and Social Support (HeSSup) study for which the baseline data was collected in 1998 (N=25 898) and the follow-up in 2003. The present study reveals that the level of SOC in adulthood is strongly dependent on close and successful social relationships during both childhood and adulthood, and that there is a strong association with qualitative work features. Not having a partner as well as being unable to use one s skills at work proved to threaten men s SOC in particular, whereas a lack of social support did the same for women. Otherwise, the association with generalized resistance resources turned out to be quite similar in both genders. Swedish-speaking Finns appear to have a slightly stronger SOC due to the better psycho-emotional circumstances in the childhood home and work circumstances in adulthood, in other words higher levels of generalized resistance resources compared to Finnish speakers. These language group differences did not concern any social-life factors included in the present study. The results of the five-year follow-up study suggest that SOC is not stable, and that the level clearly decreases after a negative life event. Even a strong SOC decreased during the follow-up period and, furthermore, was no more stable than a mediocre or weak SOC. There seems to be a clear and independent association with the intentions to retire early among both men and women following full adjustment. Swedish speakers appear to be less inclined to retire early than Finnish speakers. In the light of the present study, it seems that SOC is determined not only by socio-economic factors but also by close and successful social relationships during both childhood and adulthood. This applied to both genders and language groups. Interventions aimed at promoting the health of the disadvantaged should therefore focus on families with children, and extend later also to other than socio-economic spheres of life. SOC theory could also be applied in efforts to inhibit early retirement: management practices aimed at providing employees with a work environment and tasks that are comprehensible, manageable and meaningful could potentially decrease the intentions to retire early.