Wecksell, Josef Julius

f. 19.3.1838 i Åbo, d. 9.8.1907 i Helsingfors. J.J. Wecksell har gått till litteraturhistorien som poet och dramatiker, bitvis överraskande modern för sin tid. Hans svenskspråkiga diktarbana inleddes kring år 1860 men blev kortvarig pga. psykisk sjukdom. I grunden förblev Wecksell romantisk idealist men vacklar ändå i sin litterära produktion mellan det konventionella och det överraskande moderna och personliga. Motsättningen mellan verklighet och ideal (som framstår som ouppnåeliga) är ett återkommande tema i hans verk. Till hans betydelse bidrar framför allt sorgespelet Daniel Hjort (1862, tryckt 1863), som setts som det främsta historiska dramat i finländsk 1800-talsdramatik, och några av hans dikter som bryter mot konventionerna i den samtida poesin, särskilt dikten På moln stod du (1863), som har antagits vara skriven i Bonn, då Wecksell redan var psykiskt sjuk.

Cygnæus, Fredrik

f. 1.4.1807 i Tavastehus 7.2.1881 i Helsingfors Fredrik Cygnæus främjade konst- och kulturlivets utveckling i Finland och företrädde en för sin tid ovanligt modern litteratursyn. Cygnæus framstår redan på 1830-talet som en betydande finländsk, svenskspråkig kulturpersonlighet och förespråkare för den romantiska idealismen och estetiken. Sin förmåga till insiktsfull litteraturanalys utvecklade han exempelvis i sin bok Om Fänrik Ståls sägner. Betraktelser (1861), om nationalskalden J.L. Runebergs fosterländska dikter. Cygnæus egna insatser som poet och dramatiker blev små. Men han hade desto större betydelse som framträdande litteraturkritiker, uppskattad föreläsare och talare samt dominerande gestalt i olika konstnärliga och kulturella projekt och institutioner, liksom i universitetsvärlden där han var verksam som professor i estetik. Biografiskt lexikon för Finland: http://www.blf.fi/artikel.php?id=3175

“Till gruvhålet som suger och skrämmer” : en studie i Nils Bolanders predikan under åren 1940–1950

The aim of this thesis is to examine the preaching of Nils Bolander during the years 1940–1950. Nils Bolander (1902–1959) was a Swedish minister, later bishop, in the Church of Sweden. Bolander experienced his breakthrough as a preacher and a poet during the years 1940–1950, when he was a pastor of the Engelbrekt congregation in Stockholm. One characteristic of Bolander’s poetry as well as of his sermons is a rich and poetical language. At the same time he also had a clear agenda with his sermons with regard to their contents. The primary research question of this thesis is: What was Bolander’s purpose with his sermons? In this context, two secondary research questions were asked: 1) In what way does the poetical language support and assist the purpose of the sermons? 2) How is Bolander, as an individual and a preacher, engaged in the language and the contents of the sermons? The research material of this study consists of 152 hand-­written sermon manuscripts from church services held by Nils Bolander in Stockholm during the period in question. The method of the study is qualitative research with an abductive approach. Content analysis has formed the primary tool. With regard to the main research question, the purpose of Bolander’s sermons, my study indicated that the purpose was to rouse the listeners from their routine-­like faith and push them towards commitment and active service for God. In Bolander’s theology I found strong influences from Pietism but also some traits usually associated with the theological profile of the Oxford Group. Despite these influences, Nils Bolander’s theology is mainly founded on the Lutheran interpretation of faith. With regard to the secondary research questions concerning the poetical language as well as the role of the preacher my study concludes that the language, the individual and the contents were all connected in Bolander’s preaching and formed a whole that spoke to the audience in various ways.

Nervander, Johan Jakob

Johan Jakob Nervander f. 23.2.1805 i Nystad d. 15.3.1848 i Helsingfors Johan Jakob Nervander var finländsk diktare, fysiker och meteorolog, samt en nyckelfigur i Lördagssällskapet. Hans inflytande inom den finländska kultureliten var som störst på 1820-40-talen. Fast den vetenskapliga forskningen krävde största delen av Nervanders uppmärksamhet, drogs han också till diktandet. Nervanders viktigaste verk som poet är Jephtas Bok, En Minnes-Sång i Israel, som belönades med Svenska Akademiens andra pris år 1832 och trycktes åtta år senare. Nervanders lyrik var formmässigt slipad. Till innehåll och stämning varierade dikterna kraftig, från starka känslouttryck och fritt flygande fantasi till melankoli och inbundenhet. http://www.blf.fi/artikel.php?id=3567 http://www.kansallisbiografia.fi/kb/artikkeli/3567/

Collective Memory Embodied in Poetry as Poison. The Mnemonic Role of Romantic Poets Discussed on the Basis of Adam Mickiewicz’ Konrad Wallenrod and Forefathers (Part III)

This thesis constitutes an interdisciplinary approach to the Polish Romanticism combining literature studies with memory studies, nationalism research and psychoanalysis. This phenomenon-based study attempts to answer the question, how the Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855) – or more exactly the implied authors in his works – perceived the role of poetry in mnemonic terms and how it changes in course of time. Consequently, ‘memory in literature’ (Astrin Erll and Ansger Nünning) is discussed here. Two pieces of writing by Mickiewicz – Konrad Wallenrod [1828] and the third part of Forefathers [1832], where a bard respectively a poetic genius appears – are seen as meta-texts defining goals of poets in time of the political non-existence of a state. Poetry is supposed to keep memory of the glorious past alive, kindle the love for the motherland, support the collective identity of a group and initiate a liberation movement. Poets function as memory guards, leaders of the nation and prophets. Thus, literature is a medium of collective memory – it stores crucial contents, transmits them and acts as a cue. Nevertheless, shifting the focus from the community towards well-being of individuals, which is consistent with the postmodern thinking, the impact that poetry has on members of a given memory culture (Jan Assmann) can be described in ‘vampiric’ terms (Maria Janion). Poetry embodying collective memory may be compared to ‘poison’, ‘infecting’ people with a nationalistic way of thinking to their disadvantage as far as their personal lives are concerned.