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Negotiating Emancipation and Nationalism: Finnish Girls’ Literature from 1889–1901

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Nordic Girlhoods

Abstract

In this chapter, Myry Voipio explores the development of early Finnish girls’ literature, published at the turn of the nineteenth century, and how the novels discuss questions of nationality and emancipation. Voipio analyzes how four novels, Toini Topelius’ (1889) I utvecklingstid [In the time of development], Tekla Roschier’s Auringon noustessa 1898 [At sunrise], and two that use girls’ names as their titles, Hilja Haahti’s Helvi (1900), and Immi Hellén’s Eeva Aarnio (1901), depict their protagonists’ adolescent years. Voipio pays special attention to how the genre of girls’ literature has been reviewed and interpreted in Finland.

That a woman is valuable in her own right and that she can find happiness and contentment at work also outside of the home, is too often forgotten (Topelius 1889, 69). 1

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Myry Voipio

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  1. Myry Voipio
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Correspondence to Myry Voipio .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (UCGS), Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Bodil Formark

  2. Finnish Youth Research Network, Helsinki, Finland

    Heta Mulari

  3. Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Myry Voipio

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Voipio, M. (2017). Negotiating Emancipation and Nationalism: Finnish Girls’ Literature from 1889–1901. In: Formark, B., Mulari, H., Voipio, M. (eds) Nordic Girlhoods . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65118-7_2

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