Finnish literature
During the European early Middle Ages, the earliest text in a Finnic language is the unique thirteenth-century Birch bark letter no.
After becoming a part of the Russian Empire in the early nineteenth century the rise in education and nationalism promoted public interest in folklore in Finland and resulted in an increase of literary activity in Finnish.
The book Meek Heritage [fi] (1919) by Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888–1964) made him the first Finnish Nobel Prize winner.
Beginning with Paavo Haavikko and Eeva-Liisa Manner, Finnish poetry in the 1950s adapted the tone and approach of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.
There is almost no Finnish-language literature from the Middle Ages or earlier; the earliest text in a Finnic language is the unique thirteenth-century Birch bark letter no.
Many of these have since been published as Suomen kansan vanhat runot ('The Ancient Poems of the Finnish People'), a colossal collection consisting of 27,000 pages in 33 volumes.
It is now widely accepted that the Kalevala represents an amalgam of loosely connected source materials, freely altered by Lönnrot to present the appearance of a unified whole.
[5][6] Among Finland's prominent female writers in the nineteenth century was Minna Canth (1844–1897), best known for her plays Työmiehen vaimo [fi] (The Worker's Wife) and Anna Liisa.
Beginning with Paavo Haavikko and Eeva-Liisa Manner, Finnish poetry in the 1950s adapted the tone and level of the British and American – T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound were major influences and widely translated.
After the wars Pentti Saarikoski might initially have been a counterpart of the beat generation, but being well educated, he translated Homer, James Joyce and many important English and American writers.
His two greatest masterpieces are the novel The Song of the Children of Sibir and the novella The Dove and the Poppy – after which he ceased writing until his early death.
After a successful year as the Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2014, Finland was able to rebrand itself – internationally, too – as a literary country.
[13] Prominent writers of this century include Sofi Oksanen, Pajtim Statovci, Laura Lindstedt and Mikko Rimminen, noted for his irreverent portrayals of life in Helsinki and winner of the 2011 Finlandia Prize.
Finnish writing has also become internationally noted for its fantasy and science fiction, having gained momentum in the late twentieth century, partly through a thriving fandom scene.
[2] Before this, Jacob Frese (1690–1729) was a noted Swedish-language poet who was born in Finland and fled to Stockholm after the Russian occupation of his hometown Vyborg (Viipuri in Finnish).
[14] Known for his baroque poetry often containing religious themes,[14] he considered himself a refugee from Finland[15] and emphasized his Vyborg and Finnish roots in different ways.
The opening poem Our Land (from The Tales of Ensign Stål) was dedicated as the national anthem as early as seventy years before Finnish independence.
Other prominent twentieth-century Swedish-language writers of Finland are Henrik Tikkanen and Kjell Westö, both noted for their often (semi)-autobiographical realist novels.
