![]() ![]() Choose another writer in this calendar: by name: by birthday from the calendar. TimeSearch |
|
Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872) - Alexis Kivi (Kiwi) - originally Alexis Stenvall |
Finnish national writer, playwright, poet, novelist, whose major work was Seitsemän veljestä (1870, Seven Brothers). Aleksis Kivi was the first professional writer publishing his works in Finnish. He died in poverty at the age of thirty-eight. JUHANI: . . . What more? Isn't our home now without the poor man's only treat, the roaring steam of the sauna? There the ruins of our sauna smoke and smoulder. And there's still the worst of devils left. Hrrh! With all its ten holes the stocks grin at us from the church porch. Bright lightning! If such a bunch of worries doesn't lift a razor to a man's throat, what will? Oh you horned bull! Aleksis Kivi was born at Nurmijärvi in southern Finland, some twenty miles north of Helsinki. He came from a poor background. His mother was Annastiina (Hamberg) Stenvall, the daughter of a smith, who was five years older than her husband. Eerik Johan Stenvall, Kivi's father, was a tailor, who could read and write. Eerik had learnt Swedish, the language every educated Finnish spoke, before a Finnish-language culture fully developed. Kivi also acquired a complete mastery of Swedish. However, in the wake of national awakening Kivi translated his surname (Stenvall, 'stone-bank') into Finnish (Kivi, 'stone'). In 1846, at the age of twelve, Kivi left for school in
Helsinki,
where he found lodgings at the home of a prison warder. For a year his
teacher was A.J. Cranberg, an old sailor, and at his small cottage Kivi
studied among others Swedish. While living at the home of a master
tailor, named Albin Palmqvist, he read whatever books he managed to
find. With Palmqvist's daughter, Albina, who was five years his senior, Kivi discussed of such writers as Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Byron. Kivi fell in love with Albina, and according to some sources, he proposed marriage. Albina went in 1853 to Denmark, where she started to use morphin for her neuralgia. During the following years, Albina spent much time abroad, but when she visited Finland, she met Kivi several times. Kivi never married and Albina also remained single. She possibly influenced a number of Kivi's female characters in his plays, including Liisa in Yö ja päivä (1866), Elma in Karkurit (1866), Lea in Lea (1868), Marianne in Canzio (1868). Kivi managed to finish in 1857 secondary school, despite occasionally neglecting his studies – partly because he suffered from hunger. In 1859 Kivi managed to enter the University of Helsinki, where he read the classics of world literature. At the Swedish theatre in Helsinki, he saw plays by Molière and Schiller and became familiar with the work of the Danish dramatist Ludvig Holberg. Kivi's first drama, Kullervo, won a competition held by the Finnish Literature Society. The work was based on the Kalevala. Shakespeare's influence was seen in its dramatic technique. With the prize money Kivi could continue his literary career. Kullervo established Kivi as a rising literary talent. His friends included such Finnish-speaking intellectuals as Fredrik Cygnaeus, Elias Lönnrot, Julius Krohn, and Emil Nervander. J.V. Snellman, a philosopher, journalist and politician, helped him economically. At university Kivi studied sporadically. He was more
interested in
writing and intended to become a celebrated poet like Runeberg. While
in Nurmijärvi and Siuntio he relied on the loving care of
Charlotta Lönnqvist, a
self-sacrificing benefactress. Perhaps also the Adlercreutz
family gave him some kind of support. From 1863 Kivi devoted himself to his calling. He published 12 plays, collection of poems, and Seven Brothers, on which he worked for ten years. When the novel finally appeared, it was crushed by the influential critic and poet August Ahlqvist, whose insensitiveness became later a symbol of oppression of artistic freedom. "It is a ridiculous work and a blot on the name of Finnish literature," Ahlqvist stated in the newspaper Finlands Allmäna Tidningen. Seven Brothers
– seven, like the number of stars in the Big Dipper – came out first in
four
volumes in 1870. The humorous novel tells of bunch of orphaned young
men. To evade
the Lutheran
Church's requirement, that they learn to read and write before
confirmation, and embracing the idea of back to nature, the brothers
flee to the wilderness. After encountering
all kinds of disasters, they return to society – matured and ready to
take responsibilities. These
"country lads" won Kivi many enemies, who mostly came from the Fennoman
movement.
Fennomans
emphasized agrarian and conservative values and traditions. However,
the folk types that populate Kivi's work are not modelled on an
idealized
picture of the people. Kivi made fun with ignorance,
laziness, tendency
to heavy drinking, and antipathy towards formal education.
Moreover, one of the seven brothers, named Simeoni, is a psychiatric
case
of some sort: he is fanatically religious, suffers from depression, and
hallucinates. Simeoni remains unmarried. A miser, he eats moldy bread. The mixture of comical, mythological,
and tragic was not
understood in Kivi's own time. Nowadays Seven Brothers
has been interpreted at
many levels. Having nearly finished the first draft of his translation
of Ibsen's Peer Gynt, the
poet Pentti Saarikoski thought that Kivi is better
writer than Ibsen, because "you get this feeling that he made up the
words himself, that every single word was being used for the very first
time." (Aleksis Kivi and/as World Literature
by Douglas Robinson, 2017, p. 20) In 1865 Kivi won the State Prize for his play Nummisuutarit
(The Heath Cobblers). He lived in Siuntio from 1864, reading, writing,
visiting his friends in Helsinki – and when he could afford it, he
drank
in local taverns. Noteworthy, Kivi also wrote a play about a beer
outing at Schleusingen, Olviretki
Schleusingenissä
(1866), which was not published during his lifetime. This farce
contains a brisk
drinking song: "Terve, ruskee ohranneste":
"Hail, brown barley juice, / Hail strong foaming cheer!
/ Let it all go down / So long as it's beer."
(from 'Drinking Song,' in Odes
by Aleksis Kivi, selected and translated with an introduction by Keith
Bosley, Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1994, p. 46) Although Kivi had many faithful friends, such as Kaarlo Bergbom, who established the Finnish
Theatre, he was deeply depressed by the harsh words of criticism from
Ahlqvist and others of his kind. Most of his life
Kivi was healthy. While in Nurmijärvi, he liked to swim, fish,
and roam the wild forests with his rifle on his shoulder. The final
period of Kivi's lfe was shadowed by economical
worries, and a physical and mental breakdown. From the late 1860s, Charlotta Lönnqvist could not support the
author any more. All of Kivi's money, which he earned from his
writings, went to debts. Showing
signs of schizophrenia, Kivi was committed to the
mental
hospital in Lapinlahti. It has also been suggested that he suffered
from borreliosis (lyme disease). Upon arrival, Kivi was given quinine,
morphine, and
laxative. Other therapeutic methods in Lapinlahti included
straitjacketing, forced baths, and solitary confinement in dark rooms. After nine months, on May 1872, Kivi's brother Albert brought him from Lapinlahti to Tuusula, where he spent his last months in a small rented cottage. Kivi died on the same year on December 31. According to the popular legend his last words were: "Minä elän!" (I am alive!). Grove of Tuoni, grove of night! One of Aleksis Kivi's most famous poems is 'Sydämeni laulu'
(Grove of
Tuoni, grove of night / Song of my Heart) – a dark and very moving
work, in which a woman seems to wish her baby dead. The poem was basis
for Jean Sibelius song (Op. 18 No. 6) with the same title from 1898. A
mother sits alone with her child and asks: "Tell me, my
child, my summerbright, tell me: wouldst thou not sail away from here
to a haven of everlasting peace while the white pennant of childhood
still flies clean? On the shore of a misty, tideless lake stands the
dark manor of Tuoni; there in the heart of a shadowy grove, in the
bosom of a dewy thicket a cradle is prepared for thee with snowy linen
and wrappings. Hear therefore my song; it wafts thee to the land of the
Prince of Tuoni. (Voices from
Finland, p. 149) In Finnish mythology, Tuoni is the god of the Underworld, Tuonela is the land of the dead. Usually literary critics have emphasized humorous aspects of Seven Brothers. None of the seven die, but death is one of themes in the book, starting from the backgound of the brothers: their parents have died. For further reading: Aleksis Kivi by V. Tarkainen (1915); Aleksis Kiven muisto by V. Tarkiainen (1919); Aleksis Kivi aikalaistensa arvostelemana by J.V. Lehtonen (1931); Nurmijärven poika by J.V. Lehtonen (1934); Aleksis Kiven persoonallisuus by Paavo E.S. Elo (1950); Aleksis Kiven runomaailma by Lauri Viljanen (1953); Aleksis Kivi 1860-1960. Bibliografinen opas Kiven maailmaan by Sulo Haltsonen (1964); Runoilija ja arvostelija by Eino Kauppinen (1966); Aleksis Kivi by Erik Ekelund (in Swedish 1960, translated into Finnish 1966); Aleksis Kiven näytelmät by Aarne Kinnunen (1967); Aleksis Stenvallin elämä by Veijo Meri (1973); A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas (1973); Tuli, aurinko ja seitsemän veljestä by Aarne Kinnunen (1974); Aleksis Kivi by Rafael Koskimies (1974); Paloon Stenvallit by Jaakko Puokka (1979); Syksystä jouluun by Kalle Achté (1982); Elon saarel tääl by Veijo Meri (1984); Aleksis Kiven maailmasta, ed. by Markku Envall (1984); Aleksis Kivi by Kai Laitinen (1989); Kohtalon vaihtoehdot by Oiva Ketonen (1989); Lumivalkea liina: Aleksis Kivi ja rakkaus by Esko Rahikainen (1998); 'Kivi, Pioneer and Classic' by Kai Laitinen, in A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Aleksis Kivi by Hannes Sihvo (2002); Seitsemän veljestä ja lukemisen juonet by Aarne Kinnunen (2002); Metsän poika: Aleksis Kiven elämä by Esko Rahikainen (2004); Albina: Aleksis Kiven suuri rakkaus by Anja Kauppala (2003); Vimman villityt pojat by Pirjo Lyytikäinen (2005); Impivaaran kaski: Aleksis Kivi kirjallisuutemme korvenraivaajana by Esko Rahikainen (2009); Nyt ei auta pelko eikä vapistus: Aleksis Kiven terveydestä, kirjeistä, unista ja seitsemästä veljeksestä, edited by Jukka Aaltonen, et al. (2015); Kanervakankaalla: näkökulmia Aleksis Kiven runouteen, edited by Päivi Koivisto (2017); Aleksis Kivi and/as World Literature by Douglas Robinson (2017); Ihmissydän: henkilöitä ja kohtaloita A. Kiven maailmoissa by Reeta Holopainen, Sakari Katajamäki, Ossi Kokko (2018); Aleksis Kiven elämä ja sairaudet: tutkimus Aleksis Kiven sairauksista hänen elämänsä eri vaiheissa by Raimo K.R. Salokangas (2018); Saapasnahka-torni: Aleksis Kiven elämänkertomus by Teemu Keskisarja (2018); Mansikoita ja mustikoita: näkökulmia Aleksis Kiven runouteen. II, edited by Päivi Kovisto & Hanna Karhu (2020); Seitsemän veljestä ja opas sen lukemiseen, edited by Sakari Katajamäki (2020); 'Shakespeare's Legacy and Aleksis Kivi: Rethinking Kivi's Drama Karkurit [The Fugitives]' by Riitta Pohjola-Skarp, in Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: Shifting Centres and Peripheries in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Nely Keinänen and Per Sivefors (2022); 'Jukolan veljekset maallikkopsykiatrin vastaanotolla: ADHD-nimike ja muut tarttuvat diagnoosit Seitsemän veljeksen nykyluennassa' by Jani Tanskanen, in Kulttuurintutkimus, Vol. 39 Nro 1 (2022); Alexis: elämänkertomus by Vesa Haapala (2023) - Literary festival: Kivi's birth-county Nurmijärvi is celebrating the national writer every year with plays and other events based on his works. Aleksis Kivi & Seitsemän veljestä featured in films, plays, opera, novels: Minä elän (1946), film dir. by Ilmari Unho, starring Rauli Tuomi; Nuori Aleksis (1947), novel, written by Elsa Soini; Aleksi Kivi (1974), play, written by Veijo Meri; Yössä Gehennan (1984), play, written by Ilpo Tuomarila; Yks perkele, yks enkeli (1985), play, written by Arvo Salo; Stenvallin tapaus (1995), novel, written by Kirsti Manninen and Jouko Raivio; Aleksi Kivi ja Serbian prinsessa (1996), novel, written by Antero Viinikainen; Aleksis Kivi (1997), opera, composed by Einojuhani Rautavaara; Aleksis Kiven elämä (2002), film dir. by Jari Halonen, starring Marko Tiusanen; Kivi (2010), novel, written by Hannu Mäkelä; Seitsemän veljestä (2021) novel, written by Juha Hurme; Karhunkaatajan tyttäret: kertomus seitsemästä sisaruksesta (2023), novel, written by Anneli Jordahl, translated by Jaana Nikula Selected works:
|