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Oscar Parland (1912-1997) |
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Swedish-speaking Finnish writer and psychiatrist, whose brothers Henry Parland (1908-1930) and Ralf Parland (1914-1995) also gained fame as writers. Oscar Parland's novels reflect his long career as a psychiatrist and his cultural background. The works are mostly autobiographical. Parland's childhood memories from the Karelian Isthmus are central in his poems of spiritual rebirth. "When I was a child, this road was the main road above all others. It was the road to Viborg and the longest road in the world, leading to the great unknown. In parts it now looked more like a dried-up stream, wheel tracks overgrown with grass, here and there the road completely wiped out or hidden by vegetation so that you thought it had come to an end. But my bicycle flew on, purring quietly and contentedly as if burning with excitement to be reunited with the world of childhood." (from 'Afterword,' in The Enchanted Way by Oscar Parland, translated from the Swedish by Joan Tate, London & Chester Springs PA: Peter Owen, 1991, p. 196; original title: Den förrollade vägen, 1953) Oscar Percival Parland was born in Kiev, Ukraine, the son of Osvald
Parland (1876-1956), a graduate engineer who worked for the Russian
railways, and
Ida Maria (Sesemann) Parland (1878-1942). His father's family originated from
England. From the mother's side the family were merchants and came from
Germany. At home they spoke German and Russian; from his father Parland learned English. His childhood Parland
spent in Tikkala, near Vyborg, Finland's second largest city, but a
little place compared to the capital of the Russian Empire. "I have no
memories of the years we
lived in Russia – my life
began in Tikkala," Parland said in Kunskap och inlevelse: essayer och minnen
(1991). His father remained in St. Petersburg. He visited his family
during weekends and holidays. Ida Maria refused to move to St.
Petersburg, where she was born. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the family moved to
Finland, but it was not until 1921, when his father managed to cross
the border. Osvald then worked for the Finnish railways. Ida Maria
never recovered from the death of her son Henry in 1930; she died in the
Nikkila Mental Hospital. It was not until Parland went to the school in Grankulla, that he learned Swedish. Eventually Finnish became his second language. An accomplished piano player, Parland dreamed of a career in music in one period of his life. At the age of fifteen Parland met Gunnar Björling, the pioneer of Finland-Swedish modernism, and later Rabbe Enckell and Elmer Diktonius. Modernist free expression with unchained imagination became typical for Parland's fiction. His first short story, 'Appassionata' (1932), appeared in Helsingfors-Journalen. After studying medicine at the University of Helsinki, Parland received in 1944 his Lic. Med. In 1941 Parland married the critic and translator
Heidi (Runeberg) Enckell; she divorced her first husband, the writer
and painter Rabbe Enckell. Parland later dealt with the triangle drama between Heidi, Rabbe and himself in Flanellkostym och farsans käpp
(2003) – in 1941 Enckell stabbed with a knife in the stomach.
Enckell was arrested and confined in a mental hospital for a short
period of time. Parland did not press charges against him. In 1943
Enckell married the painter Alice Kaira; they divorced in 1948. The Winter War (1939-40) and Continuation War (1941-44) between Finland and the Soviet Union depressed deeply Parland. However, he served in the army although he was pacifist. After suffering a mental breakdown, he was sent to Lapinlahti hospital. During the Continuation War Parland worked at Pitkäniemi's military psychiatric institution. His own role had changed from a patient to a doctor. Parland
worked as a doctor at the hospitals of Pitkäniemi (1945-47),
Lapinlahti (1949-50), and Nikkilä (1947-75), where Diktonius was
hospitalized during the last period of his life. Parland refused to let
him leave and Diktonius protested by going on hunger strike. (Diktonius: elämä by Jörn Donner, Helsinki: Otava, 2007, p. 27) From 1952 to 1978 Parland had a
private practice. In the late 1940s Parland began to contibute music reviews to the newspaper Arbertarbladet. He joined the leftist literary association Kiila ('wedge') along with a number of other Swedish-speaking Finnish writers, including Ralf Parland, Heidi Parland, and Thomas Warburton. He was also a member of the Finland – Soviet Union Society. After the Hungarian uprising of 1956, crushed by the Soviet Union, he became a staunch anticommunist. Parland was on the side of the Americans in the Vietnam war. He wanted that Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, is bombed out. ('Skapare, själsläkare, Jurodivyj . . . ' by Oliver Parlan, Källan, No. 2, 2012, p. 26) Oscar Parland died in Helsinki on September 27, 1997. Heidi Parland had died seven years earlier. Parland's novels show the influence of Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, and Yury Olesha,
a prominent figure of Russian expressionism, whose gift for making
things from the past to come alive Parland admired greatly. "Hos
Oljesja fann jag en prosastil som förverkligade mina föreställningar om
modernismens intentioner: knappheten, koncentrationen, åskådligheten,
fantasifullheten. De poetiska bilderna fogade sig helt naturligt in i
texten, överlastade den aldrig och fördröjde aldrig handlingens gång." (Kunskap och inlivelse, p. 24; quoted in Barndomens poetik: Oscar Parlands Riki-trilogi i den ryska litterära kontexten by Olga Engfelt, Åbo: Åbo Akademins förlag, 2018, p. 18) Parland translated Olesha's Avund (Zavist') with Heidi Parland; it came out on 1961, published by Forum in Stockholm. In his first novel Förvandlingar (1945), inspired by André Gide's Les Faux-monnayeurs (1926, The Counterfeiters), and also musical melodies, Parland painted a lightly concealed portrait of his family. The central character is a psychiatrist but in the following novel he sees his family from a child's point of view. Den förtrollade vägen (1953, The Enchanted Way) takes place during World War I and the Russian Revolution on a tumble-down Karelian estate. The narrator, Riki, is a very young boy. "The whole of this complicated world of people, animals and everything else is there for our sake. . . . I am undeniably the one who is the central point of existence and who gives meaning to everything . . . " (Ibid., p. 19) His surroundings Parland depicts in a mythical light – houses have faces, animals talk to him, a firebird falls from the sky and dances in the dark. He believes that he has existed before, in other places, although he cannot remember it. The women of the family – his Mother, old religius Grandmother, who has supernatural powers, aunt Adéle, and other aunts – have crucial role in Riki's world. Later, during the Continuation war
(1941-44), Parland paid a visit as a soldier to the scenes of his
childhood and noted. "The countryside all around me looked hostile. All
this no longer belonged to me but lay beyond the border of my reality, part of an alien, forbidden world." (Ibid., p. 202) Everything
is destroyed by the war, houses have been burnt down, and his
"enchanted way" is already overgrow with grass. Intimations of violent
death appear in Tjurens år (1962, The Year of the Bull). The narrator is again Riki.
"For as long as I can remember, there has been War," starts the novel.
Now death becomes part of Riki's games and imagination. He
plays the Dead with his brother Tommy. In the 1980s these both works
were dramatized for television (1987 and 1989) by Benedict Zilliacus
and directed by Åke Lindman. Spegelgossen (2001), which Parland left unfinished, ended his autobiographical trilogy. The themes were death, sexuality, and Riki's encounter with his other self, a boy in a mirror. Flanellkostym och farsans käpp, also published posthumously, is a portrait of Parland's brother Henry, or Mario in the book. Parland's works are like a mosaic painting, built from small components. Parland's works are like a mosaic painting, built from small components. His psychoanalytic training marked
deeply his writing. Parland saw that relationships inside a family
reflect the family history. Problems are transferred from generation to
generation. He has said that his studies of primitive lyrics opened
the gates to an understanding of his childhood at the family home in
Tikkala. Gide's The Counterfeiters strengthened Parland's conviction that his debut novel should have a clear but polyphonic structure. It was not until fifteen years after the death of his brother Henry, before he could finish Förvandlingar. The mental collapse and attempted suicide of the mother, after Henry's death, form the climax of the work. In his collection of essays Kunskap och inlevelse Parland stated that everything he has written is only a fragment of totality, which embraces his own life. For further reading: 'Parland, Oscar,' in Miten kirjani ovat syntyneet, edited by Ritva Rainio (1969); 'Riki och den förtrollade vägen' by Kristina Björklund, in Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland (1982); Löytöretki lapsuuteen, edited by Heli Karjalainen (1988); Proosan murros: kertovan kirjallisuuden modernisoituminen Suomessa 1940-luvulta 1960-luvulle by Juhani Niemi (1995); 'Varieties of Karelianism: Stenius, Olof Enckell, Oscar Parland' by George C. Schoolfield, in A History of Finland's Literature, edited by George C. Schoolfield (1998); Finlands svenska litteraturhistoria. Andra delen: 1900-talet, edited by Clas Zilliacus (2000); 'Oscar Parland, 'Den förtrollage vägen' ja Willy Kyrklund, 'Mästaren Ma,' in Todenkaltaisuudesta: kirjoituksia vuosilta 1948-1979 by Tuomas Anhava, edited by Helena ja Martti Anhava (2002); 'Att förlora sitt namn¨' by Milena Parland, Källan, No. 2 (2012); Barndomens poetik: Oscar Parlands Riki-trilogi i den ryska litterära kontexten by Olga Engfelt (2018); Riki och den förtrollade vägen: studier i Oscar Parlands berättarkonst by Kristina Björklund (2019) Selected works:
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