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Rabbe Enckell (1903-1974) |
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Writer and painter, one of the main theoreticians of Fenno-Swedish modernism. Enckell's production is interlaced with poetry, aphorisms, drama and prose. There are also symbols from ancient Greece and Rome in his verse and plays. With Edith Södergran, Elmer Diktonius, Gunnar Björling, and Henry Parland, Rabbe Enckell became a member of a new avantgarde school of Swedish-speaking poets in Finland, who introduced new ideas into literature. His brother Olof also gained fame as a critic, novelist, and literary scholar. Akropolis Rabbe Enckell, born in Tammela, was a member of a
distinguished intellectual family. His father was Karl Enckell, a
professor of agriculture (1853-1937). At the time of his birth, Karl
Enckell worked as the director Mustiala Agricultural Institute; the
family moved to Helsinki after he was appointed professor at the
University of Helsinki. Olof, Enckell's brother (see
below), was a prolific critic and literary scholar, while another,
Torger, gained international reputation as a painter. Later Enckell
portrayed his father in Essay on livets framfart (1961).
At the age of
nineteen, Enckell began to contribute to the short-lived culture magazine Quosego
(1928-1929), which was the forum of Finland-Swedish modernist writers. He graduated from the high
school Svenska normallyceum of Helsinki
in 1921, and then studied at the University of Helsinki, leaving it
without taking a degree. For some years, before moving to the family
farm in Vättilä, he was employed by the Academic bookstore. From 1927
Enckell worked as an artist, also publishing nearly 40 books. He
debuted as a poet with Dikter
(1923). Next year he had his first art exhibition. Raoul af
Hällström wrote in his review of the book that Enckell is a poet
of stillness, not a campaigner, like a lot of the most modern
poets. "Rabbe Enckells dikter föra oss i en sval och stillsam värld,
full av aningar. . . . Han är inte en stridsman som de modernaste
poeterna i våra dagar, han älskar tystnaden, skymningen, aningens
knäppta händer, då hjärtat dunkar i bröstet." ('Två debutanter' R. af H., in Svenska Pressen, No. 261, 09.11.1923, p. 3) In
his early artistic program Enckell declared an adherence to the
"aesthetic way of life," which placed him in the no-man's-land
between conservative nationalists and other traditionalists, and the
radical left. Enckell said in his manifesto on pure poetry:
"Drivkraften till att nå det högsta kan för konsten icke vara annat än
det konstnärliga intresset." (The power which drives art to the highest achievements can not be anything but the interest in art.) ('Om den rena poesien' by Rabbe Enckell, Quosego: provalbum, No. 1, 1928, p. 13) Quesego, like its predecessor Ultra
(1922), attracted young writers who
polemicized against the "village romanticism" of
the older generation. Although Fenno-Swedish
modernist writers did not form a cohesive group, many of them embraced the
Romantic "art for art's sake" ideal. Vårens cistern (1931) presented "matchstick poems" equivalent of the Japanese haiku. Enckell's focus was on the Finnish landscape and its meanings, deep dark woods, summer rains, and "hela arten av vår skönhet". According to Enckell, in the old lyrics the pictures appealed to our sight and the rhythm to our emotions, pictures in modernist lyrics appeal directly to our sight and hearing. In the 1930s, Enckell's perspective changed: small animals and insects found a place in his poems: "Myggor sjunga flygsandsfint i kvällens dova klyfta". ('Gardinen buktar ut,' in Dikter i urval, p. 21; first published in Tornbrädet, 1935) From Tornbrädet Enckell started to use images from antiquity; he became a cool, meditative observer, strongly self-critical. Because of medical disqualification, Enckell never served in the army. Deepening fascination with Greek and Roman myths is seen in Lutad över brunnen (1942), in which he experimented again with classical meters. The overall tone is resigned. Long before, Enckell had acquired a reputation as a "difficult" poet. Thomas Warburton said in his review that Enckell's lyrical-philosophical way of thinking and classical allusions add to the opaqueness of the poems, but there is no need to provide them with footnotes. "Dessa dikter skulle ingenting vinna på att i likhet med Eliots The Waste Land utrustas med en apparat av noter." ('Rabbe Enckells dikter' by Th. W., in Svenska Pressen, No. 285, 09.12.1942, p. 2) Enckell was known as a spokesman and theorist of modernism, who was somewhat ambiguous, but nevertheless wrote without academic jargon. Political preferences did not appear to play a role in his aesthetic considerations. Both Diktonius, an active leftist, and the right-wing radical Örnulf Tigerstedt, were featured in Modärn finlandssvensk lyrik (1934), which Enckell edited with an introduction. In the essay 'En lyrikers kommetarer'
(1945) he asked to what extent the world of journalism and radio is
identical with the world of a poet. "Det stora problemet i lyriken är:
att väl avväga det sensuella och det intellectuella. Det sensuella i
medlen får icke skymma innebörden and den intellektuella innebörden
inte förkväva medlens enskilda verkningsfullhet och berättigade charm.
. . . Den intellektuariserade människan kräver aktuell idédebatt och
söker sådan i litteraturen inklusive lyriken. Han lever i
journalistikens och radions tidsplan, glömmande att det finns ett annat
tidsplan . . . nämligen det evigt mänskligas." ('En lyrikers kommetarer' by Rabbe Enckell, Bonniers litterära magasin, Vol. XIV, No. 10, December 1945, p. 840) In Andedräkt av koppar (1946) Enckell analyzed modern poetry itself, how words escape the experience: "Jag önskar orden / hittade vägen till mig: kryp samlade under en sten. / Det lever under en sten och formen för det högsta / bor i allt som har rum i denna världen." ('Jag ser i allt,' Andedräkt av koppar; in Dikter i urval, p. 56) With this work he joined Gunnar Björling, who constantly struggled with the limits of language – in the roman ā clef Landskapet med den dubbla skuggan (1933) Björling is Gerdt, who lives in a little cellar room. When Björling attacked the grammar and syntax, Enckell relied on the delicate interconnectedness of language and identity. Between the years 1929 and 1965 Enckell made several journeys to France and Italy and had art exhibitions among others in Stockholm (1929, 1940, 1944), Oslo (1929, 1936), Moscow (1934-35), in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Hamburg (1935), in Milano and Rome (1935) and in Göteborg (1940), where later in 1956 Enckell also edited the art magazine Paletten. His paintings and other works of art are in several collections in Finland and abroad. Following a personal crisis, Enckell's work
began to reflect
the fragility of human existence. In 1941, he was arrested and confined in a mental hospital
for a short period of time after stabbing with a knife Oscar
Parland, who had a relationship with his wife, the critic
and translator Heidi Runeberg. Parland did not press charges against
him. Enckell then had a short-lived marriage with the painter
Alice Kaira (1943-46). His third wife was the painter Aina Dagny Maria
Erikson. After World War II Enckell gained fame in Sweden with Andedräkt av koppar and Nike flyr vindens klädnad (1947). Its introduction was written by the Swedish modernist poet Erik Lindegren. The title referred to the headless statue of the Nike of Samothrace, discovered in 1863. Enckell's classical studies gave birth to such verse plays as Orpheus och Eurydike (1938), Agamemnon (1949), Hekuba (1952), and Mordet på Kiron (1954), which can be read against the Korean War (1950-1953). These dramas set in the Ancient world drew on his inner confusions, but at the same time they expressed collective fears of the time. Kai Laitinen said in his review of the Chiron play that despite the characters and parables belong to the realm of Antiquity, the play's world is fresh and topical. ('Kentaurin murha' by Kai Laitinen, Helsingin Sanomat, No. 130, 15.05.1955, p. 16) As a prosaist Enckell transfomed his direct self-examination into universal truths. In Tillblivelse (1929), a collection of essays, and Ljusdunkel (1930), its title referring to the Italian word chiaroscuro, he touched the subjects of loneliness, shyness, and alienation. Heidi Runeberg, his first wife, was portrayed lovingly in Ett porträtt (1931). Landskapet med den dubbla skuggan (1933) contained a sketch of playground cruelty, 'Japanesbarnen' (The Japanese Children), which was later published in Swedo-Finnish Short Stories (1974), translated by George C. Schoolfield. In 1960 Enckell received an honorary doctorate at the
University of Helsinki, thus securing his position as poeta
laureus of
the Swedish-language writers in Finland. From 1959 he
lived in Porvoo at the Poet's House, performing little to none of the
the representative duties he was supposed to do. An aura of melancholy dominated his poems of nature and life. Moreover, Enckell
abandoned his high-profile position as an opinion leader. His withdrawal from public life was criticized by Claes Andersson and other young poets as lack of awareness of his time. A small storm of debate about modernism was born.
It turned out, that
Enckell was "an angry olf man," who did not identify himself with
"Modernism's corpse". He responded by accusing his critics of
ignorance, unfairness, and unsustainable aesthetics. ". . . but excuse
me: what do you have on the mountain of Parnassus?" he asked Andersson in a mocking poem. ('Till Claes Andersson' by Rabbe Enckell, Vasabladet, 10.06.1965; quoted in Drag på parnassen: två sextiotalsstudier. Del II, Modernistdebatten by Trygve Söderling, Helsingfors: Helsingfors universitet, 2008, p. 63) Bo Carpelan, defending Enckell, said that he himself had learned a lot from the "old" Modernist". Enckell returned to the literary discussion in Och sanning? (1966):
"Det är fel att närma sig konstverket med en kritik av ämnet,
innehället och den livssyn, det ideal som inspirerat konstverket." (Ibid., p. 26) Rabbe Enckell died on June 17, 1974 in Helsinki. His last collection, Flyende spegel (1974), which included diarylike travel impressions, came out posthumously. Enckell's son Michael has published a three-volume biography on his father: Under beständighetens stjärna: en biografisk studie över Rabbe Enckell 1903-1937 (1986); - dess ljus lyse!: en biografisk studie över Rabbe Enckell 1937-1950 (1991); Öppningen i taket: en biografisk studie över Rabbe Enckell 1950-1974 (1997). Olof (Wilhelm Toussaint) Enckell (1900-1989) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish author and literature historian. He studied at the University of Helsinki, receiving his M.A. in 1923 and Ph.D. in 1958. From 1921 to 1923 he worked at the library of the University of Helsinki, and from 1924 to 1932 he was a journalist at the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet. In 1950 Encell become a professor of Swedish literature at the University of Helsinki, retiring in 1967. Enckell's first novels and short stories appeared in the 1930s, among them Ett klosteräventyr (1930), Halmstacken (1931), Vårt hjärta (1933). Later he became interested in exploring new surroundings, which can be seen in his travel books from Carelia, Corse, Ireland etc. Among Enckell's scientific studies are Den unge Diktonius (1946), Den unga Hagar Olsson (1949). He translated also works from such writers as as Iris Uurto (Farväl Maria, 1936; Den tappra kärleken, 1937), Olavi Paavolainen (Flykten till en ny värld, 1938), Ilmari Kianto (Det röda strecket, 1946), Tyyni Tuulio (Florence Nightingale: en levnadsteckning, 1950), Unto Seppänen (Markku och hans släkt, 1940), Gustaf Mattsson ("I dag": kåserier: ny serie, 1950: Kreatur och professor och andra kåserier, 1953; "I dag": kåserier: ny serie. Andra samlingen, 1955; "I dag": kåserier: ny serie. Tredje samlingen, 1956), Elmer Diktonius (Prosa 1925-1943, 1955; Meningar, 1957). For further reading: 'Canals on Mars' by G. C. Schoolfield, in Books Abroad, 36, pp. 9-19 (1962); A History of Finnish Literature by Jaakko Ahokas (1973); 'Rabbe Enckell' by Louise Ekelund, in Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland (1974); 'Four Finland-Swedish Prose Modernists' by K. Petherick , in Scandinavica, 15, pp. 45-62 (1976); 'Enckell, Rabbe' by G.C.S. [George C. Schoolfield], in Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, ed. by Jean-Albert Bédé and William B. Edgerton (1980); 'Rabbe Enckel - lyriker av den svåra skolan' by Louise Ekelund, in Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland (1982); A History of Scandinavian Literature, 1870-1980 by Sven H. Rossel (1982); Under beständighetens stjärna: en biografisk studie över Rabbe Enckell 1903-1937 by Mikael Enckell (1986); 'Avantgardet i öster' by Clas Zilliacus, in Den Svenska Litteraturen, Vol. 5 (1989); Dess ljus lyse!: en biografisk studie över Rabbe Enckell 1937-1950 by Mikael Enckell (1991); A Way to Measure Time, ed. by Bo Carpelan et al. (1992); Öppningen i taket. En biografisk studie över Rabbe Enckell 1950-1974 by Mikael Enckell (1997); 'Enckell, Rabbe,' in Encyclopedia of World Literature, Vol. 2, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999); Rabbe Enckell: gräshoppans och Orfeus diktare by Louise Ekelund (1999); Drag på parnassen: två sextiotalsstudier. Del II, Modernistdebatten by Trygve Söderling (2008); Må vi blicka tillbaka mot det förflutna: svenskt och finskt hos åtta finlandssvenska författare 1899-1944 by Michel Ekman (2011); Rabbe Enckell: modernism och klassicism under tjugotal och trettital by Louise Ekelund (2019); Rabbe Enckell: lyriker av den svåra skolan: studier i diktningen 1935-1946 by Louise Ekelund (2019) Selected works:
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