Helsinki in early twentieth-century literature : urban experiences in Finnish prose fiction 1890-1940

Prologue . . 9

1. Introduction . . 10
   An Eternal Cinderella? . . 10
   Selected Material . . 12
   Earlier Writings on Helsinki in Finnish Literature . . 13
   Real and Imagined Cities . . 14
   Outline . . 15

2. Ways of Writing and Reading the City . . 17
   Perspectives on the City in Literature . . 17
     Dichotomies . . 18
     Ambiguity . . 19
   Metaphorizations of the City . . 20
   Towards a Poetics of Movement . . 23
     Trajectories through Space and Narrative . . 25
     Penalization and the Flaneur . . 26
     Walking as Enunciation . . 27

3. The Shock of Arrival. Expectations and First Impressions of the City . . 30
   Arrival in the City in Juhani Aho's Helsinkiin (1889) . . 31
   Mobility and the Degenerating City . . 34
   The Young Man/Woman from the Province . . 38
   Expectations and First Experiences of Helsinki . . 40
     Competing Visions . . 40
     Restlessness and Rootlessness . . 42
     An Experience of Shock: Conclusion . . 49
   Helsinki 1890-1918: A Short History . . 53

4. The Fateful Esplanade. The Stratification of Public Space . . 56
   A Shorthand Expression for the City . . 57
   A Male Bourgeois Ritual . . 60
   The Gaze and the Right to the City in Eino Leino's Jaana Ronty (1907) . . 65
     Jaana Ronty . . 66
     Public Space - Public Women? . . 67
   The Experience of Helsinki's Public Space under the Aegis of the "Frost Years" . . 70
     The Esplanade as Agent Road . . 73
   Uneasy Encounters . . 74
   Traces of Flanerie Beyond the Esplanade . . 76

5. Experiences of a Metropolis in Motion. Changing and Disappearing Helsinki . . 81
   A Panoramic View of the City . . 82
   Helsinki in Arvid Jarnefelt's Venehojalaiset (1909) . . 86
     A Novel about the Land Question . . 87
     City of Sin: the Brothel Scene . . 88
     Tentacular City . . 91
   Helsinki in Transformation . . 92
   Intimations of Apocalypse . . 96
     Nocturnal Outing to the Fortress . . 97
     "All culture is swaying, all forms are inverted" . . 100
     The Whore of Babylon . . 106
   Towards a Sense of Belonging . . 107
     A Fully-fledged Helsinki Novel . . 111
   Helsinki 1917-1940: A Short History . . 115

6. Aestheticizing the City. The Internalization of a New Helsinki . . 117
   The Internalized Urban Experience in Mika Waltari's Suuri illusioni (1928) . . 118
   City Archaeologies . . 124
     Thoughts Breaking off in Mid-Sentence . . 129
   The Nocturnal Car Drive . . 131
   Aestheticizing "New Helsinki" and Helvi Hamalainen's Saadyllinen murhenaytelma (1941) . . 136
     Helsinki as Urban Pastoral . . 142
     Conclusion . . 145

7. Towards the Margins. Cumbersome Movement through the Urban Fringes . . 147
   Krokelby in Joel Lehtoneris Rakastunut rampa (1922) . . 148
     A Deformed Landscape . . 152
     From Carnivalesque to Grotesque Landscape . . 153
     "Like meat on a grill" . . 155
     The Slaughterhouse . . 159
   Mapping a Socially Divided City: Place Names . . 160
   The Loss of the Centre . . 166
     The Shop Window and the City as a "Bordello of Consumption" . . 167
     The Centrifugal City . . 168
   Hampered Mobility . . 171
     A Divided City: Class and Gender . . 173
   A Home in the Margins? . . 176

Conclusion . . 179

Notes . . 183
References . . 216
  Primary Sources . . 216
  Secondary Sources . . 219
Abstract . . 238
Index . . 239