pecial Locality, Mutual Future. Ethnofuturism in Contemporary Finnish Poetry

In this article I study three contemporary Finnish collections of poetry; Jyrki Heikkinen ́s Pois voihke ja valitus! (2004), Johanna Venho ́s Yhtä juhlaa (2006) and Ville Hytönen ́s Karsikkopuu
(2011), by focusing on such features that can be interpreted as
ethnofuturistic. ese features include, for instance, the use of
intertextual allusions to lyric or epic folk poetry and the use of
archaic words and historical cultural meanings as a part of new poetry,
hence the intention to oppose ethnopraeterism. Proximity to the forests,
nature and their inhabitants, as well as their mythologies seem to be a
mutual feature of Finnish poetry inspired by ethnofuturism. There is
also a strong link to the Finno-Ugric language family which makes the
poetry both culturally and geographically transnational.

Ethnofuturistic readings of poetry allow the reader to realize the
uniqueness of the language that has developed in this environment
through several centuries and also how it has created various ways to
express one ́s experiences of life. Ethnofuturistic readings of poetry
can also pass on knowledge of the relationship between man and nature
that modern people seem to have lost. This is crucial in the attempts to
find ecologically sustainable forms of living. In the ethnofuturistic
context the term ‘national’ does not mean nationalism but locality,
which seems to emphasize cultural diversity and the fusion of local and
global. Further research is needed in order to examine whether
ethnofuturistic art could supply the means to understand or redefine the
entire concept of nationhood.

Keywords: ethnofuturism, contemporary Finnish poetry, folk-poetry