A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
A Nation’s Right to Have a Literature of Its Own: Early Nineteenth-Century Romantic Notions of Finnish Language and Literature in Transnational Contexts of Intellectual Ideas
Authors: Saarelainen, Juhana
Editors: Demson, Michael; Halmari, Helena
Edition: 1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication year: 2026
Book title : Finnish Romanticism : Language, Nationalism, and the Fine Arts of Finland’s Long Nineteenth Century
Series title: Palgrave Studies in the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Cultures of Print
First page : 41
Last page: 56
ISBN: 978-3-031-98932-2
eISBN: 978-3-031-98933-9
ISSN: 2634-6516
eISSN: 2634-6524
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-98933-9_3
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: No Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : No Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-98933-9_3
German Romantic philosopher and author Friedrich Schlegel wrote that a nation has a right to have a characteristic (Eigentümliche) literature, that is, a language development (Sprachbildung), of its own. For many Romantics, national languages were in themselves valuable as they offered a unique interpretation of the world. In this chapter, I discuss how these ideas were adapted and publicly expressed by Turku Romantics in Finland during the first half of the nineteenth century. Turku Romantics took interest in the possibilities of the public sphere and print journalism. Especially A. I. Arwidsson emphasized the Finnish language and poetry as the foundation of national identity. His view on poetry can be described as radical aestheticism: poetry and art do not only describe reality but also create it. This notion enabled the formation of a belief system for nation building.
Keywords:
Adolf Iwar Arwidsson, Finland’s history, Turku Romantics
