Celebrity, Confession, and Performance in Pentti Saarikoski's I Look Out Over Stalin's Head

Abstract

This article examines the dynamics between confessional poetry and celebrity by focusing on I Look Out Over Stalin's Head (1969), a lyrical collection written by Pentti Saarikoski, the most prominent literary celebrity in Finland in the 1960s. The collection is highly self-conscious of the conventions of confessional writing as well as of Saarikoski's reputation as an alcoholic and a radical left-wing provocateur. Moreover, Saarikoski's celebrity status contributes to blurring the border between the speaker and the public persona of the writer. The collection can be characterised as a work of confessional performance. Based on recurrent elements in Saarikoski's media appearances and in his confessional works the article argues that the writer's public persona was performatively produced and that I Look Out Over Stalin's Head was part of this performance. Applying Judith Butler's ideas of performativity and subversiveness, the article analyses the speaker's performance as an alcoholic and a communist in the context of Finnish celebrity culture and the cultural politics of the late 1960s. In conclusion, the article argues that although Saarikoski was an active negotiator regarding his public persona, his relationship to the media as well as to his readers fell on the border between agency and exploitation.