Abstract
This article examines sentimental themes and scenarios in Nordic nineteenthcentury literature, focusing on Finnish realism. The main claim of the article is that the treatment of the Woman Question in Nordic literature is thematically connected to French sentimentalism that depicted upper-class women caught in the conflict between personal freedom and familial duties. Typical scenarios were family barrier to marriage and love triangle, in which an unhappily married woman fell in love with another man. French sentimental social novels took a stance on the position of women. Similar themes and scenarios can be found in Nordic nineteenth-century novels and plays. The ‘daughter novel’ tradition from Fredrika Bremer’s The President’s Daughters (1834) to Minna Canth’s Hanna (1886) depict the sufferings of upper-class girls in patriarchal family and society. A Doll’s House (1879) by Henrik Ibsen centers on the theme of conflicting duties, depicting the moral awakening of a doll-like wife, and Papin rouva (1893, ‘The Wife of a Clergyman’) by Juhani Aho concentrates on the sufferings and moral considerations of the unhappily married Elli. The article suggests that the sentimentalist legacy informs the Nordic nineteenth-century literature and should be taken into account in the scholarship.
Highlights
Over the past ten years extensive research has been conducted on Finnish nineteenth-century realism, or naturalism, as some prefer to call it
The interpretation that I want to defend here is that Papin rouva is a realist version of the sentimental love-triangle novel rather than a Flaubertian novel of female adultery
The novel type makes room for social and political debate on the protagonist’s conduct: by presenting imperfect characters, it leaves room for debate and censure. (See ibid. 135-139, 159.) This aesthetics bears resemblance to the Brandesian ideal of debatlitteratur of putting questions under debate, and it is not that surprising to find the name of George Sand at the renowned Copenhagen lecture by the Danish critic Georg Brandes in 1871
Summary
Over the past ten years extensive research has been conducted on Finnish nineteenth-century realism, or naturalism, as some prefer to call it. The interpretation that I want to defend here is that Papin rouva is a realist version of the sentimental love-triangle novel rather than a Flaubertian novel of female adultery This is because the main features that separate Aho’s novel from Flaubert’s Madame Bovary – Elli’s chastity, her serious moral considerations and melancholic suffering – are typical of sentimentalist love-triangle novels such as George Sand’s Indiana (1832). Like Indiana, Elli must marry without love because of her weak social position, and her unhappy marital life causes her deep melancholy and spiritual suffering.. Like Indiana, Elli must marry without love because of her weak social position, and her unhappy marital life causes her deep melancholy and spiritual suffering.5 Both novels portray their heroine watching the sea or a lake and dreaming of the world beyond it. The novel type makes room for social and political debate on the protagonist’s conduct: by presenting imperfect characters, it leaves room for debate and censure. (See ibid. 135-139, 159.) This aesthetics bears resemblance to the Brandesian ideal of debatlitteratur of putting questions under debate, and it is not that surprising to find the name of George Sand at the renowned Copenhagen lecture by the Danish critic Georg Brandes in 1871
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
