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Matti Kuusi (1914-1998) | |
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Finnish folklorist, writer, professor at the University of Helsinki from 1959-77. Matti Kuusi was a pioneer in applying Roman Jakobson's and Claude Lévi-Strauss' structural analysis into Finnish folk poetry and dating poems. He participated actively in public debate and was unprejudiced about new ideas – Kuusi drew open-mindedly paralles between folk poetry and pop song lyrics. In his own lyrical works Kuusi appeared as an ironic observer. '"Aika on rahaa" sananlasku pantiin muistiin ja lähetettiin Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran kokoelmiin ensi kerran vasta 1896 Liedosta Turun liepeiltä. Ajan mittaaminen minuutein ja markoin on yhä ilmeisen luonnonvastaista kehitys-Suomen vaareille ja muoreille, samoin kuin lapsille, perheenäideille, taiteilijoille, pultsareile jne. kotipaikkaan katsomatta. Paradoksaalia kyllä ajan puute on huutavin siellä missä elintaso on korkein ja aikaa säästäviä tavaroita (autoja, pesukoneita, kopiokoneita, pikaruokapakkauksia) eniten.' (from 'Kansanperinteestä populaarikulttuuriin', 1974) Matti Kuusi was born in Helsinki into a intellectually prominent family, with strong literary and academic roots. His father was Aarne Kuusi, a director of an insurance company, and mother Alli (Zidbäck) Kuusi. They had met in Kuopio, where Aarne Kuusi worked as a mathematics teacher and Alli Zidbäck was his student. Aarne Kuusi's grandfather was the theologian and professor Axel Fredrik Granfelt (1815-92), an active and polemical writer, his his son Axel August Granfelt (1846-1919) was a well known advocate of public enlightenment, who used the pen name 'Kuusi'. The family represented the Fennomen branch of the family and took the surname in 1905. Kuusi's home was religious, his mother hated money, and his father did not smoke, drink coffee or liquor, and he did not like onions. The Fennomen promoted Finnish-language culture, and often made a distinction between the term kansa (the people, "common people") and the upper class with its Swedish speaking members. In his own writings and scientific work Kuusi built a bridge between popular culture and "high" culture, treating them with similar respect. His first and short poem Kuusi penned at the age of seven – on the toilet's door. His continued to write at school and got one of his early pieces published at the periodical Nuori Voima, established to help secondary school students to develop talents. Kuusi's first collection of poems, RUNON JA RAUDAN KIRJA, came out when he was 21. Some years earlier, he had assembled enough poems for a collection, but the publisher sent back the manuscript with a rejection slip. Runon ja raudan kirja (Book of verse and iron) was a nationalistic answer to the exoticism of Tulenkantajat (The Flame Bearers) literary movement. With these aggressively patriotic poem and his second collection, ROUTA LIIKKUU (1947), an account of the war years, Kuusi has earned a passing reference or a paragraph in Finnish literature history, but his major contribution to Finnish culture lay in folkloristic publications. As as a popularizer of scientific ideas Kuusi was prolific , and continued this work right up until the end of his life. Matti Kuusi died on January 16, 1998, in Helsinki. In 1932 Kuusi entered the University of Helsinki, graduating in 1939, on the eve of the Winter War. He studied literature under Viljo Tarkiainen, who was according to Kuusi "clear, hot-tempered, uncompromising" but had complete mastery of his field. Among his other teachers was the legenary teacher Eino Kaila, whose psychological study Persoonallisuus (Personality) Kuusi read a couple of times. Kaila influenced deeply Kuusi as a model of an academic teacher. In the 1930s Kuusi participated in the activities of such right wing organisations as IKL, an ultra-right party, and AKS, the Academic Karelian Society. He also wrote poems for AKS; they formed the nucleus of his first collection. In 1936-37 Kuusi spent some time in Germany with the help of Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation Scholarship. During the Continuation War (1941-44) he served in the army as an enlightenment officer, among others in Karelia, where he edited a magazine. In 1944 he married the agronomist Kaarina Lumiala. Kuusi's doctoral thesis, SAMPO-EEPOS. TYPOLOGINEN ANALYYS (1949), dealt with Sampo poems, the magic device that ensures its possessor everlasting wealth. After the war Kuusi published a widely discussed column in the magazine Kansan Kuvalehti under the title 'Paluuta entiseen ei ole' (There is no return to times gone by). The war, which had brough him in close contact with ordinary people, prompted him to reevaluate his view of the world. In the elections, he voted a social democratic candidate. While recovering from tuberculosis, Kuusi wrote his second and last collection of poems, Routa liikkuu. After his Sampo study, Kuusi examined widely Finnish proverbs, and saw that they reflected the changes in the ways of thinking. He noted that for example the saying 'Time is money' was familiar in other countries several hundred years ago but in Finland it did not appear until in the beginning of the 20th century. Kuusi did not confine to studying Finnish folklore but also published works on Southwest African Riddle-Proverbs (1969), Ovambo Proverbs (1970), and Ovambo Riddles (1974). In the 1960s Kuusi launched an interdisciplinary project in Finland under the title "popular songs are contemporary folk songs". Among Kuusi's best known histories of literature is his study of ancient Finnish poetry, SUOMEN KIRJALLISUUS I (1963), which has been translated into Swedish (Sejd och Saga). He divided the epic poetry recorded by Lönnrot and his successors into five main types: myth, shaman, adventure, church, and historical. Considering the national importance and prestige of Kalevala, Kuusi defended the radical view that the epic was outdated as a work of art, and folk poetry should be presented to public in its original form. Kuusi's last large work in folk poetry was the volume 34 of SUOMEN KANSAN VANHAT RUNOT (with Senni Timonen). "Muinaisrunoutemme oli suuren yleisön runoutta. Suuri yleisö on aina vanhoillisempaa kuin pieni valioylisö. Runon vanhuus ei entisaikana ollut kielteinen attribuutti; muutoin olisi selittämätöntä, että jopa pakanuuden aikaisia runoja on säilynyt läpi keskiajan 20. vuosisadalle saakka." (from 'Lintuelegikko', 1961) Kuusi´s other works include memoirs, studies of Kalevala, African popular tradition and other folk poetry. He also contributed to Kansan Kuvalehti under the pseudonym 'Savinyrkki'. His essays and columns dealt with a variety of subjects – among others Otto Manninen's poetry, Hella Wuolijoki's studies about Estonian folk poetry, and the work of the political cartoonist Kari Suomalainen. As an essayist Kuusi combined the attitudes of scholar and dissident. Often he tried to find a pattern or an order in the chaotic world of changes, or provocatively questioned many prevailing assumptions. In 1986 he aroused controversy by stating in an interview, that the best way to help Africa is to leave it alone. For further reading: Sampo ei sanoja puutu: Matti Kuusen juhlakirja, ed. by Pertti Virtaranta et al (1974); Matti Kuusi: Kansakunnan unilukkari by Kirsti Manninen (1984); 'Lukijalle' by Leea Virtanen and Senni Timonen in Perisuomalaista ja kansainvälistä by Matti Kuusi (1985); Miten minut on kasvatettu, ed. by Ritva Haavikko (1986); Ohituksia by Matti Kuusi (1985); Suomalainen tiedeakatemia. Vuosikirja, ed. by Pentti Kauranen (1998); Suomen tieteen historia 2, ed. by Päiviö Tommila (2000) Selected works:
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