In Defense of Poesy: Hallila’s Survey of Contemporary Finnish Literature

Somewhat surprisingly, the Varpio literary history did not evoke any public discussion concerning the principles of literary historiography. This may indicate that the new approach, with its broader understanding of literature as “literary life”, as well as the feminist movement, was widely accepted—or, possibly, that it was too difficult to grasp what was going on in this new literary history to allow for opening up a methodological discussion. The two-volume Suomen nykykirjallisuus (Contemporary Finnish literature), edited by Mika Hallila and others, appeared in 2013 and was conceived of as supplementing the Varpio literary history in terms of its chronological range (Hallila et al., 2013, vol. 1, 9; 2013, vol. 2, 280). Certain differences, however, can be perceived between the two works in their specific emphases.