CEUS U520 0654 Vesterinen

Introduction to Finnish Folk Culture

CEUS Home Page

Aims and content: to familiarize students with Finnish folk culture, to help them to recognize the "Finnish tradition" in contemporary culture and to offer them an opportunity to have a new outlook on Finland. The course will explore the origins of Finns and Finnish folk culture and the transition from rural culture to urbanization. The concepts of Finnish family and kinship will be discussed. Traditional festivities and Finnish settlements and buildings ranging from manor houses and castles to the rural dwellings and the industrial architecture of the 1800 will be described. The students are encouraged to engage in comparative discussion on differences and similarities between Finnish culture and American culture.

Readings:

Ilmari Talve, Finnish Folk Culture (Manuscript, 1994).

Ilmari Vesterinen, Folk Culture in Finland (Manuscript).

Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala. An Epic Poem after Oral Tradition. Translated by Keith Boisley. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Juha Pentikäinen and Marja Hiltunen (ed.), Cultural Minorities in Finland, Helsinki: Publications of the Finnish National Commission for Unesco. 2, revised edition. 1995

N.B. The rest of the material will be distributed to the students in class.

Requirements:

The course has no final examination but the students must write three papers (ten to fifteen pages each). The students must also prepare a 20 minute talk for the class of each paper. No knowledge of Finnish is required (but, of course, it doesn't harm).

Grading:

Papers and talks 50 %

Class participation 50 %

Days and Time: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 1:25-2:15.