Writing of a Different Class? The First 120 years of Working-Class Fiction in Finland

Crossing the Magical Barriers of Art:Social Class, Authorship and Capital in the Contemporary FinnishLiterary Field

“…Regardless of the precarious conditions of authorship and the presumed overrepresentation of middle-class authors, there has also been a strong tradition of working-class literature in Finland and other Nordic countries (e.g. Hyttinen & Launis 2017;Nilsson 2017). However, the mere definition of what constitutes working-class literature or a working-class author has been debated.…”

“…Is it, for instance, literature that is simply written by working-class writers, or does it have to be "by, about and for workers" (Nilsson 2017, 95)? Paradoxically, some of the most prominent authors who are often seen as part of the tradition of working-class literature have been from upper social class origins (Hyttinen & Launis 2017;Nilsson 2017). This supports the idea that at times workingclass literature can be an issue related to taking a specific kind of political stance or handling a specific theme rather than defined by the class origin of the author.…”

“…Ojajärvi 2016), or when addressing working-class literature, it is often framed from a historical perspective (e.g. Hyttinen & Launis 2017). At the moment, there exists no up-to-date information about the class composition of authors or other artists in Finland (for the most recent quantitative analysis, see Heikkinen 1989).…”