”Vain tämä menettelytapa tuntuu tulokselliselta”

T. Vaaskiven kulttuurikritiikin tyylistä Vaistojen kapinassa (1937) ja Huomispäivän varjossa (1938)

• Veli-Matti Pynttäri Turun yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30665/av.74747

Abstract

“Only this course of action appears successful”: Style in T. Vaaskivi’s cultural critique

In Vaistojen kapina (1937, ‘The Revolt of the Instincts’) and Huomispäivän varjo (1938, ‘The Shadow of Tomorrow’), Tatu Vaaskivi (1912-1942) elaborated on a cultural critique which presented psychoanalysis as the myth of the modern age and introduced Freud’s theories to Finland. Vaaskivi believed that in order to be successful and to reach the Finnish audience, this critique should be presented in a visual, tangible and eidetic style.

By analysing Vaaskivi’s cultural critique in Vaistojen kapina and Huomispäivän varjo, this article shows how Vaaskivi’s own style displayed a certain pictorial tendency. By examining his style in terms of ekphrasis and enargeia, which derive from classical rhetoric, the article argues that the distinctiveness of Vaaskivi’s style resulted from his preoccupation with details and from his coloristic use of language.

Vaaskivi also perceived visuality as characteristic of the primitive qualities of language. Visuality was emblematic of the primitive man and by extension provided access to the common man, or “the masses”, in modern European society. By expressing his cultural critique in an eidetic and visual style Vaaskivi viewed modern culture and the modern man as a social evolutionist.