Improper

The Heritagization of Sex-related Oral Poetry in Finland 1818–1997

Authors

• Heidi Henriikka Mäkelä Helsingin yliopisto http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5372-9290
• Lotte Tarkka Helsingin yliopisto https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1211-7647

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30666/elore.121473

Keywords:

corporality, decency, Kalevala-metric poetry, national heritage, oral poetry, sexuality, women’s studies

Abstract

Kalevala-metric oral poetry has been central in the symbolic construction of “Finnish heritage”. This construction is based on systematic collection, archiving, research, and artistic representations of folklore. This article discusses the reception of sex-related oral poems and thematic articulation of the body and corporeality. These poetic expressions have been either excluded or included in the canons of national heritage, depending on the historical and societal contexts. The article concentrates on the entangled processes of heritagizations and de-heritagizations from the beginning of the 19^th century to the turn of the millennium and examines the processes of reception and use of the collected oral poetry in the regimes of national and transnational cultural heritage. The materials of the article comprise folklore anthologies, manuscripts, research texts, and archival materials. We assert that the (de-)heritagizations of sex-related oral poetry reflect the changing societal understandings on body politics and the conceptions of ‘folk’. We demonstrate how the uses and receptions of the poems intertwined with the discussions on ‘decency’ during the long 19^th century, and how these discourses produced disembodied repressions of sexuality. These discourses were used as an instrument for controlling the ‘common people’. Furthermore, we suggest that the paradigm of decency fractured from the 1960’s onwards as the radical cultural movements, individual-centered thinking, and women’s studies pervaded the societal and academic discussions. Thus, the former discourses of repression and silence related to sex-related oral poetry started to recede, and, at the same time, the conception of ‘folk’ was shaped into a more individual-centered and corporeal form.