Correspondence as a family strategy of the Savaloja sisters in 19th-century Finland

Authors

• Hilkka Helsti Jyväskylän yliopisto

Abstract

The article focuses on the correspondence of three self-educated daughters of a tenant farmer, Anna (1844–1928), Katriina (1846–1926) and Augusta (1849–1902) Savaloja. The term “family strategy” outlined by Giovanni Levi is applied to the analysis of this correspondence. The Savaloja sisters were born in Rantsila in North-Western Finland but moved to Southern Finland during the Great Famine at the end of the 1860s. Writing skills and correspondence provided possibilities for maintaining family ties and co-operation in spite of long distances and frequent moving from place to place. The correspondence of the Savaloja sisters is an example of the early literary activities of women from the lower classes.