Uppoudun ja tukehdun: Häpeästä kuolemantoiveeseen ja itsemurhaan Aleksis Kiven teksteissä

Authors

• Tiina Katriina Kukkonen Jyväskylän yliopisto

Abstract

I will drown and suffocate: from shame to death wish and suicide in the texts of Aleksis Kivi The shame-born figures of drowning and suffocation illustrate death wish and suicide in the texts of the 19th century Finnish author Aleksis Kivi. Suffocations by drowning or hanging attract his characters throughout his fictional oeuvre. In tragedies, deviant lives sometimes end in suicide and as forms of death wish, drowning and suffocation also herald other kinds of suicides. The figure of suffocation connects Kivi’s texts to the tradition of western literature.

Suicidal tendencies form anomalies to life and lead to textual incoherences. Death wish and suicide challenge delightful trends and interpretations. Death wish during homecoming questions the endurance of hope and joy.

From a psychoanalytic viewpoint death wish is born out of the characters’ innermost thoughts and feelings in interpersonal interaction. A rejection by the object of desire or the social environment intensifies shame and exposes one to suicidal tendencies. Kivi’s characters prefer suicide to public shame when social support is missing. When suicidal characters identify with others instead of as individuals, their fantasies widen to include other people and take the form of mass suicide or even a demand that Finland commits a collective suicide.