Fluid Identities and the Use of History: the Northern Lights Route and the Writings of Bengt Pohjanen
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Paper from the Conference “INTER: A European Cultural Studies Conference in Sweden”, organised by the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden (ACSIS) in Norrköping 11-13 June 2007. Conference Proceedings published by Linköping University Electronic Press at www.ep.liu.se/ecp/025/. © The Author. Fluid Identities and the Use of History: The Northern Lights Route and the Writings of Bengt Pohjanen Anne Heith Department of Comparative Literature and Scandinavian Languages, Umeå university, Sweden [email protected] The article highlights the impact of agency and context in analyses of the theme of identification in texts produced on the levels of aesthetics, ethnic mobilisation, region-building and the European project. The connection between cultural heritage and identity is discussed with examples which elucidate the role of literature in nation-building in the period of modernity and industrialisation. Texts by the Tornedalian author Bengt Pohjanen are foregrounded as part of the ethnic revival emerging in the nineteen-eighties. Swedish examples of the use of history are contrasted against the discourse of the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes which is part of a supranational project aiming at the construction of a European identity in the political project of preparing the ground for European citizenship. The conclusion presented is that it is not viable to produce a “European identity cultural package” which runs the risk of conflating differences related to aspects such as language, ethnicity, gender, worldview and religion. Identities are fluid, they exist on various levels and shift in response to changing contexts. Sometimes they develop in overlapping discourses. One way of dealing with this is to think of identification as a constant negotiation of symbolic and concrete borders. 227 Fluid Identities and the Use of History: The Northern Lights Route and the Writings of Bengt Pohjanen As a contribution to the project of Europeanization the Council of Europe launched the Cultural Routes program in 1987. The program aims at promoting “the European identity in its unity and diversity” by demonstrating how the cultural heritage of the European countries represents a shared cultural heritage (Resolution (98) 4 On the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe). The influential idea of “unity in diversity” has been used in various ways in contexts where the issue of a European identity has been on the agenda (Delanty and Rumford 2005: 57). Delanty and Rumford underline that in the context of the enlargement of the European union and because of the diversity of “languages, religions and societies, the recognition of diversity is an administrative necessity.”(ibid. p. 60). However it is no easy task to define the contents of the idea of unity in diversity. Delanty and Rumford call attention to the fact that the relation between the key words unity and diversity has shifted, from unity and diversity to unity in diversity (ibid. p. 57). The idea as such is appealing not least because it suggests the possibility to acknowledge diversity while at the same time achieving unity. One important feature of diversity discussed by Delanty and Rumford is that it exists on various levels, for example a polynational level and on numerous national levels. Regional diversity exists within and across national cultures. Delanty and Rumford even suggest that there might be greater diversity within nations than across them (Delanty and Rumford 2005: 64). They describe the idea of unity in diversity as a myth which they see as potentially dangerous as it “denies the possibility of a European identity since this will always be in danger of undermining national diversity” (ibid. p. 65). They propose an alternative, namely to think beyond “the diversity myth”, for example by consciously and strategically acknowledging democratic and cosmopolitan values (ibid. p. 66). They quite rightly point out that the visions of a political elite advocating a supranational project does not necessarily coincide with discourses articulated by inhabitants in the European countries. According to them discourses connected with popular movements such as environmentalism, sustainability, anti-corruption, biotechnology, humanitarianism and anti-war are significant contexts for the articulation of European identity (ibid.). Nevertheless the European project is on the political agenda. One new cultural project within a political structure which has arisen as an answer to contemporary social transformations is the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes program. Cultural Routes and Fluid Identities The initial concept of the program, which is presented on the Council of Europe’s website, was to demonstrate “in a visible way, by means of a journey through space and time, how the heritage of the different countries in Europe represented a shared cultural heritage.” (Council of Europe Cultural Routes). The stated main aims are “to raise awareness of a European cultural identity and European citizenship, based on a set of shared values given tangible form by means of cultural routes retracing the history of the influences, exchanges and developments which have shaped European cultures”. The program explicitly aims at defining a common European space with shared values and a shared cultural heritage which may constitute a common ground for a European cultural identity and citizenship. Considering the diversity of languages, religions, worldviews and traditions in contemporary Europe which exist not only between countries but also in countries where multiculturalism is acknowledged, a narrative of sameness would of course be problematic. It is stated in the Resolution (98) 4 on the Cultural Routes projects that in the field of cultural tourism and sustainable cultural development projects must “take account of local, regional, national and European identities” (Resolution (98) 4: 4). One possibility to solve the 228 seemingly paradoxical idea of “unity in diversity” is to foreground the existence of diversity in democratic (and perhaps cosmopolitan) spaces as a unifying value. If the project is to succeed there has to be some common values which a “European cultural identity” can be based upon. As Delanty and Rumford point out it would hardly be viable to codify European identity in “a cultural package” (Delanty and Rumford 2005: 68). A European identity is by necessity fluid, existing on various levels and shifting in response to various contexts. In Rethinking Europe. Social Theory and the Implications of Europeanization Delanty and Rumford analyse how Europe changes both as an imaginary and in concrete ways as a result of the enlargement (Delanty and Rumford 2005). They conclude that a “post-western Europe” is coming into being: “a Europe that is no longer based on a singular, western modernity, but multiple modernities” (ibid. p. 49). As a result Europe “is becoming more poly-centric, with more than one centre and also more than one historical origin”(ibid.). This implies that the Europeanization project is a “highly indeterminate process of social construction” as the enlargement as such “is about transformation”. The EU is changing and expanding “and as it does so it forces other parts of Europe to change.” (ibid.). Indeterminate Processes on Various Levels The Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes program contributes to shaping contemporary identification processes. As mentioned above these are dynamic, indeterminate and fluid. This is also the case with identification processes on national and regional levels which are affected by aspects such as ethnicity, language, religion, worldview, socio-economic status and gender. In this article a couple of examples will be examined which together might provide a composite narrative with multiple story-lines, agendas, implied authors and readers about the themes of identity, culture and history in present day Europe. The aim of this is to foreground the possibility of thinking about identity, culture and history as a constant negotiation of symbolic and concrete borders carried out in discourses on a political supranational level, on a national and regional level and on the levels of popular movements and the individual. The role of literary writing and art in Swedish nation-building will be commented upon as well as later critique of homogenizing nation-building from the perspective of ethnic and linguistic minority status. The latter will be elucidated with examples from the writings of the Tornedalian writer Bengt Pohjanen who is a vigorous contributor in the debate on the status of the historical ethnic and linguistic minority of the Meänkieli-speaking Tornedalians in Sweden. The Torne River Valley (Swedish “Tornedalen”) is a border area in northern Scandinavia. The Torne River divides the Tornedalians as it marks the border between Sweden and Finland. This has not always been the case. For centuries Finland was a part of Sweden. But Finland became a Russian Grand Duchy in 1809 and consequently the Tornedalians became citizens in different nation-states. The ethnic and linguistic minority Pohjanen belongs to was formerly called the Tornedalian Finns. According to the encyklopedia Norrländsk Uppslagsbok most people who belong to the minority use the term “tornedaling”, Tornedalian, today. It signifies a regional as well as a cultural identity. The denomination “Finn” is often understood as referring to nationality and thus it is awkward for denominating Tornedalians who are Swedish citizens (Norrländsk uppslagsbok