The Finnish Landscape and Its Meanings

The Finnish landscape and its meanings PETRI J. RAIVO Petri J. Raivo (2002). The Finnish landscape and its meanings. Fennia 180: 1–2, pp. 89–98. Helsinki. ISSN 0015-0010. The landscape has played – and continues to play – an important role in the process of constructing a national identity in Finland. In this process, certain areas and views, whether real or imaginary, are designated as vital symbols of the national culture. The landscape is not merely an image, a map or a view of the existing motherland, however. It is also a part of the nation’s history, which is marked in the landscape in the form of significant buildings and mon- uments to historical events, so that the past may be seen as forming an unbro- ken continuum with the present. Work is constantly going on to maintain and renew the national traditions of landscape description. This means that what- ever its age and nostalgic associations, the landscape is an integral part of our present-day lives. The images, maps, and discourses associated with the landscape may have altered in the course of time, and even the physical areas or views may have been replaced with new ones, but the ideal of a Finnish landscape has persisted. The signs and significations attached to it thus remain a powerful part of our national culture. Petri J. Raivo, Academy of Finland (project 4872), Department of Geography, FIN-90014 University of Oulu, Finland. E-mail: [email protected] Three faces of the same scene all three. A landscape can thus have many faces, or, in other words, one landscape has numerous Landscape is one of those words whose meaning new landscapes opening up within it. is closely connected with the context in which it is used, whether we refer to the view that opens A scene up from some vantage point, a historical milieu, an image, a geographical region, or an environ- The most characteristic feature attached to a land- ment perceived with the senses. It is commonly scape is its visuality. Usually the first connotation used as a synonym for an environment character- that comes to mind is that of the scene that opens ized by unspoiled nature, a rural area in the tra- up before us when we stand at a certain high ditional sense, surroundings that form significant point somewhere, or at least a pictorial represen- elements in our cultural history, or simply an aes- tation of that scene. The origins of the term land- thetically satisfying view. We can also speak of scape in the history of art go back to Italy during national, traditional, or idealized landscapes, in the Renaissance. There, the word paesaggio be- which case we allude to cultural meanings that gan to take on the meaning of a painting which create notions of national or local identity. The had a distant view projected as its background in word incorporates at least three essential features accordance with the geometrical principles of or connotations, however: It may be understood perspective (Cosgrove 1985: 52). From these be- as referring to (1) a visual scene, (2) a geographi- ginnings, the word landschap came to be used by cal region, or (3) a culturally determined way of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Dutch artists viewing or analysing the environment. These to refer to a rural scene with characteristic human properties are not mutually exclusive; on the con- figures, animals, buildings, and natural environ- trary, the notion of landscape frequently subsumes ments. Eventually, it gained the more general 90Petri J. Raivo FENNIA 180: 1–2 (2002) meaning of “any general view depicted in a paint- troduction of the German concept of landscape ing.” Another reason for the emergence of land- geography (Landschaftskunde). Here, landscape scape as a visual concept lay in the development referred to an internally consistent area which of cartography, for both these forms of descrip- could be delimited on a map and distinguished tion – a perspective drawing or painting and a from the surrounding areas in terms of certain map drawn to scale and intended to represent the characteristics (Holt-Jensen 1988: 37). Such de- physical environment as accurately as possible – scriptions were backed up by a precise, standard- came to be combined in the form of depicting and ized system for classifying the features of land- viewing landscapes known as the panoramic view scapes, based on exactly defined terms for iden- (Jackson 1964: 47–49). tifying the forms coinciding within a given area A landscape is nevertheless much more than (see, e.g., Passarge 1929). simply a view or a picture representing such a The notions of landscape contained in land- view. Looking, drawing, painting, or photograph- scape geography and the associated research ing cannot in itself be sufficient, as there is some- methods influenced many national traditions of thing more to a landscape. Whereas the human geographical study, including that of Finland. The eye can take in just under 180º of a panoramic outstanding figure in Finnish landscape geogra- view at any one time, the physical landscape ex- phy was, without doubt, Johannes Gabriel Granö tends around one for the full 360º. Whereas a (1882–1956). He developed the necessary termi- map, painting, or photograph has the form of a nology and methodology and spoke of a per- two-dimensional surface, a landscape is at least ceived environment as a spatial entity that could a three-dimensional construct (Mills 1997: 6). The be divided into two parts: the proximity, extend- confinement of a landscape to the sense of vision ing away from the observer for some 200 metres alone is thus apt to reduce its dimensions, for in and perceivable with all the senses, and the land- reality we recall the landscape that we see, com- scape, extending as far as the horizon (Granö pare it with others, taste it, smell it, and so on, 1930: 14–22). It was the sense of sight that pri- just as we can imagine a landscape that we have marily defined the form and limits of the land- never physically seen on the basis of what we scape, but Granö was also interested in other as- have read or heard about it (Karjalainen 1987: 9). pects of the perceived environment. The land- Thus, alongside actual visual landscapes, we can scapes of sound, smells, and colours, and the var- also speak of landscapes of sound, of smell, of iations in these with the time of day and season the mind, and of the memories or expectations of the year thus played an important part in his that we associate with them (Porteous 1996). The research alongside the visual landscape. experiences that we have of landscapes form a One essential aspect of Granö’s method of two-way process that engages the full range of the landscape geography was the description of forms senses and involves not only the physically per- that serve as the visual manifestations of land- ceived landscape, but also all the pictures, imag- scapes and regional analyses constructed on the es, texts, and narrations that are connected with basis of these. The landscape entities, which it (Daniels & Cosgrove 1989; Duncan 1990). Granö referred to as “districts,” “provinces,” and “regions,” were based on cartographic analyses A region of established sets of forms and the coincidence of their boundaries. The principal sets of forms Apart from a multidimensional view perceivable recognized in his system were (1) landforms, (2) with a broad range of the senses, a landscape may water forms, (3) vegetation forms, and (4) forms also be understood as denoting an area or region. of artificial matter, each with subdivisions (Granö There are differences between languages in this 1929a, 1930). These constructs enabled the spa- respect, however. The English word landscape and tial form and content of a landscape to be defined the Finnish maisema both refer primarily to the by means of a specific formula. Granö’s main visual environment, but the German Landschaft work of landscape geography was his Reine Geo- and the Swedish landskap have a double mean- graphie, first published in German in 1929 and ing that also incorporates that of a certain region subsequently in Finnish, as Puhdas maantiede, in or province (Granö 1998: 15). the following year. An English translation was Geographers have always studied landscapes published in 1997 under the title Pure Geogra- alongside places and regions, ever since the in- phy. Some of the specialized terminology that he FENNIA 180: 1–2 (2002)The Finnish landscape and its meanings 91 created for this purpose is still in use, and he Constructing an imagined landscape coined many established names for landscape regions in Finland, such as the Lake Region. In fact, for Finland the landscape-based system of regions originally Searching the ideal scene proposed for Finland by Granö in the 1925 edi- tion of the Atlas of Finland is still current today The values and significations attached to a land- (Granö 1929b). In the most recent map, adapted scape are cultural conventions regarding what to the revised post-war boundaries, Finland is di- people can or would like to see in it. A landscape vided into five major landscape regions, thirteen is always someone’s landscape, with its own cre- landscape provinces, and fifty landscape districts ators and observers engaged in producing and re- (Fig. 1) (Raivo 1999a: 105). producing the processes by which meaning is as- signed to it. Landscapes have had, and continue A cultural way of seeing to have, an important part to play in the process of building national identities. For instance, cer- No matter whether we consider views or discours- tain landscapes of particular significance for a es, images, or areas of physically homogeneous nation’s history and traditions may be marked out features, one aspect that is common to all these as codes that belong intimately to the culture in landscape types is that they exist only as cultural question (see, e.g., Lowenthal 1994).

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