Catarina Harjunen

Catarina Harjunen Att dansa med de(t) skeva Catarina Harjunen onormalt konstrueras i erotiska möten mel Avhandlingen undersöker hur normalt och lan människa och naturväsen i finlandssvensk Catarina Harjunen Catarina Harjunen Att dansa med de(t) skeva sägentradition. Genom queerteoretiska och posthumanistiska perspektiv diskuteras ge Erotiska möten mellan människa och nus, sexualitet, manligt, kvinnligt, mänskligt och omänskligt i förhållande till normalitet i sägnernas erotiska möten. Det normala kon strueras och upprätthålls genom att det upp // naturväsen i finlandssvenska folksägner levt onormala och skeva misstänkliggörs och dansa med de(t) skeva Att avfärdas som någonting oönskvärt och rentav skadligt för omgivningen. Det förekommer det skeva, assimilera och normalisera det i ett ändå tillfällen där ansatser görs att omvända försök att göra det acceptabelt. // 2020 9 789517 659673 ISBN 978-951-765-967-3 Catarina Harjunen Född 1984 Filosofie magister i nordisk folkloristik, Åbo Akademi. Åbo Akademi University Press Tavastgatan 13, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 215 4793 E-mail: [email protected] Sales and distribution: Åbo Akademi University Library Domkyrkogatan 2–4, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel. +358 (0)2 -215 4190 E-mail: [email protected] ATT DANSA MED DE(T) SKEVA Att dansa med de(t) skeva Erotiska möten mellan människa och naturväsen i finlandssvenska folksägner Catarina Harjunen Åbo Akademis förlag | Åbo Akademi University Press Åbo, Finland, 2020 CIP Cataloguing in Publication Harjunen, Catarina. Att dansa med de(t) skeva : erotiska möten mellan människa och naturväsen i finlandssvenska folksägner / Catarina Harjunen. - Åbo : Åbo Akademis förlag, 2020. Diss.: Åbo Akademi. - Summary. ISBN 978-951-765-967-3 ISBN 978-951-765-967-3 ISBN 978-951-765-968-0 (digital) Painosalama Oy Åbo 2020 Till oss obegripliga bråkiga skavande Abstract To Dance With The Queer. Queer Perspectives on Erotic Encounters Between Humans and Nature Spirits. This dissertation focuses on ideas of normality, sexuality, nature, and encounters. The aim is to examine the construction of the so called ”normal” in erotic encounters between humans and nature spirits in Finland-Swedish folk legends. By using a critical approach consisting of queer theory and posthumanism, I explore the construction of the ”normal” in the ideas of sexuality, sex, and gender expressed in 116 folk legends, recorded in the Swedish-speaking parts of Finland between 1860 and 1950. I also apply a posthumanist aspect to study how these constructions of sexuality, sex, and gender are related to ideas of nature and culture. - bience” and ends with ”results”, i. e. the children produced in the encoun- I define ”erotic” as a spectrum which starts at a slightly intangible ”am - re ambience is something that can permeate the whole chain of events. ters. The full spectrum is simplified as ambience-gaze-action-results, whe everything from moving towards the body to sexual intercourse. The word Gaze is the objectification of the body by looking at it, and actions include queer is used in the sense of something that is askew and off, not in the sense of sexual identity. I chose the Swedish word skev which implicates that which is distorted and perverted. The dissertation’s title, Att dansa med de(t) skeva, denotes a dance with those who are queer as well as that which is queer. It refers to Donna Haraway’s term dance of relating, a way to express the complex relationship between companion species. The nature spirits on the other end of the encounters with humans were supernatural beings that were imagined to live in the forest or in various bodies of water. They include a female forest spirit called a skogsrå, her equivalent in water sjörå, a male water spirit called näcken (the neck or i was that there is a compelling tradition of story-telling where they are nix), and trolls. The basis for selecting legends about these specific beings sexually involved with humans. I also wanted to use spirits that were asso- ciated with nature, to better facilitate the exploration of the links between sex and sexuality, and the nature/culture dichotomy. The material used consists of 116 folk legends, recorded mainly around was (and still is) The Swedish Literature Society in Finland, founded in the year 1900. One of the main actors in the field of collecting folklore 1885 (Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, SLS). The legends used as the dissertation’s material were collected mainly by SLS. Some of the material beforementioned time frame. SLS had strict rules concerning the collec- was collected by persons or organizations affiliated with SLS, within that tion of folklore: visit the most remote villages in the countryside, speak to the oldest inhabitants, note the names of those villages and informants, and write down the information received in the vernacular. The general consensus among folklorists was that folklore was something that was could remember how things were. The older the informant, the more ”ge- vanishing with the modernization of the world, and that only old people nuine” the tale or song. Because of all these critera, the records are fairly - nal” of every tradition, and to see how the traditions had spread. However, similar in form, and they reflect a tradition. The idea was to find an ”origi traditions, which therefore was not noted. When the material had been the collectors and scholars of the time did not reflect on the function of the recorded and handed in to the archive at SLS, it was systematically organi- zed by archivists, which means that they decided what genres to assign the narratives. These categorizations have later been questioned and revised.- otic, and originates from the SLS archives, as well as the J. O. I. Rancken The material used in the dissertation was selected after defining the er folkloristic collection which is deposited in the Cultural archive at Åbo Akademi University. Some printed sources from around the turn of the century 1900 have also provided a few legends. Around half of the material consists of legends where the erotic is expressed in the ambience, the rest consists of different degrees of erotic actions or the results of these. ii Methodologically I chose a contextual close reading which means that I they say something about the context, the society, which they originate view the legends as texts which are more than just a way of telling a story: 19th century rural countryside in Finland to better understand what kind from. I have familiarized myself extensively with earlier research on the of society originated the legends. I maintain that building the context has been a crucial part of a deeper understanding of the legends. I also argue for considering the relationship between humans and nature spirits as that of companion species, as outlined by Donna Haraway. As companion species, humans and spirits share a common past, present, or for worse, and are what they are today because of each other. A compa- and future. They have evolved together, influencing each other for better nion species is not an unproblematic comrade, but can be quite troubles- ome at times, but nevertheless, the relationship is there and demands at- tention. This posthumanist approach to the relationship between humans and nature spirits demonstrates how humans relate to other species but also to themselves, because spirits were considered to be a mirror image of humans, and also how the idea of humans as the crown of creation is or should be questioned. I view the companion species relationship on two levels: on meta level in the legends themselves, and on narrator level, as story-telling about trolls and fairy folk has certainly not gone away but continues to enthrall in the form of novels, TV shows, and movies. The analysis is shaped around the idea of how a relationship between a man and a woman was ideally to be formed: boy meets girl, boy courts girl, boy marries girl, girl births baby. The analysis is centred around themes of appearance, actions, and how marriage and having children culturally are signs of leading a ”good” life. The appearance of the spirits is described in terms of ”normal” looks and clothing. The female nature spirits are often said to be exceptionally beautiful, and dressed in fine clothing that was beyond the financial reach for the peasantry. The spirits are described they are not human. The place and time of the encounter is important in as human-looking, but their finery and otherworldly beauty tell us that interpreting the normal: respectable people did not go into the forest in iii exposed as queer and cannot pass for human. the middle of the night, dressed in their finery. By doing so, the spirits are especially the female ones, are often perceived as nature incarnate. They Actions, or behaviour, is another way of defining the normal. The spirits, are complex characters who sometimes behave unladylike, which could perhaps be expected of them due to their ”untamed nature” but they still cause repulsion with the men encountering them. Female spirits are still expected to conduct themselves in a respectable manner and if they don’t, the men are free to hurt or even kill them. Spirits who are sexually forward are seen as the worst kind of female, one that must be controlled and pu- nished – although her sexual appetite is enthralling and causes a certain degree of mirth as well. The question of marriage and children is quite central in the analysis. For a couple to engage in socially accepted sexual relations, matrimony was im- perative. After getting married, the couple was expected to start producing offspring. Getting married and becoming a parent was a rite of passage: a boy became a man, a girl became a woman.

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