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Väinö Linna (December 20, 1920 - April 21, 1992) was one of the most influential Finnish authors of the 20th century. He shot to immediate literary fame with his third novel, Tuntematon Sotilas (1954, trans. The Unknown Soldier) and consolidated his position with the trilogy Täällä Pohjantähden Alla (1959-1963, Under the North Star, translated into English by Richard Impola).
Väinö Linna was born in an agrarian village Urjala, western Finland, near the city of Tampere. His parents were Viktor (Vihtori) Linna (1874-1927) and Johanna Maria (Maija) Linna (1888-1972). After finishing his education, he moved to Tampere where he worked as a manual laborer and a factory worker before being conscripted to the army. Linna kept on writing notes and observations about his and his unit's experiences in the frontline throughout the war. The failure to get the notes published led him into burning them, however, the idea would later lead him into writing Tuntematon Sotilas. After the war he started pursuing his literary career whilst working in the factory during the day. The later literary success allowed him to dedicate himself to literature full-time.
Linna's social realism has had a profound influence in Finnish social, political and cultural life. Both of his major works have been filmed, The Unknown Soldier twice.
Literary works
Tuntematon Sotilas was the first Finnish war novel to depict war (in its case the Continuation War) in a realistic way instead of romanticising and mystifying it into a heroic epic. Linna later said that Erich Maria Remarque's famous book All Quiet on the Western Front had a great influence on him. But unlike Remarque's book, Tuntematon Sotilas lacks a central character, following in its stead a journey of a single unit from the build-up of hostilities to the final armistance. Linna's style was particularly influential in its adoption of the vernicular dialects of the characters.
Like most major innovations, the novel was heavily criticised by Linna's contemporaries when it was first published. Kari Suomalainen, Finland's most famous political cartoonist, published a cartoon about the novel. The cartoon had two panels. The first depicted Johan Runeberg's Vänrikki Stoolin Tarinat (The Stories of Ensign Stool), saying "Some people turn dirt into dreams...", and the second depicted Linna's novel, saying "...and some people turn dreams into dirt".
Linna's working title for Tuntematon Sotilas was Sotaromaani (War Novel).
External link
- http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/vlinna.htm
- Finnish American Translators Association Homepage (http://www.kantele.com/fata/translatedbooks.html)de:Väinö Linna