Helvi Hämäläinen
Helvi Hämäläinen (16 June 1907 – 17 January 1998) was a Finnish writer who published dozens of books of prose and poetry during her six decade writing career.[1]
Biography
[edit]Helvi Heleena Hämäläinen was born in Hamina, 16 June 1907. She moved to Helsinki with her parents Aaro and Iida Hämäläinen while still a pre-schooler.
Hämäläinen's first published novel, Hyväntekijä (The Benefactor) appeared in 1930, but her breakthrough came five years later with her feminist depiction of the working-class, Katuojan vettä (Water in a Gutter). Hämäläinen's best-known book, Säädyllinen murhenäytelmä (A Decent Tragedy), appeared in 1941. A roman à clef, it caused a great sensation: readers were able to identify several notable cultural personalities of the day, Hämäläinen's former lover Olavi Paavolainen among them.[2][3] Hämäläinen's first novel, a modernist first-person text Kaunis sielu (The Beautiful Soul) was written already in the winter of 1927–28, but it wasn't published until 2001, assumedly because of its portrayal of same-sex desire.[4][5]
In 1987, after two decades out of the spotlight, Hämäläinen returned to the public eye when her book of poems, Sukupolveni unta (Dreams of My Generation), won the Finlandia Prize.[2]
Hämäläinen died at the age of 90 on 17 January 1998. She is buried in the Orthodox cemetery of Helsinki.
Awards
[edit]She was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal in 1959.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ "Hämäläinen, Helvi". The History of Nordic Women's Literature. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
- ^ a b "Hämäläinen, Helvi". Biografiskt lexikon för Finland (in Swedish). Svenska litteratursällskapet. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
- ^ Liukkonen, Petri. "Hämäläinen, Helvi". Books and Writers. Archived from the original on 2006-12-08. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
- ^ Ovaska, Anna (2020). Fictions of Madness: Shattering Minds and Worlds in Modernist Finnish Literature. University of Helsinki. ISBN 978-951-51-5743-0.
- ^ Stang, Alexandra (2015). Possibilities, Silences: The Publishing and Reception of Queer Topics in Finland during the Interwar Years (and Beyond). University of Helsinki. ISBN 978-951-51-1730-4.
- ^ Pro Finlandia (in Finnish)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1907 births
- 1998 deaths
- People from Hamina
- People from Viipuri Province (Grand Duchy of Finland)
- Writers from Kymenlaakso
- Finnish women novelists
- 20th-century Finnish poets
- Recipients of the Eino Leino Prize
- Finlandia Prize winners
- Finnish women poets
- 20th-century Finnish women writers
- 20th-century Finnish novelists