The Sámi and the Finnish in French Travel Books: a Case Study

Imagology seminar

Merja Torvinen

April 15th, 2004

The Sámi and the Finnish in French travel books: A case study

Introduction

Ever since the archbishop Olaus Magnus published his work Historiae de gentibus septentrionalibus in 1555, describing the bjarmi and the skrithifinns, soon to be followed by Johannes Schefferus’scolourful Lapponia, Finland, especially the northern part of the country, has interested travellers and researchers throughout the world: particularly in France.Finland and its inhabitants, the Finns and the Sámi, have been seen as exotic, exciting and – untilrather recently – primitive.

One of the aims of this case study is to reveal the kinds of imagesof the Finns and the Sámiwhich were evoked by early French travellers and their travel books and to see how these images change and develop in the course of three centuries. The point of departure for the study is the Hallidayan principle of language as a social phenomenon. Our experiences, values, beliefs and commitment to a social community bind us and limit our possibilities in making linguistic choices or interpreting discourses. Our lexical choices, the way in which we namethose participating in an event or a process, reveal our attitudes and stances on the subject.This naming process is also important when we consider the birth and development of stereotypes: the travel books included in the study are also significant in that they have helped to create a stereotype of the Finns and the Sámi that still influences the French perception of Finnish people and Lapland.

The case study extends from the 17th to the 19th century. As there was quite a lot of possible material available, four criteria were used in choosing the travel books for the present study. First, in order toconcentrate on the material more deeply, only one representative book is taken for each century. Secondly, the chosen books attained a lot of publicity in their time and were well-known bythe contemporary readers.Thirdly, all three books are placed in the geographically same area, the valley of Tornionjoki. Lastly, the travel books have been translated into Finnish by the same translator, Marja Itkonen-Kaila, which is important for the second part of the thesis work, as the translations willalso be analysed.

The first French man to publish a travel book on Finland was Jean-François Regnard (1655–1709), a young nobleman and a later comedy writer. He had travelled with two of his friends to Stockholm in the summer of 1681 and,inspired by the suggestion of the Swedish king Charles XI, decided to continue to Lapland. Their journey lastedfor approximatelya month. They travelled from Torniothrough Köngäs, Svappavaara and Jukkasjärvi, all the way to Tornionjärvi, where they turned back towards the south. Apparently, Regnard kept a diary during the excursion, as he often mentions the dates and weekdays, but he also copied a lot of material from the original version ofLapponia which was in Latin. At that time he was not yet aware of the fact that the French translation of Schefferus’s work had already been published three years earlier. It is very probable that, after finding about the translation, Regnard refrained from publishing his own work for understandable reasons. His text was found after his death and published under the name ofVoyage de Laponie in 1731together with his other travel accounts.

The next traveller to write about the Tornionjoki area was a Catholic abbé and researcher called Réginald Outhier (1694–1774). He was a member of Maupertuis’s scientific expedition which was sent out to Lapland to find out whether the planet was in fact flat on the poles. The expedition group left for Lapland in April in 1736 and returned to Paris in September in 1737, the journey thus lasting almost a year and a half. Originally, Outhier had not meant his travel diary to be published, but, encouraged by some of his friends, his detailed observations appeared under the name Journal d’un voyage au Norden 1736 & 1737 in 1744.

Almost exactly a hundred years later, in 1838, a French writer and a later professor of foreign literature Xavier Marmier (1808–1892),travelled as a member of Paul Gaimard’s expedition group from Ruija to Tornio and then further on to the south. For him, this was the first of several journeys in Finland. The accurate description of the expedition, Relation de voyage, was published in 1842 as a part of the series Voyages de la Commission scientifique du Nord, en Scandinavie, en Laponie, au Spitzberg et aux Feröe pendant les années 1838, 1839 et 1840.

Stereotypes and imagology

Researchers of imagology, imagologists, are very often interested in what Joep Leerssen calls “national characters” or – rather – national identifications. Imagology can be seen as a study of intercultural relations, of auto- and hetero-images and their formation, where the stereotypes often play an essential role. As this case study focuses on the identification of the Sámi and the Finns, it is important to see what a stereotype in fact is according to different disciplines.

In everyday use, the stereotype is nowadays often defined as a negative slant or prejudice. However, the term itself is not very old.An American journalist called Walter Lippman was the first to introduce a definition of the stereotype in his book Public opinion in 1922. For him, the stereotypes were images in our heads, with the help of which we simplify the reality surrounding us. They were necessary, even indispensable for understanding the society and for coping with the stream of information and sensations. This so-called cultural stereotype is thus quite positively coloured.

After Lippman’s definition of the stereotype, several other theories have emerged. For a long time, researchers, especially in the social sciences, emphasized the pejorative character of stereotypes, although their views are now changing into more neutral ones, in which stereotypes are seen less as a rigid and fixed image and more as a clutch of beliefs, a collective representation.

In linguistics, the problem of stereotypes is usually studied from the point of view of semantics. One of thedefinitions is based on the theory of an American philosopher Hilary Putnam. He sees the stereotype as a simplified representation which is conventionally associated with a certain word in a certain culture and which is necessary for a successful communication.Even though these representations may be inexact, the stereotypes are not necessarily pejorative.

Some imagologists would like to separate the terms cultural representation and stereotype, the stereotypes being in their opinion negative and simplistic. This view has been criticized as the study methods and the nature and function of a cultural representation remain the same as for a stereotype. Whatever the term, the imagological research, in particular in comparative literature,has produced many good studies on national identification and stereotypes.

At the moment, there are few studies on the French image of the Finnish, Sámi or Finland and it seems that, so far, there are no doctoral theses on the subject. However, as it was the two world wars that gave the incentive to start developing image studies, it seems clear that the world of today still needs critical studies of stereotypes and images.

Some preliminary observations on the images of the Finns and the Sámi

My doctoral study is at the same time cultural, geographical and historical: cultural, as it examines two cultures from a point of view of a third culture; geographical, as the travel books all more or less cover the same area along the river Tornionjoki; and historical, as the study extends over three centuries, showing the change and the development of the area in question. However, the main focus will be on cultural questions, as it is the descriptions of people that are the most interesting subject in the works analysed.

The study material includes at the moment all the descriptions of people, of habitations, of livelihood and of traditions, such as weddings or funerals, from each travel book. It may be necessary to limit the analysis later on solely to descriptions of people, as their analysis, even though it is not yet complete, reveals interesting images of the Finnish and the Sámi. So far, the material has been categorised according to the characteristics that surface from the text, such as ugliness or excessive use of alcohol. In the following phase, the examples will be analysed by using the methods of critical text linguistics. It will be interesting to see, for example, what kinds of adjectives the travellers have used of the people they have described and which linguistic functions they are assigned to (actor, senser, goal, target, etc.).

Regnard describes mainly the Sámi in his writing. This is partly due to the fact that he borrowed quite a lot of material from Lapponia, but partly also to the history of habitation in the area. At the end of the 17th century, Lapland was still chiefly inhabited by the Sámi, although the Finnish settlements were gaining ground, especially in the valley of Tornionjoki.Regnard’s descriptions of the Sámi are not flattering: the main characteristics seem to be ugliness, shortness and superstitiousness combined with drunkenness. For Regnard, the Sámi seem to be wild, greedy and cruel people, who, however, are very healthy andskilled in hunting. The Finns get their portion, too: their use of alcohol earns some remarks from Regnard, as does their clothing, which Regnard considers the most amusing.

Outhier’s descriptions differ greatly from his predecessor’s. Regnard was colourful and exaggerating, whereas Outhier is polite and very matter-of-fact.In the 1730s, the Finnish settlement in Tornio and its surroundings was already a lot stronger. Outhier describes the Finnish people as very generous, even if they are poor, friendly, brave and hard-working: he admires the indefatigable Finns who survive on a few dried fishes and a bottle of sour milk. The image of the Sámi, however,apart from being capable huntsmen, seems quite negative: they are scary-looking, beg for money that they then use on alcohol and even often sleep in the snow.

The Laplandof the 19th century that Marmier entered was significantlydifferent from that of Regnard.The Sámi had retreated further to the North and the Finnish inhabitation had spread widely. Marmier thus focuses mainly on the Finns, whom he describes as blond, honest and childishly stubborn when it comes to agriculture in a hostile environment. The Sámi, on the other hand, are either healthy and strong or greedy for silver coins and, with the help of alcohol, may easily be coaxed.

All the travel books have one thing in common: the descriptions are made from the point of view of someone superior andcultivated.A nice example of this is Regnard’s description of a “small, age-old” Sámi whom he meets on the way to the North: “We inquired him of many things, in particular of his age which he did not know: typical ignorance of the Lapps of whom almost no one remembers what year they are living in and for whom the time means nothing but succession of winter to summer.” [1]This theme of primitiveness can perhaps be most easily found in Regnard’s text, but all he travellers have examinedFinlandand its habitants through their own culture and their own values.

It is clear that the travellers were aware of the previous writings on Finland and some of the characteristics seem to have been carried along from the earliest descriptions to the later ones. The characteristics discussed above are only preliminary observations, but they already reveal some inconsistencies and generalizations that are typical of stereotypes. Further research on the material will, without doubt, produce a very interesting representation of the Finnish and the Sámi.

Sources

Amossy, Ruth, & Herschberg-Pierrot, Anne: Stéréotypes et clichés. Langue, discours, société. Paris, Nathan 1997.

Halliday, M.A.K.: An introduction to Functional Grammar. London, Arnold 1994.

Leerssen, Joep: On imagology/image studies. 30th 2004.

Marmier, Xavier:Voyages de la commission scientifique du Nord, en Scandinavie, en Laponie, au Spitzberg et aux Feröe, pendant les années 1838, 1839 et 1840. Relation de voyage. 1–2. Paris, Arthus Bertrand 1842.

Marmier, Xavier: Pohjoinen maa. 1800-luvun Lappia ja Suomea ranskalaisen silmin. Transl. and ed. by Marja Itkonen-Kaila. Helsinki, Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura, 1999.

Outhier, Réginald: Journal d’un voyage au Nord en 1736 & 1737. Paris, Jean-Baptiste Coignard, 1744.

Outhier, Réginald: Matka Pohjan perille 1736–1737. Transl. and ed. by Marja Itkonen-Kaila. Helsinki, Otava 1975.

Regnard, Jean-François: Œuvres de M. Regnard. Voyage de Laponie. Paris, Chez Bordelet 1750.

Regnard, Jean-François: Retki Lappiin. Transl. and ed. by Marja Itkonen-Kaila. Helsinki, Otava 1982.

Vahtola, Jouko: Tornionjoki- ja Kemijokilaakson asutuksen synty. Nimistötieteellinen ja historiallinen tutkimus. Kuusamo, Koillissanomat Oy 1980.

[1]In the original text: Après avoir encore marché environ une demi-heure, nous arrivâmes sur le bord du lac, où nous trouvâmes un petit Lapon extrêmement vieux, avec son fils qui alloit à la pêche. Nous l’interrogeâmes sur quantité de choses, & particulierement sur son âge qu’il ne savoit pas: ignorance ordinaire aux Lapons qui presque tous n’ont pas même le souvenir de l’année dans laquelle ils vivent, & qui ne connoissent les tems que par la succession de l’hiver à l’été. Regnard 1750, p. 123.