L'histoire du livre saami en Finlande : ses racines et son développement de 1820 á 1920

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the Saami book history in the context of Finland in order to understand its evolution from 1820 to 1920. The study focuses on books and other printed materials in Saami language(s) (or idioms) and it looks into archival documents to throw light on their intellectual history. The Saami book history has unfolded slowly, and occasionally, it has appeared to fall into decline. The present study follows the French school of book history that uses multidisciplinary methods to examine books as a reflection of ideology in the context of a given culture at a given time. Such an approach allows us to see how a minority can express itself, what possibilities there are and at what stage it finally gets to express itself with its own voice. To gain a better understanding of this process, one also needs to study the multilingualism characteristic for the period of investigation: which were the languages that were used in this “minor literature” and what kind of functions the languages served. For example, while during the 19th century the number of books printed in Finnish language considerably increased, only few books were published in Saami. The present study examines the types of printed books and texts in Saami and aims at giving some explanations for the scarcity of publications by relating the findings to the cultural history of the time. Further, it is considered important in the present study that the personalities involved – translators, authors and others – are taken into account. A highly significant perspective – often neglected – is to consider the involvement of Saami speakers themselves: while the first Saami- language books were published at the beginning of the period of this investigation, in early 1800s, the first Saami-language novel written by a Saami-speaker in Finland was published only at the beginning of the 20th century.