The minor as major : outsiderness and social class in Saara Turunen’s prose
Roiha, T. (2021). The minor as major : outsiderness and social class in Saara Turunen’s prose. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(3), 741-756. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494211006088
Published in
European Journal of Cultural StudiesAuthors
Date
2021Copyright
© 2021 the Authors
Saara Turunen’s Sivuhenkilö is a work of autofiction, which tells the story of a year in its unnamed protagonist’s life. Despite her success as an author, the protagonist feels like a minor character in her own life: an outsider both because of her gender and her profession as a writer. In this article, I offer a critical reading of Turunen’s prose by asking what political implications are attached to her handling of outsiderness. I approach outsiderness not merely as a theme, but also as a genre-specific feature peculiar to the tradition of feminist rewriting. Based on my reading of Sivuhenkilö, I argue that regardless of its feminist potential, framing oneself as an outsider can function as a way of smoothing out differences and privileges, such as social class. Following this, I argue that the feminist stance explicitly presented in the novel is strongly connected to liberal and popular feminism.
Publisher
SAGE PublicationsISSN Search the Publication Forum
1367-5494Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/68808771
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Additional information about funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.License
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
Crossing the magical barriers of art : Social class, authorship and capital in the contemporary Finnish literary field
Roiha, Taija (Högskolan i Borås, 2019)This article examines how social class origin is experienced to affect the trajectories of becoming and being an author in the context of the contemporary Finnish literary field. It analyzes authors’ experiences of social ... -
Moral Orders of Mobility : Youth Aspirations and ‘Doing’ Social Position in Finland
Nikunen, Minna; Ikonen, Hanna-Mari (SAGE Publications, 2021)By studying the moral orders that young Finnish adults (aged 18–30) attach to geographical mobility, this article reveals previously neglected relationships between aspiration and mobility. The 40 young adult interviewees ... -
Lyyrinen essee
Ala-Hakula, Riikka (Runoyhdistys Nihil Interit ry, 2020) -
The construction of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate characters as gendered and classed
Turtiainen, Emilia (2019)Sukupuoli on yksi keskeisimmistä aiheista videopeleistä puhuttaessa; luokka sen sijaan saa vain vähän huomiota osakseen. Tämä tutkimus kuitenkin yhdistää nämä kaksi, sillä sen tavoitteena oli selvittää kuinka videopelihahmojen ... -
Katse kohti sukupuolta - katse kohti väkivaltaa?
Karkulehto, Sanna (Kirjoittajayhdistys Kapustarinta ry, 2018)