Sámi Literature in Turbulence
Year: 2015
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Compared to the “Golden era” of the 1970s and 1980s, when literature became one of the most important forms of art in the Sámi culture, the amount of Sámi prose literature has decreased in the past fifteen years: only a handful of prose books have been published and literature is not as central an issue in the cultural debate as earlier. Poetry has become the most important form of literature, although the new generation of writers no longer emphasises the position of the Sámi people or the themes of “Sáminess” in the majority society.Because of the economically insecure conditions, Sámi literature still lacks permanent practices and traditions both in the fields of writing and publishing. There are problems in increasing the amount of readers in Sámi languages. However, the article recommends to be careful in restricting the definition of literature only to published novels and collections of poems. It is also common for Sámi artists to be active in many fields of art and the same people can produce pictures as painters and texts as writers. Documentary films have recently been a particularly attractive field for creativeness for young Sámi artists.
DOI: 10.4000/13tfd
Author: Veli-Pekka Lehtola
Institution: University of Oulu
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4409785274