Following the idea that the available linguistic and cultural identity options are closely connected to particular socio-historical context, I intend to focus on Kersti Bergroth (1886-1975), a profilic Finnish author, who after writing youth novels in both Swedish and Finnish and “high” style literature in Swedish, began to write popular novels exclusively in Finnish. In my presentation I will look at Bergroth’s language choices and discuss more closely how they are intertwined with the complex relationship between the commoners and the elite (both Finnish and Swedish speaking) in the first decades of the 20th century. What kinds of values were assigned to the different linguistic positions? Why was the shift from one language to another appealing?
Keywords: linguistics, finland
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