Cover not available

In:Nordic Literature: A comparative history: Volume II: Figural nodes
Edited by Steven P. Sondrup, Mark B. Sandberg, Nathaniel Kramer, Christopher Oscarson, Linda Haverty Rugg and Karin Sanders
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages 38] 2026
► pp. 699–709

The silence of groups

Re-thinking “The Silent Finn”

This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Article outline
  • The absence and apparition of the silent Finn
  • Silence in everyday encounters
  • Becoming national
  • Group talk as social activity
  • Notes
  • Works cited
References (37)
Works cited
Ampuja, Outi and Mikka Peltomaa. Huutoja hiljaisuuteen: Ihminen ääniympäristössä. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 2014.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ampuja, Outi. “Miten melusta tuli ongelma? Meluongelman politisoituminen Helsingissä 1960- ja 1970-luvuilla.” Ennen ja nyt: Historian tietosanomat. 18 February 2009. [URL]. Accessed 6 June 2017.
Apo, Satu. “Suomalaisuuden stigmatisoinnin traditio.” Elävänä Euroopassa: Muuttuva suomalainen identiteetti. Ed. Pertti Alasuutari and Petri Ruuska. Tampere: Vastapaino, 1998. 83–128.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. Ethnicity without Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers, Margit Feischmidt, Jon Fox, and Liana Grancea. Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carbaugh, Donal. “Coding Personhood through Cultural Terms and Practices: Silence and Quietude as a Finnish Natural Way of Being.” Speech Culture in Finland. Ed. Richard Wilkins and Pekka Isotalus. Lanham: University Press of America, 2009. 43–61.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haanpää, Pentti. “Iisakki Vähäpuheinen.” Kootut teokset. Vol. 8. Helsingissä: Otava, 1989. 7–59.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hautala, Turkka. Salo. Helsinki: Gummerus, 2009.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaiser, Robert G. “Far Afield but Always in Touch.” Washington Post. 29 May 2005. [URL]. Accessed 24 June 2015.
Kivi, Aleksis. Seitsemän veljestä; Kootut teokset. Ed. Eino Kauppinen, Simo Konsala, and Kai Laitinen. Vol. 1. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran Toimituksia 399. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisunden Seura, 1984. 3–385.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Seven Brothers. Trans. Alex Matson. 3rd ed. Helsinki: Tammi, 1973.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laitala, Lynn Maria. Down from Basswood: Voices of the Border Country. Beaverton, Ontario: Aspasia, 2001.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lehtonen, Jaakko and Kari Sajavaara. “The silent Finn.” Perspectives on Silence. Ed. Deborah Tannen and Muriel Saville-Troike. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex, 1985. 193–201.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Linna, Väinö. Tuntematon sotilas. Porvoo: WSOY, 1955.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Täällä Pohjantähden alla. Vol. 1–3. Porvoo: WSOY, 1959–62.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Under the North Star. Vol. 1–3. Trans. Richard Impola. Beaverton, Ontario: Aspasia Books, 2001–03.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Unknown Soldiers. Trans. Liesl Yamaguchi. London: Penguin Classics, 2016.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luostarinen, Heikki. “‘The Quiet Finn’: National Stereotypes, Politics and the Media in a Small Country.” Scottish Affairs 20.1 (1997): 116–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malmberg, Ilkka. “Suomalaisten enemmistö.” Helsingin Sanomien Kuukausiliite 1: 2013.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mark och hans vänner. Episode 2. Sveriges Television. 20 October 1992. TV series.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moles, Tarja. Xenophobe’s Guide to the Finns. London: Oval Books, 2011.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peltonen, Matti. “Kuinka ‘suomalainen viinapää’ syntyi?” Viinapäästä kolerakauhuun: Kirjoituksia sosiaalihistoriasta. Helsinki: Hanki ja Jää, 1988. 13–36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Puro, Jukka-Pekka. “The Silence of the Finnish Sauna.” Speech Culture in Finland. Ed. Richard Wilkins and Pekka Isotalus. Lanham: University Press of America, 2009. 139–49.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rantanen, Pekka and Petri Ruuska. “Alistetun viisaus.” Eds. Anu-Hanna Anttila et al. Kuriton kansa: Poliittinen mielikuvitus vuoden 1905 suurlakon ajan Suomessa. Tampere: Vastapaino, 2009. 33–56.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruuska, Petri. “Negatiivinen suomalaisuuspuhe yhteisön rakentajana.” Sosiologia 4 (1999): 293–305.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sajavaara, Kari and Jaakko Lehtonen. “The silent Finn revisited.” Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Ed. Adam Jaworsky. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997. 263–83.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, Ronald and Suzanne Scollon. Narrative, Literacy and Face in Interethnic Communication. Northwood, N. J.: Ablex, 1981.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah. “Silence: Anything but.” Perspectives on Silence. Ed. Deborah Tannen and Muriel Saville-Troike. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex, 1985. 93–111.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taramaa, Raija. “Stubborn and Silent Finns With ‘Sisu’ in Finnish-American Literature: An Imagological Study of Finnishness in the Literary Production of Finnish-American Authors.” PhD diss., University of Oulu, 2007.
Topelius, Zacharias. Boken om vårt land: Läsebok för de lägsta läroverken i Finland, andra kursen. Helsinki: G. W. Edlunds Förlag, 1905.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Maamme-kirja: lukukirja Suomen alimmille oppilaitoksille. Trans. Joh. Bäckvall. Porvoossa: WSOY, 1993.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Valkonen, Jarno and Petri Ruuska. “Nationspeak as a Tool in Nature Tourism Work.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 15.1 (2012): 105–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Dream of the Celt. Trans. Edith Grossman. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. El sueño del celta. Barcelona: Debolsillo, 2015.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilkins, Richard and Pekka Isotalus. “Finnish Speech Culture.” Speech Culture in Finland. Ed. Richard Wilkins and Pekka Isotalus. Lanham: University Press of America, 2009. 1–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own; A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas. Ed. Anna Snaith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 1–86.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue