“The Clearance Sale of Ideals” – Henry Parland and Finland-Swedish Literary Modernism, 1928–1930

• Published in: A Cultural History of the Avant-Garde in the Nordic Countries 1925–1950 p. 713
• Main Author: Stam, Per
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Series: Avant-Garde Critical Studies
• Subjects: Avant-Garde; avantgarde; Finland-Swedish Modernism; finlandssvensk modernism; Futurism; Henry Parland; Literature; litteraturvetenskap; Neue Sachlichkeit; poesi; poetry; Russian Formalism; rysk formalism; Sönder; To Pieces
• ISBN: 9789004366794; 900438829X; 9789004388291; 9004366792
• DOI: 10.1163/9789004388291_042

The Finland-Swedish writer Henry Parland (1908–1930) contributed to the avant-garde magazine Quosego and published a collection of poetry, Idealrealisation (Ideals Clearance,1929), in Helsinki before he was exiled to Kaunas, Lithuania. Inspired by the Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsky, he wrote essays on modern literature, film and theatre. He also wrote an experimental novel, Sönder (om framkallning av Veloxpapper) (To Pieces (on the Development of Velox Paper)). In his texts Parland embraces modernity. He salutes everyday objects, money, machines, jazz, film and photography, ratherthan traditional literary values such as humanity, nature and abstraction. He does not look for tradition or profundity; he is interested in the present and the surface. He also criticises ideas and ideals, old and new. The idea that literary value or aesthetic valueis autonomous and superior to economic value is not supported by Parland. This essay argues that this radical inversion of values may be the central avant-garde quality in Parland’s modernism.