White Field, Black Seeds: Nordic Literacy Practices in the Long Nineteenth Century

White field, black seeds - who can sow? The riddle refers to the ability to write, a skill which in most Nordic countries was not regarded as necessary for everyone. And yet a significant number of ordinary people with no access to formal schooling took up the pen and produced a variety of highly interesting texts: diaries, letters, memoirs, collections of folklore and handwritten newspapers.

This collection presents the work of primarily Nordic scholars from fields such as linguistics, history, literature and folklore studies who share an interest in the production, dissemination and reception of written texts by non-privileged people during the long nineteenth century.

Research sources, many of them little known, in Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland are discussed. Literate societies emerged in the long 19th century as well as a sense of national revival especially in Finland,Iceland and Norway in large part do to an increasingly urban and rural populations.

Contents

Anna Kuismin & M. J. Driscoll:

Exploring the Processes and Practices of Literacy in the Nordic Countries

Martyn Lyons:

A New History from Below? The Writing Culture of European Peasants, c. 1850 - c.1920
Britt Liljewall:

Recollections of Reading and Writing: Another Picture of Swedish Literacy
Davdi Olafsson:

Scribal Communities in Iceland: The Case of Sighvatur Grimsson
M. J. Driscoll:

The Long and Winding Road: Manuscript Culture in Late Pre-Modern Iceland
Sigurour Gylfi Magnusson:

Living by the Book: Articulating Life Experience in Iceland
Kirsti Salmi-Niklander:

Monologic, Dialogic, Collective: Modes of Writing in Finnish Hand-Written Newspapers
Ann-Catrine Edlund:

A Country Maid and her Diary: Methodological Reflections on Literacy Practices
Anna Kuismin:

From Family Inscriptions to Autobiographical Novels: Motives of Writing in Grassroots Life Stories in 19th-Century Finland
Kaisa Kauranen:

Odd Man out? The Self-educated Philosopher Kustaa Brask and his Analyses of 19th-century Finland
Guony Hallgrimsdottir:

Material without Value? The Recollections of Guorun Ketilsdottir
Kati Mikkola:

Self-taught Collectors of Folklore and their Challenge to Archival Authority
Petri Lauerma:

Finnish Revivalist Movements and the Development of Literary Finnish
Lea Laitinen & Taru Nordlund:

Language from below? Indexing Identities in the Writings of Common People in 19th-century Finland

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