Hyvin toimeentulevat irralliset. Opettajan representaatioita suomalaisissa romaaneissa

Abstract

Jukka Sahlbergin tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, millainen on suomalaisten romaanien esittämä kuva opettajista, erityisesti se, millaisia ovat opettajakuvauksiin liittyvät ideologiset kytkökset. Tutkimuskohteena on noin 30 yleisesti tunnettua suomalaista romaania. Vanhin romaani on Aleksis Kiven Seitsemän veljestä (1870), uusin Anna-Leena Härkösen Ei kiitos (2008). Lasten- ja nuortenkirjallisuus on rajattu tutkimuksen ulkopuolelle.

Tutkimus esittää yleiskatsauksen kirjallisuuden henkilöhahmojen tutkimukseen ja pyrkii edelleen löytämään uusia relevantteja tapoja tutkia henkilöhahmoja. Kirjallisuutemme opettajahenkilöt on nähty representaationa eli tulkittuna kuvana todellisuuden opettajista, minkä vuoksi tutkitut lähes sata opettajarepresentaatiota on liitetty yhteiskunnallis-historialliseen kontekstiinsa.

Opettajahenkilöiden ideologisuus on selvitetty kiinnittämällä huomio kuvauksista löydettyihin ideologisiin strategioihin, joissa on kyse siitä, miten ideologiat synnyttävät ja ylläpitävät valtasuhteita. Lisäksi on havainnoitu opettajakuvausten kielen ideologisuutta sekä ns. ideologeemeja, jotka ovat ideologisuuden sisällöllisiä ilmaisimia tekstissä. Tutkimus osoittaa, että romaanihenkilöiden ideologisuus syntyy suhteiden verkostossa, jossa keskeisiä tekijöitä edellä mainittujen ilmaisukeinojen lisäksi ovat henkilöhahmoille annetut identiteetit, subjektiasemat sekä funktiot eli ne tehtävät, joihin henkilöhahmoja on romaaneissa käytetty.

Tutkimus osoittaa, että opettajahenkilöiden ideologisuus esitetään lähes aina kriittisessä valossa. Kritiikki kohdistuu yleisimmin vanhoillisuuteen, ankaruuteen, oikeistolaisuuteen tai perusteettomaan idealismiin. Kritiikkiin yhdistyy ironiaa ja satiiria. Opettajahenkilöt ovat huomiota herättävän usein karikatyyrejä. Opettajahenkilöihin lähes poikkeuksetta liitetty kritiikki liittyy suomalaisen realismin vahvaan demokraattiseen perinteeseen. Opettajat on suomalaisessa romaanitaiteessa nähty lähes poikkeuksetta vallankäyttäjinä, ja sellaisina he ovat luonnollinen kritiikin kohde.

Well-off but outsiders. Representations of teachers in Finnish novels

The research object of this study comprises 29 novels having teachers among their characters. The oldest of them was published in 1870 (Aleksis Kivi s Seven Brothers) and the most recent in 2008 (Anna-Leena Härkönen s Ei kiitos [= no thank you]). I chose to research 85 teacher characters in these novels regardless of whether they are main protagonists, subordinate characters or background figures. I elected to exclude novels for children and young people.

The aim of my study is to ascertain what image of a teacher is portrayed in Finnish novels and what meanings are attached to such portrayals. In order to achieve this objective I focus my examination on the following areas: What ideologies are associated with the teacher characters? In what literary functions do teachers appear? What subject positions are assigned to the teachers in these works? What identities and roles do the teachers assume through the text?

Regarding the essence of the teacher figures I have researched further, among other things by researching the analogous relations pertaining to them and by investigating them using what is known as the system of three different axes. This research on fiction I have combined with the contemporary historical social and educational context of the novels. I have perceived the teacher characters of the novels not only as representations (interpreted as a portrayal of reality) but also as mimesis and as structural factors contributing to a written work.

Achieving the research objectives necessitated an extensive analysis and interpretation of the works under scrutiny. In the ideological examination my tools were the classification of ideological strategies or means of John B. Thompson, according to which ideologies establish and sustain relations of domination. Like Thompson and Norman Fairclough, I have defined ideology as meaning in the service of power. I have moreover paid attention to so-called ideologemes, including those in the language, especially in lexical selection, linguistic modality and transitivity. Modal expressions demonstrate the user s attitude to the object of description. Transitivity is concerned with the relation pertaining between actor and object.

By function I refer to those tasks to which the narrator puts the character in transferring it in the narration from the level of story to text. As subject the teacher character serves in various positions and is also itself the target of subject of a level above itself. Like Stuart Hall, I have contemplated meanings to emanate especially from various relations of which the most salient are subject-object relations and the representation relation between fact and fiction.

The functions of the teacher characters appear diverse and generally the character serves to fulfil several functions. These functions can be roughly divided into two: for content and structure. Typical functions are: the teacher character is always assigned an ideological function which is a form of thematic function. A metonymic function, in which the teacher character represents something greater than itself, is very common. Very often the teacher has an analytic function as a party to a consistent or contrastive relation. An intertextual function is likewise common, one form of which is the mythic function. Frequently it is the function of the teacher character to construct another figure. Fairly often the teacher character s function is to demonstrate otherness. The teacher character may also occupy the function of a catalyst in a twist in the plot, or the narrator uses the teacher character to voice the opinions of a so-called implied author. The observation of ! the functions is an efficient support for the meanings loaded on the teacher character.

The basis for the ideological content of the teacher characters is mostly the ideology dominant in society in whose transference to the pupils the teachers participate. In this work the teachers generally encounter conflicts and contradictions. In addition to the ideological content of teaching, conflict and contradiction are also caused by the conveying of the so-called latent curriculum and the difficulties of the teachers in their own lives. For elementary school teachers problems with the environment are typical, whereas for teachers of specific subjects are characterised by internal struggle. What they have in common is frustration due to ideological pressures, a feeing of passion and disconnectedness.

My study suggests that the narrators and implied authors of the works are very frequently critical of the ideology of the teacher figures. Generally the criticism is levelled at being old-fashioned, strict, religious and unjustifiably idealistic. The criticism is generally accompanied by irony and satire. Significantly frequently the teacher characters are in the nature of caricatures. Perceiving teacher characters in a critical light is connected to the democratic tradition of Finnish realism. In the novels scrutinised, teachers are perceived as almost invariably representatives of those who wield power and so as an obvious object of criticism.