Gunnar Olof Björling, (31 May 1887 – 11 July 1960) was a Swedish-speaking

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

poet. He was one of the leading figures of Finnish-Swedish

modernist literature Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented ...

, along with

Elmer Diktonius Elmer Rafael Diktonius (20 January 1896 in Helsinki – 23 September 1961 in Kauniainen) was a Finland, Finnish poet and composer, who wrote in both Swedish language, Swedish and in Finnish language, Finnish. In 1922 he established an avant-garde ...

Edith Södergran Edith Irene Södergran (4 April 1892 – 24 June 1923) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish poet. One of the first modernists within Swedish-language literature, her influences came from French Symbolism, German expressionism, and Russian futu ...

and

Hagar Olsson Alli Hagar Olsson (16 September 1893 – 21 February 1978) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish writer, literary critic, playwright and translator. Olsson was born in Kustavi. In 1922 she edited an avant-garde literary magazine, ''Ultra''. She als ...

Biography

Björling was born in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. He spent his childhood in Helsinki and Viipuri, and the summer months in

Kangasala Kangasala is a city in Finland which is situated about 16 kilometres East of Tampere. The city was founded in 1865 and had a population of people as of . Kangasala covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Finnish auth ...

. Between 1901 and 1902 he attended

Hamina Cadet School The Hamina Cadet School and Finland Cadet School were the common names for the Fredrikshamn cadet school during the period 1819–1901. The Cadet School was founded in 1780 by Georg Magnus Sprengtporten at Kuopio and transferred in 1781 to Rantas ...

, and then studied philosophy at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

. One of his teachers was the internationally renowned sociologist

Edvard Westermarck Edvard Alexander Westermarck (Helsinki, 20 November 1862 – Tenala, 3 September 1939) was a Finnish philosopher and sociologist. Among other subjects, he studied exogamy and the incest taboo. Biography Westermarck was born in 1862 in a ...

, who greatly influenced Björling's thinking. During his school years in Helsinki, Björling became a passionate

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

, was active in the

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

s and participated in several minor operations. However, when the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

broke out in 1918, Björling supported the

whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...

, and helped a telegraphist working for the whites by hiding him in his basement. After the war, Björling participated in one of the courts which sentenced captured

reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863 * USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...

. Later in life, however, he renounced and distanced himself from his activities during and after the war. Björling's debut as a poet came in 1922, when he was 35 years old, with ''Vilande dag'', which consists of

prose poems Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects. Characteristics Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...

and

aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...

s, some of them one-liners. Between 1928 and 1929, he contributed to the

Swedish-language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countr ...

modernist publication ''

Quosego ''Quosego'' was an avant-garde magazine which existed between 1928 and 1929 in Helsinki, Finland. Like its successor ''Ultra'', it played a significant role in introducing the avant-garde movement to Scandinavian countries. The subtitle of ''Quos ...

''. Although Björling is principally considered a modernist poet, he also experimented with

dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

, and was sometimes called "Europe's last dadaist". Björling was openly

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

in an era when it was broadly seen as a social deviation. The psychoanalyst Mikael Enckell, son of fellow Finnish modernist writer

Rabbe Enckell Rabbe Arnfinn Enckell (3 March 1903 – 17 June 1974) was a Finnish writer and poet. Enckell is regarded as one of the stalwarts of the Swedo-Finnish poetic revival that began in the 1920s. Enckell was born in Tammela, Tavastia Proper. ...

, made the following analysis of Björling's sexuality: ''"It is not enough that he apparently was bisexual in a time and in a generation when this was socially stigmatizing in a way we can imagine only with difficulty. He himself hardly wholeheartedly affirmed his bisexuality, it was connected with notions of deep shame, moral inferiority and deviation."'' Björling died in Helsinki in 1960.

Bibliography

*''Vilande dag'', 1922 *''Korset och löftet'', 1925 *''Kiri-ra!'', 1930 *''Solgrönt'', 1933 *''Fågel badar snart i vatten'', 1934 *''Att syndens blåa nagel'', 1936 *''Där jag vet att du'', 1938 *''Det oomvända anletet'', 1939 *''Angelägenheten'', 1940 *''Ohjälpligheten'', 1943 *''O finns en dag'', 1944 *''Ord och att ej annat'', 1945 *''Luft är och ljus'', 1946 *''Ohört blott'', 1948 *''Vårt kattliv timmar'', 1949 *''Ett blyertsstreck'', 1951 *''Som alla dar'', 1953 *''Att i sitt öga'', 1954 *''Du går de ord'', 1955

Biography

Bibliography

References

Further reading