Almost any event or thing in the past can be rendered nostalgic later, if it in some way can be seen in a positive light. This idea originates from Fred Davis (1979: viii). He excludes both historical and individual events that are especially tragic and traumatic from this sphere of recollection, however (cf. Peltonen 1996; Anker-smith 1999). The events in these types of recollections are usually recalled in the mind as they were experienced, making a nostalgic remembrance of them impossible. On the other hand, things or experiences that are recalled with nostalgia perhaps were not even particularly noteworthy at the time that they happened. Nostalgic feelings may be awakened for instance when remembering a very ordinary, mundane, routine everyday life that might even be experienced as repellent. The force and most important quality that distinguishes nostalgic recollection from other ways of 'looking' at the past is its ability to transform the everyday into something significant and the unpleasant into something pleasant. The mere recollection of the past is not enough to render memories nostalgic as only positive and pleasant feelings are explicitly emphasised in nostalgic recollection. On the other hand, nostalgia can also involve melancholy or a kind of wistfulness due to the pain from the loss or disappearance of something significant (Davis 1979:
13-14).
Why then is past, which after all cannot be revisited, made to seem better than the present and why do everyday things that have already been turned into 'history' awaken feelings akin to yearning when recollected? Nowadays, it is hard to avoid nostalgia in
15
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general, as we come across it in all kinds of contexts and meanings.
It is a characteristic of the present to imbue consciously almost everything with an aura of nostalgia. In advertising, for instance, positive mental images and meanings are produced with the help of nostalgia and then directed to meet the demands and cravings of consumers (Ross 1991: 183; Wolf-Knuts 1995; Korkiakangas 2000). Similarly, many phenomena in the fashion world are wreathed in nostalgia. In accordance with the trends of fashion, our attention is turned towards past decades so that we view them with a sense of nostalgia, which in turn affects our views on the fashions of our own time. Usually these types of nostalgic feelings serve commercial interests and are also partly involved in the nostalgic
'construction of reality'. However, despite its different aims or purposes, nostalgia cannot be seen absolutely as a distorted feeling (Ross 1991: 183).
Ethnology - the study of everyday life
In ethnology, the everyday life of people has been a central research subject, as well as implicitly the context in which research is in one way or another carried out. The starting point is the human, his or her everyday life, its cultural expression and the documentation, analysis, and interpretation thereof. The general approach has been to examine the everyday life of humans through various unities, i.e. by studying forms of housing, livelihood, food management, annual festivities, communal life etc. The everyday is thus conceived as the ordinary culture of the so-called ordinary man. Earlier on, the emphasis was placed on an examination of the rural human.
In this article, I will approach the everyday and its nostalgic remodelling from two different perspectives; firstly, by examining the matter more generally with the help of Finnish ethnological research and a few examples; secondly, I will draw attention to everyday nostalgic phenomena that are more individual and all pervasive in terms of their societal impact.
Pirjo Korkiakangas 115 The ethnologist Toivo Vuorela, who carried out his life work in the service of the Finnish Literature Society, wrote the following in the preface of the work Suomalainen kansankulttuuri (1975: 4-5):
"Culture is an endless and unpredictable chain of events. This day will be consigned to history tomorrow and nowadays more things happen in a decade than did previously in a century. The cultural researcher must therefore be constantly vigilant. The transition to an industrialised society is such a decisive terminal point in the thousand year long work, societal organisation, and general growth of the Finnish peasant's life that interest for the age that preceded it will increase the further away in space and time we observe it from. Contrary to superficial beliefs and even conscious ambition, no nation can escape its past. A person in the throes of amnesia flails around in a state of helplessness. The nation must therefore remember the prolonged development that formed the foundation for the functions in modern society."
Vuorela's work has subsequently been characterised as merely agrarian and in that sense already at the time of its publication a description of a bygone Finnish way of life and culture. The quotation is nonetheless a telling summary of how the role of ethnological research was seen in Finland a few decades ago - the excerpt in actual fact includes much which stills seems to hold good. The ethnologist is expected to keep abreast of the times and any attendant changes, but simultaneously probe into the past. The basis for the present is always found in the past and should never be forgotten.
According to Vuorela, the strengthening of cultural identity is the starting point for ethnologists as preservers, recorders, and researchers, based as it on the past and a respect for historical actors. A human or nation without a knowledge of its past also has no conception of itself. The ethnological object of study was defined as the past or as that which was soon becoming the past, i.e. the description of a vanishing culture. This in a sense retrospective feature naturally affords research a nuance of its own.
A culture that was endangered and in retreat, as a newer and more 'modern' way of life became common, gained a kind of glamorous
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tinge from these studies. The bygone course of life - as it was often described in the past - is outlined in these studies as virtually the only correct way of life, and sometimes even to the point of idealising it. The recording of the past as artefacts in museums, file data in archives, and descriptions in the pages of studies was seen as important in order for future generations to remain conscious of their past.
I do not mean by the former that it should not be like this or should not have been like this. Neither do I mean that the current generation of researchers should at all costs avoid seeking support for their thoughts from the past. One of the special traits of ethnological research is still the historical point of view, i.e. the examination of things from a historical perspective. In this way, it is possible to recognise cultural changes and their causes. Vuo
rela's Suomalainen kansankulttuuri published in 1975 and В mar Talve's Suomen kansankulttuuri published in 1979 were the first comprehensive presentations of the everyday life that was 'seen as ordinary by ordinary Finns.' The dates of publication of these works join seamlessly with the preceding text from Vuorela: the old folk culture and way of life was disappearing, and had largely already disappeared - it was time to 'salvage the past.' On the other hand, one can already see the transition from an agrarian Finland to an industrial society and a more pronounced interest in the study of urban culture.
Everyday life as it was presumed to have been lived and therefore naturally known to have been lived is shown at its most explicit in Isien työ. Veden ja maan viljaa. Arkityön kaunetta (1953; the first more concise edition of the work was published in 1943 as Isien työ I Veden ja maan vilja), which was written by Kustaa Vilkuna and illustrated by Eino Mäkinen. The very title of the work indicates the feel of that which can be sensed in its pages.
The book is - despite its idealising and popularising tone of description - a fine presentation of the work and activities of the Finnish peasant community, with the added relish of the nostalgia provoked by the 'beauty of everyday work.'
Pirjo Korkiakangas 117 The nostalgie tone of the work is heightened by the many descriptions of labour tasks, in which the Finnish rural person, and especially the male, is portrayed as a jack of all trades, practical with his hands, and able to adapt himself to nature, but also an everyday hero who is capable of taming the wilds. Some of the descriptions even attain the level of immediate thriller narratives, such as the picture caption depicting men fishing and shooting the rapids: "Shooting the dashing rapids. The steersman ties the big oar to the rear bulwark on the right, while the others row with all their strength; the fiercer the rapids, the fiercer one must row. The surge seems just about to flood over the gunwale into the boat, but always the boat seems to slide out of harm's way as the stones flicker past and the banks of the river recede" (Vilkuna 1953: 23).
The extreme experiences that modern man pursues in his leisure time were gained through everyday life and work. The description of essential tasks associated with the peasant way of life and their realisation contain - in the light of modernity - the ingredients needed to foster nostalgia: the everyday was manageable and everyday living was simple and rarely questioned. The roles of women, men, and children in the realisation of the beauty of everyday work are also clearly on display.
In a way, the author of the book's texts, Kustaa Vilkuna does urge the reader to revel in nostalgia and a nostalgic journey to a bygone era. In the beginning of the first edition of the work there is a text dated Kalevala day.1 1943, in which the content of the work
1 The celebration of Kalevala day has its origins in the circle of Helsinki University during the latter half of the 19th century. The day is celebrated on February 28 and its development into a national holiday is tied to Elias Lönnrot's (1802-1884) life's work. He signed the preface of the first edition of the Old Kalevala on February 28, 1835. Kalevala day has been an unofficial flag-raising day in the Finnish almanac since 1950, and became an official flag-raising day in 1978. Although it was initially associated with the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, the day has been commemorated as a general celebration of Finnish culture ever since the 1970s. (Karjalainen, Korhonen & Lehtonen 1989, 70-77).
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is characterised as follows: "As the sole purpose of this work is not the presentation of ethnological studies, interesting pictures associated with the text have been abandoned and replaced with photographically beautiful images that are more representative of our old folk culture. Through our work we have wished to save the beauty of Finnish peasant culture for posterity and teach the populace to see its latent values [—]" (Vilkuna 1943: 7). One could pick out countless examples from the work, of how texts and pictures inevitably awaken nostalgic images of a bygone era and life. The nostalgic tone is only strengthened in subsequent editions, the most recent of which is the edition from 1977 that was updated and reshaped in accordance with the requirements of the times. The text quoted above begins as follows: "The cultural image of the countryside has changed rapidly during the past two or three decades. A survey covering past generations and the sphere of work is therefore of increasing interest, and in a sense bittersweet, but at the same time also confidence building" (Vilkuna 1977: 6).
Similarly, the changes brought on by an increasingly modern way of life can be discerned as subtle hints in the picture captions. Seen from the perspective of contemporary culture, the archaic pictures with their slightly romantic captions guide the reader on a mental journey to the past, where life ran its own course and along familiar tracks.
From the everyday to an object of yearning
Many elderly people seem to remember the hard graft and toil of manual labour, and especially that of their childhood and youth, in nostalgic terms. The exhausting labour, which at the time might even have felt repugnant, appears in retrospect as a value in itself;
the very act of recollection gives pleasure. But is it then the case that manual labour is appreciated for the very fact that it can be linked with nostalgic feelings towards a past and a way of life that was seen as a safe, simple, and an intelligibly organised world?
Pirjo Korkiakangas 119 Nostalgia is associated with the loss of a cultural simplicity and continuity perceived as safe and familiar, which in turn is seen as the consequence of an ever increasing industrialisation, technologi-sation, and urbanisation of our way of life. In a sense, this is also about alienation or a kind of ontological nostalgia, in which cultu
ral and societal development is seen as distancing and alienating man from an original humanity that is presupposed to be authentic (Turner 1987: 152-153). In this context, nostalgia serves as a kind of therapy and as a strategy for the manipulation of the past (Knuuttila 1994: 11), in which "nostalgia filters the disagreeable aspects of the past and creates the best opportunity for relating what we used to be like and what kind of places we lived in".
Ulrika Wolf-Knuts (1955: 210) has characterised the nostalgia of memories associated with particularly harsh living conditions (e.g. hard work, poverty and constant deprivation) as negative nostalgia. However, according to her there is also a positive aspect to this conception of nostalgia. Things could hardly be any other way, as one of the preconditions for nostalgia is the positive shading of a memory, regardless of how it was originally experien
ced. It is not so much a question of negative nostalgia, but rather a nostalgic rendering of negative life experiences or things that are seen as troublesome and unpleasant. Either a conscious or an unconscious loss of memory can dilute the unpleasant features of experiences that are partly obscured by reminiscences imbued with nostalgia.
What are we then talking about when we talk about 'ordinary everyday life', what do we include in it, how do we experience it and is it at all worthy of remembrance, longing or nostalgia?
According to the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre (1971), the idea of the everyday was born with industrial society and the subsequent migration of people to urban factory work. Thought of in this way, the conceptualisation of the everyday is a modern product of industrial western society. According to Lefebvre, the everyday seems to have dictated time, although it did not follow the same rhythm in all the lives of the members of industrial society. The everyday life and rhythm of the factory worker was
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dictated by the factory whistle, which announced the end of the working day, although one could assume that everyday life itself dominated the workers' lives within the walls of the factory and outside the sphere of factory work. The conceptualisation of everyday life as 'everyday life' emphasises the modern need to differentiate and temporally divide people's lives (Jokinen 2003:
5). Everyday life was also 'everyday life' in the lives of peasants from 'bygone days.' Time was measured and divided differently than in factory work, however. In folk chronology, "the burning of four kindling chips counted as the measure of an hour during evening chores" (Vuorela 1975: 717). Everyday life also contained its own nuances, such as refreshing breaks during haymaking that have been rendered nostalgic by modernity:
"The folk at day rest. The men sleep without a care, the women have the children to take care of and also the food to collect and the dishes to wash, while the men nod off immediately after their last bite. The old summer ways included a very early rising and a meal four or five times a day as well as a two-hour midday rest in the middle of the day. From a health point of view, this kind of division of the day has been beneficial. After eating and resting a new bout of work is started with renewed vigour" (Vilkuna 1943:
picture caption 134).
The description of an unhurried working day that is temporally dictated by a person's own physical needs is perceived as proof of a way of life that is seen as simple, safe, and authentic. Nostalgia reflects the hectic pace of modern life and the constant lack of time, which in comparison with the difference of the human management of everyday life in the past is seen as an 'otherness' that can be sought but never attained. The nostalgic feeling is simple and unquestioned. The same description could - especially when emphasising the modern requirements of gender equality -also produce a reflexive nostalgia, in which the sentimentalization of a past way of life and everyday life does not work anymore.
Pirjo Korkiakangas 121 Instead, this would raise questions as to whether it is necessary to yearn for the past and its cultural everyday phenomena, and whether it is worth yearning after at all. On the other hand, through nostalgia for the past one can also find reasons to be content in everyday modern life. (Korkiakangas 1999: 171-173; Korkia
kangas 2001: 79).
The German philosopher of history Norbert Elias (1978) has based his conception of everyday life on the dichotomy between everyday life and non-everyday life, i.e. by conceptualising the everyday through its opposite. Elias's ideas about everyday life have formed the basis for many of the latter problematisations of everyday life. His juxtapositions have been criticised and can be criticised. It has been maintained, for instance, that both ordinary and unusual events belong to the sphere of everyday life. Everyday life and the festive are not opposites, as festivities do not break up everyday life, but rather form a part of it. Festivals are also tied to a temporally divided timeframe and repeated at regular intervals and are thus predictable. In this sense, they are a kind of routine. One of the definitions of everyday life is its routine nature, which seems to be difficult to shake off. Everyday life has also been characte
rised as a monotonous greyness, in which there is a 'terror regime' of routines. The expression is from the sociologist J. P. Roos, and refers to the fact that there is never enough time in everyday life to do what want wishes to do, as the options in everyday life are only ostensible alternatives. (Roos 1983; Salmi 1998: 24-26).
Most of the scholars that have conceptualised and defined everyday life have indeed seen everyday life as a kind of necessity, which has to be put up with and accommodated. What if everyday life is observed from a distance in time? Do we recollect our everyday lives in the same way that we experienced and lived
Most of the scholars that have conceptualised and defined everyday life have indeed seen everyday life as a kind of necessity, which has to be put up with and accommodated. What if everyday life is observed from a distance in time? Do we recollect our everyday lives in the same way that we experienced and lived