|
Article Excerpt
OCCASIONALLY A WORK OF FICTION comes along that presents a lucid picture of the real world and in so doing surpasses many ethnographic and sociological studies in its efficacy. Laila Stien's Vekselsang [Antiphony] published in 1997 does exactly that in the form of a beautifully crafted, short novel dealing with the confrontation between an indigenous culture and a dominant culture, in this case between Sami and Norwegian respectively.
In an idyllic world, a group of people living in isolation might be imagined; however, today every indigenous group must face modern man's "manifest destiny" that offers them the choice of adapting or perishing. Adaptation or assimilation often means the usurpation of culture, which in turn can bring about the loss of identity, the displacement of peoples, the extinction of languages, and the destruction of leadership. The intruding culture usually has more advanced technology, a larger population, and a doctrine justifying cultural and geographical expansion. If an indigenous group such as the Sami is to resist the outside pressure so as to maintain its integrity and allow for physical and spiritual fulfillment, it must preserve its language, culture, and history and pass them on to future generations, produce new leaders among the younger people, and strive for control of ifs land. To accomplish this end, if is essential that the Sami be able to communicate effectively with their neighbors, something they have begun to do in the past few decades. Sami artists can broadcast the uniqueness of Sami identity, foster an awareness of cultural oppression, and create a new identity by combining new with old. A number of Sami voices have spoken out poignantly on these questions through their literature written in the vernacular.
Stien is not a Sami but is well qualified to address such issues in her native Norwegian. She has spent most of her life in northern Norway and is married to a Sami. She learned the language while working as an au pair on the Finnmark plateau and then studied Sami and ethnography at the University of Oslo. She made her literary debut in 1979 with a collection of short stories, Nyveien [The New Road] and has subsequently published six more volumes of short stories, Svommetak [Swimming Strokes] from 2001 the most recent. She has been compared with such masters of the short story as Kjell Askildsen and Raymond Carver. In 2000 she won Norway's most prestigious literary award, the Aschehoug Prize, which has been awarded annually since 1977 and which Askildsen himself won in 1991. Speaking about her stories in a recent interview she said: "Jeg skriver om dem som ikke snakker veldig mye om seg selv, som heller ikke er i alles fokus. Men de er fightere i det sma, med evne til a satse pa verdighet og viljen til a gjore det" (Sandnes) [I write about those who do not talk very much about themselves, who are not in everyone's focus either. But they are fighters on a small scale with the ability to gamble on dignity and the will to do it]. (1) Terje Eidsvag writes of her "mesterskap som stilist og som formidler av hverdagslige, men tette, intense drama pa mikroniva" [mastery as a stylist and mediator of ordinary, but tight, intense drama on a micro level]. He considers the title story in Svommetak as one of her best and adds "Hadde en mannlig forfatter skrevet sa gode noveller, ville noen ha ropt hoyt om det" [If a male author had written such good short stories, someone would have shouted aloud about it]. Though best known for her short stories, Stien has published two books of poems, three of children's stories, and a young adult's novel. She has also translated a large amount of Sami poetry and prose into Norwegian including Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa's Ruoktu Vaimmus [Vindens veier (Trekways of the Wind)]. Her translations have played an important role in making Sami authors available to speakers of Norwegian and showing how vibrant Sami culture has recently been. Vekselsang is her first novel.
In the novel, the narrator, a young social scientist working for a newspaper in Oslo, goes to northern Norway on leave after a colleague tells her she lacks initiative. Ostensibly, her mission is to write a book about structural relationships among the Sami. Yet, the main reasons for her going away seem to be a tense relationship with her own family, a feeling of stagnation in her career, and her loneliness in spite of a decent social life with her friends in Oslo. Up north she becomes acquainted with three generations of Sami women, listens to their stories, and attempts to make sense of them. Soon she loses her role as impartial observer and becomes more involved in their lives. The more she discovers, the less she feels she understands. After the narrator has returned to Oslo at the end of the novel, her colleagues ask her about the situation in Sapmi. She tries to explain without much success. "De trekker pa skuldrene. Sier de kan lese, de ogsa. De spor sjeldnere na" (136) [They shrug their shoulders. Say they can read too. They inquire less often now]. In other words, her colleagues have read the papers and reports but do not really understand what is going on up north. So a literary approach might just be more effective than a book about structural relationships.
A woman in a rest home dying from cancer represents the older generation. She was not only a beauty in her youth but had her own herd of reindeer that she brought into marriage. She and her husband were successful in every respect until the tragic loss of their only child, a daughter in her teens, who was kicked in the head by the draft reindeer she herself had tamed. Her father was so distraught that he destroyed the reindeer. The old widow defends her husband until her own death. In the second section, the narrator tells of her own relationship to the niece of the old woman in the rest home. The niece is also from a reindeer-herding family but one...
|
