16.6.2023: "“Becoming a Finn” in the United States: The Representations of Foodways, Language, Sports, and Music in the Processes of Identity Formation in Contemporary Finnish American Fiction. (Kushnir)

In his dissertation, MA Roman Kushnir explores the works of three contemporary Finnish-American authors from the perspective of identity formation in a multicultural and -lingual setting. The authors, Lauri Anderson, Patricia Eilola, and Martin Koskela are well-known for their depictions of the lives of Finnish immigrants of several generations in Michigan and Minnesota that hosted a lively community of settlers from Finland and other Nordic countries during the 20th century.
Roman Kushnir
Published
16.6.2023

Kushnir examines how four central cultural practices, foodways, language, sports and music, contribute to the construction of Finnish-American identities as transcultural American plus -identities that creatively combine Finnish and American features. Instead of suppressing Finnishness in the pressure of the dominant culture, the characters of Anderson, Eilola and Koskela are portrayed in terms of fluency and rootedness in both cultures.

The analysis shows how the Finnish-American cultural identity emerges as a result of an interaction that comprises the old and the new, the past and the present, Finnish and American, and the mosaic of other immigrant cultures. Foodways, language, sports and music are part of the process.

For example, some elements, such as the fish stew mojakka, mentioned in Anderson’s short stories, were actually brought from Finland. While being only regionally known in the old country, this stew is featured as an important badge of Finnishness. Other Finnish (but in fact Finnish-American) culinary markers of the characters such as pasties, a type of Cornish pies, are not from Finland, but adopted from other immigrant groups in the new country. Similar tendencies exist in sports and music.

Matti Nykanen stands side by side as an athletic symbol of Finnishness with the Finnish-American skiing Bietila brothers of Ishpeming, Michigan from the 1940s-50s. The US-born Finnish-American music star Viola Turpeinen, known as “the Accordion Princess”, is portrayed as equally dear to the characters as the old-country songs and dances which she performs.

Finnish-American literature has been studied very little. This dissertation emphasizes the importance of analyzing minority literature for a better understanding of the cultural processes in the United States and other multicultural societies.

Roman Kushnir’s doctoral dissertation "“Becoming a Finn” in the United States: The Representations of Foodways, Language, Sports, and Music in the Processes of Identity Formation in Contemporary Finnish American Fiction" will be examined in lecture hall C4, Seminaarinmaki on Friday, 16.06.2023, at 12:00-15:00. Opponent is Professor Joel Kuortti (University of Turku) and custos is Senior Lecturer Helen Mäntymäki (Ģֱ). The language of the dissertation is English. The public defense will be held in English.

Link to the publication:

Link for streaming is:

Further information:

Roman Kushnir, roman.r.kushnir@student.jyu.fi