I would like to wish all our students and staff a very relaxing Christmas break and rewarding New Year.
Joel Kuortti
Professor, Head of English Department
Head of School of Languages and Translation studies
Happy Holidays!
Reply
Author Archives: elmava
The Department by the River
As mentioned earlier in the Tale of Two Departments, there are two Departments of English here in Turku. Situated as we are on the University Hill, our department is known as the Department Up the Hill, while our Åbo Akademi sister department (right at the brink of the river Aura) is known as the Department by the River.
This year we have been determined to increase cooperation between the two units. Among other things, this means that we encourage our students to complete optional studies in the other department, allowing this way a wider selection of special fields.
On Halloween in October, we hosted a guided tour of the TY campus to the ÅA students and staff. On an exceptionally sunny and bright December afternoon, it was finally our turn to make a counter visit to the Åbo Akademi campus.
It’s Christmas time at the English Department by the River.
The ÅA Department’s intern Annette Byskata and doctoral student Adam Borch greeted us at the entrance hall of the Arken building, where most of the ÅA Humanities’ units are located. They directed us first to the second floor of the building and into the ÅA English Department’s corridor. We got to see where the Department office is located, but also learned that it will be moved soon because of changes in the admin staff. Also, we saw the Department’s three main lecture rooms (Helikon, Kramer and Donner), and sat down at the Kramer hall to meet the staff, hear about their teaching and to learn how to browse the ÅA website.
Our guide, Annette Byskata, at the Arken lobby.
The Head of the Department, Brita Wårvik, welcomed us to the tour and introduced us to the ÅA syllabus. Anthony Johnson, Jason Finch, and Stuart McWilliams gave us more detailed info on the Department’s literature courses. Signe-Anita Lindgrén, the SLA expert of the department, talked about the teacher track of the Department, while Martin Gill discussed the Department’s culture-oriented teaching. Finally, Brita introduced the discourse studies related courses available. During the Q&A with the staff, we discovered practical facts: e.g. that the ÅA term is divided into quarters differently from TY (something to consider when taking their courses!). Also, many of their courses last only one quarter, where as our courses typically last two quarters. These kind of differences may allow flexibility for TY students wanting to complete courses in a schedule different to ours.
The ÅA staff introducing their curriculum.
After meeting the staff, we were ready to continue with our tour. The next pit-stop was the Humanities library on the first floor of Arken. The librarian Maria Lassén-Seger greeted us at the library entrance and talked to us about the library customs and about the history of the building, which was originally a factory. In fact, the first Finnish tractor was built there! Maria took us to see the linguistics and English sections of the library’s collections before sending us off to the next stop of our tour, the Asa building.
Maria Lassén-Seger urges the TY students to use the ÅA libraries, too.
In the Asa building, Annette and Adam first guided us to the IT centre of ÅA on the first floor, humorously named “the Oracle”. Rumour has it that occasionally the helpdesk’s instructions are as ambiguous as the oracle’s advice in a well-written Greek comedy. Finally, we stopped by the course book library in the Asa building, where the students had the possibility to activate their TY library cards for ÅA use.
Warm thanks again to the staff of the Department by the River for inviting us and for organising such a fun and educational tour for us!
Text by Anna Kalpio
Photos by Anna Kalpio & Adam Borch
The TY group ventures from Arken to the Asa building.
Turku #PoPsymp 2014: International symposium of linguistics and book history
Linguistics met book history on 24–25 October 2014 as twenty-odd participants gathered in the Turku Main Library for an invigorating two days of presentations and discussion on the interaction of linguistic and material issues in the study of historical text. Linguistics Meets Book History: Seeking New Approaches (aka the PoP symposium), was organised by the Department’s Pragmatics on the Page (PoP) team in association with the Turku Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (TUCEMEMS).
We were treated to a number of stimulating presentations on topics such as code-switching, corpus studies, script-switching, otiose and ambiguous strokes, speech markers in manuscripts, layout and organisation of the page, genre markers, and reading practices. The majority of the contributors studied late medieval to early modern material, namely manuscripts and early books, letters, inscribed artefacts and various corpora.
The three keynote speakers demonstrated a variety of approaches to combining linguistics with historical and material context. Colette Moore (University of Washington) spoke on linguistic and scribal organisation in Middle English devotional texts. Her study focused on the use of visual and textual organisation in the interpretation of historical dialogues. Jukka Tyrkkö (University of Tampere) discussed multilingualism in early printed books, concluding that code-switching correlates with bibliographical features such as format. Daniel Wakelin (University of Oxford) delivered a paper on the communicative aspects of page-framing and the patterns of ruling.
Personal highlights for the writers included, for example, Anya Adair’s presentation on ambiguous (rather than otiose) strokes in late medieval scripts; Maura Ratia’s presentation on textual labels signalling genre, text type and/or discourse form; and Daniel Wakelin’s keynote on aesthetic functions and implications of e.g. prestige carried by such practical elements as page ruling.
The symposium concluded in a round-table discussion on the re-introduction of philology as a terminological starting point to studies of linguistics and book history, tactics for editing historical texts, and the usefulness of collaboration between people working on different time periods. The participants unanimously agreed that the symposium had been fruitful and everyone sounded excited about the idea of #PoPsymp2.0.
Scholars relaxing after a long day. The evening programme included a guided tour to the Aboa Vetus exhibition Letter by Letter: Traces of Reading and Writing.
Text and photos: Aino Liira, Sara Norja and Sirkku Ruokkeinen
Seven Wonders of the Frankfurt Book Fair
Have you ever considered how brain waves can be transferred into poetry? Don’t worry. The Helsinki-based Brains on Art collective has solved the problem for us. With the help of a tinfoil hat – i.e. a sensor helmet – and computer magic, brain waves create poems. This is first of the wonders I found in the Frankfurt Book Fair 2014 where Finland was the Guest of Honour.
As I strolled the numerous halls and miles upon miles of corridors, I tried to locate the allure of this world’s greatest book event. The sheer size is the second wonder – 270 000 visitors during five days. There were mini-buses and modern cycle rickshaws to transport you from hall to hall.
Thirdly, I could mention a feature that was very welcome after dragging your feet around for hours. At least in two places there were massage points where you could get a 15-minute neck and shoulder rub for a negotiable fee. Body and soul indeed.
The fourth point is quite unbelievable. I did not buy even one book during my three days in the fair ground. Not due to abstinence but because the event is basically a trade exhibition with very little actual book selling. Business is done between publishers, agents and other book industry representatives.
As the fifth wonder, I must mention the extent to which translators and translations were present. This could be seen everywhere but particularly in the Finnland.Cool (yes, that was the motto) Pavilion where the centre sphere displayed nearly a thousand books on Finland and translations of Finnish literature.
As the sixth point, I was very pleased to see that the Helsinki City Library had driven their Mobile Children’s Library bus Skidi to Frankfurt. How cool is that!
The seventh wonder is no doubt book itself. With all the talk about the demise of the traditional format, book seems to be stronger than ever. Evidence to this could be seen in the stalls from all over the world, in any number of languages, in whatever genre, with whichever type of layout.
Oh, and if you want to know how my EEG translated into poetry, here’s the result:
I am waiting weeping watching for Thee
I have not forgotten it thou’lt do me
I have no name
I could lie down like a tired child
(Obviously, the computer cheats, so can you crack this and recognize the original poets/poems?)
Text and photos: Joel Kuortti
The world’s knowledge, and some cakes
I’m doing something I probably shouldn’t be doing: writing a blog entry under the watchful eye of George Bernard Shaw (well, his bust really). This is the Manuscripts Reading Room in one of my favourite buildings in London, the British Library, next to King’s Cross and St Pancras stations. I have been coming here every now and then for years, since soon after the building opened in the late 1990s.
So it’s a library. It’s the largest one in the world; no wonder the BL’s motto is ‘Explore the world’s knowledge’. For someone who needs to read texts written centuries ago, there is no single place that would have more to offer. To me, the BL also feels like a little piece of Nordic calm in the middle of a hectic city, and indeed, Colin St John Wilson, the architect who designed it, was inspired by Alvar Aalto. However, the BL is not like an Aalto building: it is more ornate and somehow warmer. Not everyone likes the look of the building; scathing remarks have been made by, for instance, the Prince of Wales.
The spaces that I spend time in include the Manuscripts and the two Humanities Reading Rooms, the last two often crowded yet quiet enough, the Manuscripts room a haven of peace – a great place for working. Academic study aside, you can practically live on the premises. When you feel peckish or have a sudden craving for coffee or cake – and cakes are very important if you are in English studies – you can choose where to have your Chelsea buns and soya lattes: there is a restaurant and three cafés, two of them outdoors. If you have a reader’s ticket and prefer a cheaper snack, you can pop in the Readers’ room (with a roof terrace but not much of a view) and make use of the vending machines.
The cafés are open to all visitors, not just registered readers, as are the exhibitions rooms and the shop. There is plenty to see in the gallery for an English student, from the Beowulf manuscript to drafts of some of the greatest pop songs of the 20th century. To have a look at some of the BL’s collections, you don’t even have to leave your home: simply click at www.bl.uk.
Back to research then. Resting on the cushion in front of me is a book from the early 13th century, hand-written of course, and the only existing copy of the text in the world. This is indeed a house of treasures.
Text and images by Janne Skaffari
An inside view of the British Library hall, by an insider.
How languages are learnt
It’s Christmas in September for anyone interested in language learning and teaching! A few years ago, the Department of English was actively involved in a popular course Language Teaching and Learning, which was a team-taught course for language and education majors. We are happy to announce that the contents of this course have now been published as an up-to-date book textbook. This is a textbook in Finnish with a target audience of teachers, students considering a teaching career and anyone generally interested in language learning and teaching.
The new book Kuinka kieltä opitaan: opas vieraan kielen opettajalle ja opiskelijalle (published by Gaudeamus) was edited by Päivi Pietilä and Pekka Lintunen. The authors come from the University of Turku and Helsinki and represent didactics and different language departments.
The chapters discuss the nature of language skills, learners’ individual differences, theories of language learning and methods of language teaching. There are separate chapters on the teaching and learning of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of a foreign language. The book also includes a chapter on the role of culture in language teaching and, as a final chapter, an introduction to language assessment.
Turku University and the Department of English have always been active in teacher education and language learning research. Nowadays researchers are also encouraged to publish in Finnish and with a wide target audience in mind. After all, societal interaction is, in addition to research and teaching, a key function of a Finnish university. The new publication is a way to distribute the latest theories and research findings in a reader-friendly format.
The book includes reflective tasks after each chapter to help the readers in their own learning process and a lengthy list of references for the more research-oriented readers. And if September is too early for you, you can always add the book into your Christmas wish list.
Text by Pekka Lintunen
Editors’ photo by Outi Kitti/Gaudeamus.
The book’s co-editors, Pekka Lintunen and Päivi Pietilä.
To new beginnings!
A new term is beginning – for the new arrivals as well as for the returning students and staff. New acquaintances will be made, new faces will become familiar, and old faces will gain new features. There are many new teachers in the staff, who will inevitably bring new ideas with them. We look forward to that, too.
New courses will start, and new types of collaboration between departments will grow during the term. This is instigated especially by the introduction of a new type of syllabus in the Master’s studies, consisting of four study paths: Language Learning and Teaching Path, Translation and Interpreting Path, Language Specialist Path and Researcher Path (see the blog text of 7 March 2014). Nobody knows for sure what lies in future but I am confident that the result is something good and beneficial, worth all the while that was spent in creating the system.
With all these new aspects and people, at least one thing remains the same. That is the warm, lackadaisical yet academic atmosphere of the English Department. While we aim high in teaching and research, we do not forget the light side of life. And that is brought on board by all of you.
“It’s a very good thing, really. I’ll be seeing lots of new things, a lot of new creatures.” (Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan, 1959)
Joel Kuortti
Professor, Head of English Department
Head of School of Languages and Translation studies
Turku humanists.
Photo by Joel Kuortti
Festschrifts and academic festivities
One catch-phrase nowadays is that universities are dynamic. Indeed, there are many changes going on during each academic year. But there are also traditions that are valued by the academic community. For instance, the academic year has the opening ceremony in September and the graduation ceremony, publiikki, in June where new MAs are celebrated. In addition, professors give inaugural lectures when they are appointed. They also give a valedictory address when they retire as we have seen this spring with our Professor Risto Hiltunen (see earlier post) .
Another academic tradition that the English department is following this year is that of a Festschrift. Festschrifts are commonly collections of articles published to honour a professor’s (or another academic’s) birthday or retirement. You can often recognise these when the name of a book says, for example, “essays in honour of”. When Festschrifts are published as books, they usually contain articles by the closest colleagues, collaborators and former doctoral students of the honouree. It is also common that the books are thematic and related to the honouree’s research interests. They may also include a biographical note and a tabula gratulatoria, which is a list of academic friends and colleagues who wish to congratulate the honouree.
A large part of universities’ funding is based on the publications we produce. After all, university teaching is based on research, and professors and lecturers are also active researchers. For funding reasons, it is better to publish articles in refereed journals. This means that many Festschrifts have also changed into a different format. Journals and publishers sometimes allow Festschrifts to be published in their series.
This year, we have the pleasure to publish another Festschrift, this time to honour Professor Päivi Pietilä. The theme is language learning, which is approached from many perspectives in the ten articles in the collection. The collection is a special issue in the AFinLA-e publication series and available for free here. Importantly, the Festschrift is a surprise gift to the honouree, so if you sense an air of secrecy and whispers along the corridors, chances are there is a Festschrift in the works. This time, the secret was luckily preserved until the end; to celebrate Päivi’s milestone in life, the editors gave her the manuscript as a bound golden thesis. With this publication, we want to congratulate Päivi and offer those interested in language learning many inspiring new studies to read.
The editors of the journal special issue, Pekka Lintunen, Maija S. Peltola & Mari-Liisa Varila with Professor Päivi Pietilä, the Festschrift honouree.
Text: Pekka Lintunen
Photo: Janne Skaffari
A Day to Remember
What happens when three professors of the School of Languages and Translation Studies retire at the same and give their valedictory addresses in the same room?
There is of course a full house, with colleagues, collaborators, students, friends and family in attendance. The addresses are full of memories from the professors’ long careers, both personal recollections and accounts of the many changes in their respective fields of research and in university life in general.
And then there is the question of code choice: what should the language of the ceremonies be? We do not have to hypothesize about this, however, as we already know what happened when Professors Risto Hiltunen, Yves Gambier and Luigi de Anna gave their valedictory addresses in Room I in the University Main Building on 14 May, 2014. In spite of their different mother tongues and departmental working languages, all three professors gave their addresses in English, which was the dominant language of the festivities: most of the other speeches that afternoon were either English or multilingual. This interesting case of code-selection clearly reflects the role of English in academia, including our own School.
The multilingual (but dominantly English) festivities were by no means over once the speeches had been given in the afternoon. To celebrate Risto’s successful career and express our gratitude for having had such an excellent boss for 26 years, we threw him a surprise party in the evening – in Turku Castle, no less. Risto was fetched from his home, driven around the city blindfolded and eventually dropped off at the Castle. Upon entering, he was met by his jubilant colleagues, dressed to the nines (which in a Finnish academic context means not only formal dress but top hats and swords), after which he and his wife were invited to slip into medieval attire. The whole party were then taken on a guided tour of the Castle, the highlight of which was Risto being knighted in festive ceremony. What followed was a medieval banquet in the Queen’s Chamber, with an assortment of dishes served on rye bread instead of plates, several speeches and some musical entertainment. As the dinner ended and we left the Castle at eleven, we were greeted outdoors in the May night by the full moon and blackbirds singing – a wonderful way to finish a memorable day of celebrations.
Text & Photos: Janne Skaffari
”Once upon a Time There Was University: Yliopistoon! To the University!”
In the summer of 2005, I happened to read a Finnish detective novel by Matti Hälli, titled Sopimatonta kuolla yliopistolla (1943) [It Is Unbecoming to Die at the University]. The text intrigued me so much that I wrote a short piece on it to the University Employee Unions’ magazine, Acatiimi. What was then just an occasional piece has become a long series of texts – still continuing. After 50 articles, it was time to collect the pieces together – with some new material. The result is now a book called Yliopistoon! Kaunokirjallisia kuvauksia akateemisesta maailmasta (Gaudeamus 2013) [To the University! Fictional Accounts of the Academia]. Basically, I deal with novels and poems from the 14th century until the present day in which university, academic environment, and/or student life is in some way represented, lived out.
What I find most interesting in my explorations into the stories about and around Finnish universities (and a couple of detours into Nordic academic life) is that university life has not changed that much during the centuries. Sure, the physical environment has changed tremendously but the basic need to gain knowledge, the epistemological drive, as well as the requirement to educate students for the purposes of public life, has remained so recognizable throughout the ages.
In literary representations of university life, there is no end to murders, love stories, tragedies, parties, money troubles – or even studies. As an example, we can take for example the young writer and dramatist Emma Puikkonen who in her debut novel Turkulainen näytelmä (2001) [A Drama in Turku] combines contemporary student life with a story set in the Turku of 1590s. The protagonist, Nadia, takes part in a play by the Turku Student Theatre: Josef Julius Wecksell’s Daniel Hjort (1862). Nadia calls it the first Finnish tragedy, a Turku version of Hamlet. It is a story of Daniel Hjort and his beloved Sigrid Stålarmintytär, played by Nadia.
Nadia’s story is about identity crisis, about a Hamlet-type of person (not Ophelia) who is uncertain. She dreams of meeting one of the innumerable young, talented, dark-eyed, and anxious poetry boys Turku teems with. Her aimlessness is amply illustrated in her ride on the föri ferry as she goes back and forth without alighting. She watches the Art Academy students on the other side of the Aura river heading for the old rope factory, and the students of the (then three) universities on the other side cycling up “to the lecture halls and paper smell, the recluse research chambers which breed love for Sartre, bylaws or quantum mechanics” (p. 106).
Nadia’s and Sigrid’s lives get intertwined in the course of the novel in an interesting way. Nadia is not content with the director’s (or the script’s) version of Sigrid as the fragile angel on a pedestal. Nadia and Sigrid know that in the patriarchal world, the young woman always dies, all the more certain the more there is concealed passion. They want to be written differently, to write their own lives.
See also the blog, Café Pour Les Idiots, for a feature on the book in Finnish.
Text and Images: Joel Kuortti