Components of Belonging in Two Finno-Ugric Minority Literatures

Abstract

The topics of the present research are, in a larger sense, two multilingual and multicultural regions: the Tornio Valley in Northern Scandinavia and Transylvania in Eastern Europe. In a narrower sense, I am analysing two novels written in minority languages, a Transylvanian Hungarian novel written by Károly Molter, entitled Tibold Márton and a novel written in Meänkieli by Bengt Pohjanen, Jopparikuninkhaan poika (The Smuggler King’s Son). I attempt to answer two main research questions: 1. How is the belonging of the two main characters to a different language and ethnic group presented in the analysed Hungarian and Meänkieli novels? 2. How can the borders between “us” and “them” be constructed through inclusion and exclusion and how can they be crossed at the individual level? I will thus concentrate on some aspects of the narratives of inclusion and exclusion, as represented in the above-mentioned novels.

Keywords

• border
• belonging
• non-belonging
• inclusion
• exclusion