Manner, Eeva-Liisa

(1921-1995)

   A Finnish poet, novelist, and playwright, Manner published her first collection of poetry in 1944 but has since distanced herself from her earliest work. The poetry collection Tama matka (1956; This Journey) is her real debut; it shows that she perfectly mastered the modernist forms ofexpression that came to the forefront in Finnish poetry in the 1950s.

   Manner s poetry is critical of the Western rationalism developed by such philosophers as Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Ludwig Wittgenstein—against whom she places Eastern ways oflooking at the world, particularly Taoism. She also finds inspiration in the child s view of reality, which emphasizes magic and perception through images rather than language. Manner has published with unusual regularity, and some of her most central volumes of poetry are Farenheit 121 (1968), Paetkaa, purret, kevein purjein (1971; Flee Ships, with Light Sails), Kuolleet vedet (1977; Dead Waters), Kamala kissa (1976; A Horrible Cat), and Kauhukakara ja Superkissa (1982; Little Terror and Supercat). The last two show that Manner can be very funny.

   World events have also influenced Manner's poetry. After the Soviet repression of democratic stirrings in Czechoslovakia, she published Jos suru savuaisi (1968; If Smoke Would Rise from Sorrow). Politics also motivated her novel Varokaa, voittajat (1972; Victors, Beware), which discusses oppression in Spain. Having traveled widely in that country, she knows Spanish history and culture well, and her novel is a plea for tolerance and justice. Manner s plays are appreciated but not performed very often. An example is Eros ja Psykhe (1959; Eros and Psyche), which, like her poetry, has an important mythic side to it.