Abstract
This chapter examines Riku Korhonen’s Kahden ja yhden yön tarinoita (“Tales of two and one nights” 2003) as a satirical commentary on late twentieth-century discourses of urban development, in particular with regards to the concrete suburb. The complex structure of the novel invites a reading that emphasizes how the narrative mirrors, questions and re-enacts the fragmentation of the urban fabric and the social cohesion in the post-industrial city. The novel problematizes the idea of urban community within the spatial context of the “second city” in two distinct ways. First, as a novel that is set at the outskirts of Finland’s former capital, Turku; and second, for the way in which the text imagines a sprawling, secondary urbanism that takes on more universalist characteristics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsWorks Cited
Ameel, Lieven. Helsinki in Early Twentieth-Century Literature. Urban Experiences in Finnish Prose Fiction 1890–1940. SKS, 2014.
Berman, Marshall. All That is Sold Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. 1982. Verso, 1989.
de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Steven Rendall. University of California Press, 1984.
“diorama, n.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press. OED Online, 2017, www.oed.com. Accessed 23 March 2017.
GUST [Ghent Urban Studies Team]. “Classical Perspectives on the Urban Self.” The Urban Condition: Space, Community, and Self in the Contemporary Metropolis, edited by GUST. 010, 1999, pp. 110–26.
Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism: Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso, 1991.
Jokela, Markus. “Are Neighborhood Health Associations Causal? A 10-Year Prospective Cohort Study with Repeated Measurements.” American Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 180, no. 8, 2014, pp. 776–84.
Juntunen, Tuomas. “The Episode Novel and Its Ways of Worldmaking.” Imagined Worlds: Worldmaking in Arts and Literature, 21 August 2013, University of Helsinki. Conference presentation.
Kirstinä, Leena, and Risto Turunen. “Nykyproosan solmukohtia ja avauksia.” Suomen nykykirjallisuus 1: Lajeja, poetiikkaa, edited by Mika Hallila, Yrjö Hosiaisluoma, and Sanna Karkulehto, SKS, 2013, pp. 41–78.
Korhonen, Riku. Kahden ja yhden yön tarinoita. Sammakko, 2003.
Laaksonen, Mikko. “Hyvinvoinnin lähiöistä kulutuksen esikaupunkeihin.” Minne menet kaupunki?, edited by Timo Heikkinen and Hanna Mattila. Helsinki University of Technology, 2009, pp. 65–92.
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago University Press, 1980.
Lanigan, Liam. James Joyce, Urban Planning and Irish Modernism: Dublins of the Future. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Laurila, Haley. “Museum of Dreams: Place and Memory in Aleshkovksy Stargorod.” Literary Second Cities, 21 August 2015, Åbo Akademi University, Turku. Conference presentation.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party. 1848. Marxists Internet Archive, 2004, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2016.
Miller, Rebecca. “The Panorama, the Cinema, and the Emergence of the Spectacular.” Wide Angle, vol. 18, no. 2, 1996, pp. 34–69.
Murole, Pentti. “Ihmisen kulkemisen suunnittelusta.” Arkkitehti, vol. 47, no. 3–4, 1967, pp. 16–19.
Ojajärvi, Jussi. “Kapitalismista tulee ongelma.” Suomen nykykirjallisuus II: Kirjallinen elämä ja yhteiskunta, edited by Mika Hallila, Yrjö Hosiaisluoma, Sanna Karkulehto, Leena Kirstinä, and Jussi Ojajärvi, SKS, 2013, pp. 131–53.
Park, Robert E. “The City: Suggestions for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the City Environment.” The American Journal of Sociology, vol. 20, no. 5, 1915, pp. 577–612.
Pausanias, Description of Greece. Translated by W.H.S. Jones. Harvard University Press, 1918. Theoi Texts Library, Theoi Project, www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias10A.html#4.
Roivainen Irene. Sokeripala metsän keskellä: Lähiö sanomalehden konstruktiona. Helsingin kaupungin tietokeskus, 1999.
Vaismaa, Riitta. “Syyllisyyden ja pahuuden verkossa.” Kiiltomato, 24 May 2004, http://www.kiiltomato.net/marko-kitti-viidakko/. Accessed 22 March 2017.
Wallin, Antti. “Ikääntyvä kerrostalolähiö ja sen eläkeläisnaiset.” Yhteiskuntapolitiikka, Vol. 79, no. 5, 2014, pp. 509–20.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ameel, L., Juntunen, T. (2017). Riku Korhonen’s Kahden ja Yhden Yön Tarinoita as Reflection on the Suburban Fragmentation of Community. In: Finch, J., Ameel, L., Salmela, M. (eds) Literary Second Cities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62719-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62719-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62718-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62719-9
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)