And Another Book Was Opened: Biblical Quotation and Allusion in Aleksis Kivi’s Seven Brothers
摘要
Aleksis Kivi’s Seven Brothers (1870) was written during the transition from Romanticism to Realism in Finnish literature. This shift is evident in the novel’s intriguing blend of romantic and realistic elements. Notably, Kivi employed the Bible as a subtext, integrating biblical expressions into the brothers’ everyday speech. The significance of this biblical layer has not been fully acknowledged, as it aligns with the novel’s romantic aesthetics of the time—fragmented, allusive, and imbued with humor and comedy (featuring misquotes and misunderstandings). While Seven Brothers contains numerous biblical references, the Romantic era’s preference for the Book of Revelation permeates the entire narrative. Kivi’s fascination with this book, replete with symbolic visions and a sequence of events culminating in the end of times, stems from the romantic apocalypticism prevalent among English and German poets and philosophers. This chapter will scrutinize pivotal dialogues in the novel, highlighting the biblical connections woven into the thematic structure.