THE MOTIF OF LONELINESS IN THE SHORT STORIES OF RUNAR SCHILDT

Abstract

The article describes the evolution of the motif of loneliness in the works by Runar Schildt, a Finnish-Swedish writer of the beginning of the twentieth century. He is considered one of the prominent members of the Dagdrivare group of writers active in Finland in the 1900s. Characters, created by the Finnish authors, long for an active life, but fail to find a relevant application of their talents or a worthy lifetime project. With Schildt’s early works as an example, we analyze the motif of loneliness as a major factor in the lives of the younger generation of Finnish Swedes as they tend to experience themselves as superfluous people in their own homeland. The same motif of loneliness is revealed in the short stories that render on the events of the civil war in Finland of 1918, as well as on the fates of the Russian intelligentsia, fleeing from the revolutionary events. In these works, the plotline acquires a profound depth of meaning, while the motif of loneliness receives both moral and existential significance. The protagonist’s loneliness, especially the picture of his forlornness in a crowd of people and among his own family is an important and recurring characteristic of R. Schildt’s characters. Extreme spiritual disturbances, which protagonists become subject to, affect the space and time level of the narratives. The motif of loneliness clearly revealed at all stages of Schildt’s creative career cuts also across his short story writing.