Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Folklore collector J. K. Harju’s writings about marginal city life in Helsinki in the 1960–1970 are stored at the Finnish Literature Society archives. In my presentation I will discuss Harju´s collection and tell how the nature and the materiality of being unhoused is presented.

Paper long abstract

Folklore collector Johan Knut Harju (1910–1976) created a roughly 20 000-page collection to the Finnish Literature Society’s (SKS) folklore archives during 1961–1976. Helsinki born Harju suffered from alcohol addiction which among other problems left him unhoused. Harju experienced homelessness and spent his time on the streets as well as in prisons, welfare institutions and night shelters where he created his documentations about marginal city life by writing personal narratives and by interviewing others. During the 15 years he wrote to the archive he interviewed over 900 people.

In my presentation I will discuss Harju´s collection and how the materiality of being unhoused is presented. In contrast to the misery unhoused men encountered, Harju told the archive about “drifter”” lintsari”– lifestyle that for Harju was defined by freedom. Drifters are “like birds of the sky, visible to us during the day but disappeared somewhere at night”, he said.

In the narratives where Harju or his interviewees talk about experiencing homelessness in urban environments, the nature is always present. Life threatening nordic winters are met with bonfires or air vents found in public space pumping warm excess air to ice cold nights. Seeking shelter under bridges or temporary camps offer a place to rest from the hostile cityscape. The place under the bridge is a wasteland paradise, “a home to love” when it rains.