Litteraturens språkvariation, kritiken och det finlandssvenska rummets gränser: Kim Weckströms Sista sommaren, Kjell Westös Drakarna över Helsingfors och debatten om Finlandiapriset 1996

The article is a study of norms and questions regarding linguistic variation as expressed in literary criticism and debate, through an analysis of reviews of the Finland-Swedish novels Sista sommaren [The Last Summer] by Kim Weckström and Drakarna över Helsingfors [The Kites above Helsinki], both published in 1996, as well as newspaper material concerning the lack of Finland-Swedish nominees for that year’s Finlandia award for best novel of the year. The study shows that the Finnish-adjacent language of Weckström’s novel is controversial, since it is not contained to dialogue but is also the language of the narrator, while Westö’s linguistic choices are approved upon to a higher degree, since occurences of Finnish and slang are mostly contained to dialogue. Weckström’s novel raises questions of comprehensibility and identification, as well as questions of contesting local and regional minority identities. The study shows that linguistic variation is viewed by critics as a phenomenon connected to prose and to authenticity, much like the case has been during the last century, with identity politics making up a more recent category, compared to debates on the phenomenon during the early 20th centrury.