Languages in Constructing “American Plus Finnish” Transcultural Identity in Patricia Eilola’s Female Immigrant Novels of Formation

Introduction

Patricia Eilola’s novels of formation (coming-of-age stories), A Finntown of the Heart (1998; hereafter, AFH in text citation) and A Finntown of the Soul (2008; hereafter, AFS in text citation), emphasize the central role of languages in the process of identification of the young second-generation Finnish immigrant protagonist Ilmi Marianna/Marion. She negotiates her identity between the pressure of the mainstream American society to speak English and her Finnish-speaking family and ethnic community. Throughout the novels, she uses her languages to position herself in her two different worlds. This article claims that the process of Ilmi’s identity-formation can be addressed through the use of transculturation, as described by Mary Louise Pratt (1992). According to Pratt (1992, 6–7), transculturation is a phenomenon of the contact zone, which is a space where cultures that are geographically separated intersect and interact with each other, often within radically asymmetrical relations of power. This interaction between a dominant culture and a subordinated one results in mutual cultural influence. While the subordinated groups cannot control what emanates from the dominant culture, they can select what they incorporate into their own culture and what they use it for (Pratt 1992, 6). Ilmi lives in such a contact zone as she interacts with the mainstream American society and is transformed by it, while also influencing those whom she encounters from the other culture. This article demonstrates how this transculturation produces a new identity for the protagonist. Ilmi does not want to be a powerless migrant and seeks to become an American citizen. She does not embrace wholesale Americanization and resolves her identity conflict by constructing an empowering transcultural identity, both American and Finnish. I will approach her identity with the help of Susanne Österlund-Pötzsch’s (2003) concept of “American Plus.” The “American Plus” identity is an ethnic identification of those people who are secure in their American identity and do not need to “prove” it (Österlund-Pötzsch 2003, 224). “American” is the foundation for ethnic identity, to which the ancestral ethnic heritage is added as a positive “plus” (Österlund-Pötzsch 2003, 224–5). This article will analyze how Ilmi uses her languages and such language-related aspects as accent and naming to negotiate an “American Plus Finnish” identity in her dynamic relationship with her family, ethnic community, and the mainstream American society. Eilola’s novels modify the concept of “American Plus,” since Österlund-Pötzsch applies it to the descendants of immigrants whereas my analysis demonstrates that it can be equally applied to the immigrant younger generation (born in the new country or arriving there very early in their life) like Ilmi, who is both an immigrant and not. She was born in Canada and raised in the United States, but is still considered alien by the mainstream society as she has grown up in her ethnic community surrounded by Finnishness from her first days. So it takes time and considerable effort for her to become secure in her American identity before she can add a positive Finnish “plus” to it.

I draw on Frances Giampapa’s (2001) notion of the role of language in ethnic identity as well as Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes’s (1998) theory of the role of language in status, and William Labov’s (1966, 1972), and Aneta Pavlenko and Adrian Blackledge’s (2006) concept of a connection between language, identity, and power. According to Giampapa (2001, 281), ethnic identity is a socially constructed act (always in negotiation) describing one’s relationship to the world. With the help of languages, language choices, and linguistic practices, speakers can negotiate their identities in order to position themselves in a particular way across/within multiple worlds and discourse sites (Giampapa 2001, 279–81, 284). Pavlenko and Blackledge (2006, 15) add that languages and identities are embedded within relations of power. The linguistic ideology of a society may regard speakers of official languages or standard varieties as having more worth than speakers of unofficial languages or...