Sociological Microcosm of Henrik Tikkanen : The Finland-Swedish Writer, Visual Artist and Journalist between the 'Commercial' Pole and the Pole of 'High Culture'
Abstract
This article is a sociological interpretation of the Finnish-Swedish artistic all-rounder Henrik Tikkanen (1924-1984). The goal is to analyze his activities as a whole.
The article examines among others the sociological methodology, that Pierre Bourdieu uses in its reading of Gustave Flaubert's novel L'éducation sentimentale (en. The heart's education), which is included as a prologue to his book Les Règles de l'art (en.
Rules of Art). The article intends to outline a synthesis, a sociological picture of "Tikkanen inter artes", in order to ascertain how his visual arts and literary activities relate to each other, that is how his visual arts and writing can be seen as parts of the whole set of all of his works.
In addition to the interconnection of Tikkanen's literary and visual arts trajectories and to the parallels between them the interest is also targeted towards their relation to his journalism. The article consists of two main sections, which follow each other more or less chronologically: in the first on Tikkanen is analyzed as a figure in his autobiographical book Bävervägen 11 Herttoniemi (1976), which depicts the beginning of his career.
Then the article goes over to treat Tikkanen as a writer and visual artist on the basis of primary and secondary sources, including reviews.