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Introduction to Cultural Text Analysis and Liksom's Short Story "We Got Married"
By Urpo KOVALA

Urpo KOVALA
Cultural Studies and Cultural Text Analysis
Abstract: In his article, "Cultural Studies and Cultural Text Analysis," Urpo Kovala discusses the role of textual analysis in cultural studies. He begins with a sketch of different conceptions of textual analysis within cultural studies by pointing to differences in the concepts of text and context themselves. Next, Kovala explores the reasons for including textual analysis as a category and method in cultural studies and in humanities and social sciences scholarship generally. Finally, Kovala sketches briefly a model for the cultural analysis of text where his main point is that the argument about the incompatibility of cultural studies and textual analysis is untenable today. Instead, what is needed now is a heterological, multi-level, and perspectival notion of both text and context.

Erkki VAINIKKALA
Reading Liksom's Short Story "We Got Married" in a Cultural and Political Perspective
Abstract: In his paper, "Reading Liksom's Short Story 'We Got Married' in a Cultural and Political Perspective," Erkki Vainikkala examines Rosa Liksom's short story as well as one reader's response to the text. In Vainikkala's analysis, the short story is described as a structure of inversions and reversals where sequences are opened and cut short, standpoints are offered and taken back immediately, and where the code of realism is suggested but not carried out as the development of the story lacks convincing motivation. The resulting effect of exhaustion, evident also in the manifestation of pathological narcissism in the story, is seen in connection with the state of culture in late modernity. The reading of the story by an Estonian woman, in turn, is interpreted as a political allegory of the situation in the country: it is shown how the dynamics of the reader response is influenced by the type of the research questions and also how different elements of Liksom's story are grouped together to serve the respondent's struggle of allegorization. A part of this rearrangement is a strong transformative reading of the male character. Vainikkala also reflects on the nature of reading and draws attention to the function of narrative thresholds. The latter aspect qualifies contextual approaches by pointing to the pedagogical importance of a text-oriented ethics of reading.

Chris PAWLING
Liksom's Short Stories and the Ironies of Contemporary Existence
Abstract: In his paper, "Liksom's Short Stories and the Ironies of Contemporary Existence," Chris Pawling examines Rosa Liksom's short stories in her volume One Night Stands. Pawling proposes that Liksom's texts can be understood as postmodern pastiches (Jameson) of different literary voices which in turn are couched in an "affect-less" prose that attempt to inhabit the mental universe of the narrator/protagonist without necessarily endorsing any aesthetic or ethical point of view. Liksom's fictional universe is populated by individuals who are alienated from the life of predictable routines and are searching for "action" in scenes of low life in late-night city bars. If there is an overall point of view in these short stories, Pawling argues, it is that of an avant-garde angle which embraces the authenticity of the street and life-on-edge. In this, Liksom's writing exhibits parallels with the American Blank Generation writers such as Kathy Acker, Brett Easton Ellis, and Jay McInerey. Pawling argues that there are a number of contradictions in the aesthetic and ideological outlook of this avant-garde including their supposedly anti-bourgeois perspective that in reality evinces an elitist attitude towards the mass and popular culture with the effect of reinforcement of the distinction of art and an elective distance (Bourdieu) of the writer from the world of  "ordinary" emotions and ethics.

Kimmo JOKINEN
Liksom's Short Story "We Got Married" and (Finnish) Identity Construction
Abstract: In his paper, "Liksom's Short Story 'We Got Married' and (Finnish) Identity Construction," Kimmo Jokinen proposes the validity of common belief today that a shift into a late-modern era is taking place. It has often been claimed in contemporary sociological debates that our "post-industrial" life has become more thoroughly imbricated with culture and signs and sociologists, in their analyses of contemporary life, are interested especially in stories people tell, hear, and read. Based on readers' survey data in Finland, Jokinen analyses the ways in which Rosa Liksom's short story "We Got Married" is being employed in identity construction. For Jokinen, Liksom's text provides us with two different types of negotiation between reader and text: one that focuses on the construction of national identity and the other where the text is individualistic and playful, with focus on the theme of sexuality.

Kornelia SLAVOVA
Reading Liksom's Short Story "We Got Married" in Post-communist Bulgaria
Abstract: Kornelia Slavova, in her paper "Reading Liksom's Short Story 'We Got Married' in Post-communist Bulgaria," discusses the intricate interrelations of texts and social practices in postcommunist Bulgaria by analysing Rosa Liksom's short story read by sixty readers. Further, Slavova proposes the study of the uses of stereotypes in fiction and their discursive hardening in extratextual practices at times of radical political and cultural change. With this notion, she focuses on two major stereotypical patterns concerning gender and the supranational opposition East/West. Slavova argues that the latter function as palimpsest structures on which earlier bipolar representations from the communist Cold-War era are still legible under the new postmodern and post-totalitarian ideological scripts -- superimposed on them over the last twelve years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In her conclusion, Slavova proposes that text and textual analysis play a significant role in cultural studies because they reflect, create, and recreate the fantasies and myths of a given culture, generating meaningful tension between the real and the imagined, the particular and the general, the practical and the theoretical.

Malle JÄRVE
Reading Liksom's Short Story "We Got Married" in Post-communist Estonia and in Finland
Abstract: In her paper, "Reading Liksom's Short Story 'We Got Married' in Post-communist Estonia and in Finland," Malle Järve discusses the reception of Rosa Liksom's text in post-communist Estonia and in Finland. After gaining independence, Estonians became exposed to varieties of literature including avant-garde texts which did not fit easily with the expectations and rules of interpretation developed during Soviet rule. Based on data collected in 1993 and 1998, Järve focuses on the cultural repertoire (discourses, stereotypes, values, literary expectations, etc.) used by readers while constructing meaning to the text, perceived predominantly as foreign/Other. Järve's objective is an attempt to explain: 1) who/what the Other in the text is and how "otherness" / "self" is identified socially and articulated in terms of gender roles, social class, nationality, etc., and 2) how the cultural repertoire/codes used and the contextualization of the text changed during the 1990s in Estonia. In the interpretations of Estonian readers in both samples, the traditional notions of gender roles as well as class-related and national distinctions/stereotypes played an important role. For example, the notion of "low life" in the text was often attributed to local Russians. Järve's findings refer to a cultural model where achievement, education, moderation, good manners, social status, and other external and behavioral characteristics are highly valued. Of note is that the text caused less confusion for the readers in 1998 than in 1993 and that it was interpreted increasingly within an audio-visual frame of reference. She includes in her analysis Finnish respondents' data where a differentiation can be observed between Estonian and Finnish perceptions and responses to the short story.

Appendix
Rosa LIKSOM
"We Got Married" [untitled short story]. Trans. Anselm Hollo

Bibliography
Selected Bibliography of Work in Cultural Text Analysis
Xianfeng MOU and Urpo KOVALA, comp.

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