Cultural Heritage in Picturebooks: Mauri Kunnas’s Doghill and The Canine Kalevala
Cultural Heritage in Picturebooks: Mauri Kunnas’s Doghill and The Canine Kalevala

Summary/Abstract: Some of Mauri Kunnas’s picturebooks are examined as bearers of Finnish cultural heritage. His Doghill series conveys heritage by describing country life in 19th-century western Finland. Kunnas’s The Canine Kalevala is an adaptation of the Finnish epic The Kalevala and also includes several adaptations of Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s Kalevala paintings. Both The Kalevala and the paintings of Gallen-Kallela, held in high esteem in Finland, are adapted for child readers by Kunnas, who retells the story by using animal characters, omits problematic issues and adds humour to make it more appropriate for children. An informed adult reader reads The Canine Kalevala as an adaptation of The Kalevala, with an understanding of complex cultural and literary references, while a child reader sees the book as a new, exciting story.

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