Pertti Anttonen

My main interests in research and teaching include folklore and nationalism and the politics of history, heritage and tradition, on the one hand, and ethnopoetics, the textual representation of orality, and the rites of passage theory, on the other.

One of my most notable publications is the recently published Explorations in the Violence of Traditions and Traditions of Violence (FFC 328, Helsinki, The Kalevala Society Foundation, 2025), the articles of which are based on presentations given at the Folklore Fellows Summer School held virtually at the University of Eastern Finland in 2021. Another is Tradition Through Modernity: Postmodernism and the Nation-State in Folklore Scholarship (Helsinki, Finnish Literature Society, 2005), which was published in Greek translation in 2018 and in Chinese translation in early 2026.

On Kalevala Day in 2026 I received the ninth Kalevala Society Award, worth €10,000, which is granted every three years to a person who, through their scientific or artistic work, has made a significant contribution to raising awareness of folk poetry, the Kalevala, or Finnish culture. According to the award criteria, I am currently the most internationally renowned and well-connected Finnish folklorist, and I have also made significant contributions to research into the textualisation of the Kalevala and oral tradition.