ABSTRACT
Antti Ahmala discusses Bovarysme in Joel Lehtonen’s decadent novel Villi (1905). In the context of decadence, this term exemplifies the protagonists’ escapist tendency to dwell in a dreamworld. Ahmala shows how decadent Bovarysme is linked to the theories of hereditary degeneration and Nietzschean ideas of authenticity. The protagonist’s rich imagination could produce great art, were it not for his inherited inability the channel his energy into productive activity. He identifies with heroes of history and fiction, but, in reality, nothing comes out of this rural would-be-artist. The discrepancy between his romantic fantasies and reality is treated ironically: the fantasies are contrasted with the reality of Finnish rural and small-town milieus.
