The Genre of Trolls - Doria

However, it is difficult to draw an exact line between probable and improbable
intertexts, and the final decision remains subjective, as indeed all interpretation
does (cf. Tarkka 1993: 172–173; Skjelbred 1998: 21–22, referring to
Ingwersen 1995: 77–90; Wolf 2002: 16–28). Nevertheless, I have also tried to
corroborate my interpretations through reference to existing knowledge
about the beliefs, customs and contextual factors prevalent in the parish of
Vörå at the time of collection.
Regarding chapter 7, my method has been somewhat different as the research
problem has changed. Michael Holquist has stated that Bakhtin’s
works do not furnish any ready-made methods which can be applied directly
to a research material, but that “[a]n immersion in Bakhtin’s thought
will indeed transform the way one reads, but only after some time has
elapsed, and in ways that are not predictable (Holquist 1990: 107–108). It
took me three years to see the utility of Bakhtin’s notions of unfinalizability
and finalization in my own work, and the key to this realization was the
same as Ann Helene Bolstad Skjelbred’s in her examination of cultural
intertextuality: emotion. I had noted the sometimes very palpable sense of
fear of the supernatural described in some troll narratives, and I wondered
whether there was any significant reason for this other than the basic
human fear of the unknown. I started studying the situations in which this
fear appeared in the stories, and came to the conclusion that it was the uncertainty
about the intentions and possible actions of the troll that provoked
this reaction. Framing it as an instance of unfinalizability was principally
occasioned by Bakhtin’s glossing of the concept as the unobstructed
unfolding of a character in narrative; this seemed to help to explain the behaviour
of the troll in the narratives. The position of the author, or, in my
case, the narrator in relation to unfinalizable characters was also important;
narrators of troll texts seemed to strive for the creation of an image of the
troll dominated by its unpredictability which I interpreted as a consequence
of its unfinalizability. Then I began to look for evidence of a potential unfinalizability
of supranormal characters in other texts, and of a possible
promotion of this trait on the part of the narrators in their construction of
their texts.
Method 45