Stories Saaren kartanon residenssi 17.04.2025 “Let’s forget about understanding and focus on responsibility instead” – Susanna Hast is seeking an alternative to the therapy generation’s mother relationship Stories Saaren kartanon residenssi 17.04.2025 “Let’s forget about understanding and focus on responsibility instead” – Susanna Hast is seeking an alternative to the therapy generation’s mother relationship Reviving the Wild Reviving the Wild -sisällöt esittelevät Saaren kartanon ekologista residenssitoimintaa eri näkökulmista. Tällä kertaa haastattelussa on residenssin kutsutaiteilija. Jokaiselle yksilöresidenssijaksolle kutsutaan taiteilija tai tutkija, joka keskittyy työskentelyssään ekologisiin kysymyksiin. Kutsutaiteilijaohjelma tarjoaa residenssiläisille keinoja ekologisen ajattelun syventämiseen ja luontoyhteyden tarkasteluun. Text Venla Rossi Kuvat Jussi Virkkumaa Share: The award-winning author is in the Saari Residence finishing her novel, which will be published in the autumn. The genre-mixing novel deals with the pain points and responsibilities of a relationship between mother and daughter. “It’s quite an exciting time,” says author Susanna Hast, twirling a coffee cup in her hand. “At least every other day I feel like I can’t really be publishing this book.” Hast is not only a writer, but also a songwriter and researcher. She is working as an invited artist in the Saari Residence in March and April 2025. She is finishing her new novel in Mynämäki. Toivottomuus (Hopelessness) will be published this autumn. The book deals with the difficulties in a mother-daughter relationship. For the longest time, literature and art have told stories of fathers who abandon their families or from whom people are distancing themselves due to bad behaviour. Cutting ties with the mother, however, remains a taboo. Motherhood is considered the most sacred form of love; sacrificial and endlessly patient. That is why Susanna Hast is feeling a bit anxious. Can one write about this; is it appropriate? Is it right? Hast is sipping her coffee in the residence’s main building and starts talking about how feminism has spent quite a lot of time and energy on understanding mothers and motherhood. A daughter’s perspective, on the other hand, has remained more foreign. This was exactly the starting point for Hast. “Perhaps the empirical observation I made in my own circle of acquaintances was that quite a few people have experienced various difficulties in their relationships with their mothers. Our therapy generation has had a tendency for almost endless understanding of the burdens of the previous generations and for resolving their problems for them. But what if that sense of understanding is taken away, and it is replaced with responsibility. What will the relationship between daughter and mother look like then?” In addition to real-life discussions, the work has drawn inspiration from philosophy. Hast has read a lot of Freud (“he is a wonderful writer”) and points out that philosopher and psychoanalyst Luce Irigaray has also called the relationship between mother and daughter “the darkest point of our society or social order”. What does it mean? “I can’t quite quote it by heart… but it goes something like that a mother should offer her daughter words, but instead she only offers food. That it is the mother who could offer her daughter the opportunities to function in society, but she does not do it.” It is partly this observation that, in Hast’s view, crystallises the invisible, structural violence of the mother-daughter relationship. According to the author, there has been little desire to talk about it in the past. “Actually, people don’t even want to think about it. The abandonment of the family threatens our entire existing, capitalist social structure.” It is no wonder that as the publication of the novel approaches, Hast is also struggling with her conflicting emotions. Even talking about the book seems almost impossible. Hast has already sketched out several alternative text files on her computer, in which she is testing and practising different optional responses for future interviews. “I still have no idea which of them I will choose.” Mixed genres and zombies People interested in literature learned about Susanna Hast in 2022, when her debut novel Ruumis/huoneet was published. The novel about the sexual violence experienced by the author won the Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize. The arguments for the award emphasized that the personal level of the book was supported by social and philosophical data. Hast herself called her novel ‘autotheoretical’. Before her career in fiction, she worked as a researcher and has the title of associate professor at Uniarts Helsinki. So it was natural for her to mix autobiographical text with theoretical data and social issues, in a somewhat similar way that Maggie Nelson does, for example. Will the next book be a similar genre hybrid? “I think it will be even more experimental in form. Or more radical.” Hast says she is not particularly interested in traditional, plot-driven fiction. Instead, she likes to read, for example, American literary-philosophical memoirs – essays or memoirs based on personal experiences – and philosophy as mentioned earlier, including works by Hélène Cixous. “The problem with fiction is that I somehow don’t have the energy to be led to believe something that isn’t true.” In her upcoming novel, however, she herself expects the reader to believe in fiction, as the script contains some material that cannot be considered as factual. Zombies, among other things. Although, Hast feels that even they actually allow us to deal with real-world issues. “The zombies embody a truth that cannot be seen, or that cannot be approached except through symbolism. I like indirect writing in general. What kind of knowledge are you really able to obtain about yourself and the world if you don’t approach a topic directly, but rather keep circling around it somehow?” Despite the indirect approach, Hast wants to take her writing towards the themes that seem the most difficult to confront. That is perhaps why she has found psychoanalysis so inspiring recently, because it also has the same aim. What is neutral? Working in residence allows the artists to focus on their work. In Susanna Hast’s case, that focus sounds rather extreme. “Without my everyday responsibilities and routines, I might sometimes end up working from morning till night. It feels amazing. Perhaps I’m a bit of a hermit by nature as my own thoughts are often enough to keep me company. Of course, in addition to my own thoughts, I am able enjoy the company of the other artists and researchers visiting the Saari Residence at the same time.” Together with her colleague Maryam Bagheri Nesami, Susanna Hast organised a workshop with the title Resignation Letter for the other residents currently working in the Saari Residence. It involved physical exercises, writing and reflection using various methods on the ways and ethics of withdrawal and refusal – both in personal life and as a strategy for activism. Hast is planning a second workshop on the concept of neutrality by philosopher Roland Barthes. “I’m really inspired by such concepts that open up into many directions. Barthes dealt with a huge number of different themes from the viewpoint of the neutral, such as colour and silence. For example, silence is a really interesting thing. It is also linked to the upcoming book. Even more than the mother-daughter relationship, the core of the text lies in the trust that we have in speech and conversation. That at the end, it always leads us to encounter one another. But, what if this really is not the case?” Toivottomuus as a text is in a sense a proposal to end speech. “I think that sometimes avoiding encounters can be the right, ethical solution. For example, if you think about mediation as a solution to domestic violence. The conversation and encounters involved may be beneficial for the perpetrator, but is it really good for the victim?” During her artist-in-residence period, Hast can focus on being just a fiction writer, but in her normal everyday life she also teaches at the Theatre Academy at Uniarts Helsinki and conducts social research. Currently, Hast is working on a project with Noora Kotilainen and Johanna Vuorelma to study militarised language and its relationship with Finnish democracy. Barthes’ concept of the neutral resonates strongly with Hast also in relation to the world political situation. “Of course, I wonder what neutrality means in relation to Palestine at the moment. It means terrible violence.” Daily walks with the dogs We’ve had our coffee and have talked for a long time. Finally, it’s time to meet Susanna Hast’s closest companions during her residence in the courtyard in front of the main building. “If you wait here, I’ll go and get them.” Soon we hear intense barking coming from the small red cottage. Miniature dachshunds Paula and Billie rush to meet me with great hustle and bustle. They have also enjoyed their stay in Mynämäki. When Hast got the news about her residency, it was clear that the pets would be coming along with her. “It would have been a bit too much for my spouse to take care of both the dogs and the children alone for two months.” Hast takes walks everyday with Paula and Billie in the countryside near the residence along the same routes. Often there are no other people about. It’s good for the nerves of both the pets and their owner. The landscape is yours alone for a moment. The brain keeps on working, even if the writer is not sitting at the computer all the time. Still, there is less stress here than in the city,” Hast says. “I’ve even slept much better here than in Helsinki. I don’t really miss home at all. On the contrary, the idea of moving to the countryside has been reinforced.”