Kuvankuvan

Kuvankuva is a Finnish literary term that refers to imagery or picture language—the use of vivid, sensory descriptions to create mental images in the reader’s mind. It encompasses devices such as metaphors, similes, personification, and other figures of speech that appeal to the senses rather than to direct exposition. In literary analysis, kuvankuva is a central concept for understanding how a text produces atmosphere, mood, and meaning through concrete sensory detail.

Kuvankuvan is typically discussed in terms of how imagery functions within a work. The form kuvankuvan can appear in various grammatical cases; for example, kuvankuvan is the genitive singular, used to express “the imagery’s” or “of the imagery.” This grammatical note is often encountered in analytical writing and scholarly discussion.

In Finnish literature, writers use kuvankuva across periods to convey emotional depth, symbolism, and thematic nuance. The term is closely related to other concepts such as kuvallinen kieli (figurative language) and kuvaannollinen ilmaisu (figurative expression). Modern criticism often evaluates imagery in relation to sensory modality, concreteness, and its contribution to themes and narrative impact.

See also: imagery, figurative language, metaphor, simile, personification, Finnish rhetoric, kuvallinen kieli.