Kirjanduselu XVII sajandi Tallinnas
Literary Life in the 17th-Century Tallinn

Summary/Abstract: Martin Klöker's monograph Literarisches Leben in Reval in den ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts (1600–1657). Institutionen der Gelehrsamkeit und Dichten bei Gelegenheit discusses literary life in Tallinn in the first half of the 17th century. Literary life is rendered as a combination of the production, spread and reception of literature. Literature is analysed in the context of relevant municipal institutions and persons involved, trying to establish the authors' position relative to municipal service (clerks, scholars, clergy), the role of the municipality in ordering certain literature or in supporting its publication financially, as well as the addressee and reception of the literature published. Texts for the analysis were selected according to the following six criteria: texts published in Tallinn; Tallinners' texts published outside Tallinn; any texts on Tallinn or its citizens; texts dedicated to citizens or municipal institutions of Tallinn; texts by natives of Tallinn who (intermittently) lived out of the town; texts discussing Tallinn as a city or region. The analysis of local literary production is focused on occasional poetry as a genre characteristic of the 17th-century German urban literature. Discussed are authors and addressees, motivations behind the poems and the motives used, a possible typology of the poems, the themes touched upon and the poetic form.

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