Lõunaeesti kirjanduslugu kahe lugemiku sees ja vahel
The history of South Estonian literature within and between two readers

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses literary historical surveys of South Estonian literature, which were published from 1920s through 1990s. There are several reasons – historical, geographical, cultural and, in particular, linguistic – that individuate South Estonian literature. The language variety spoken in South-Estonia differs considerably from the North Estonian one; the difference is remarkably pronounced in comparison with the vernaculars of Võrumaa and Setumaa, earlier also with those of Tartumaa and Mulgimaa. The study addresses two literary canons and two readers providing a background for telling a literary history. The readers analysed represent Setu subdialect (the two volumes of the reader are Seto lugõmik (1923) and Kodotulõ’ (1925)) and Võru dialect (the reader has been published in two editions under different titles: Võrokõstõ lugõmiseraamat (1993) and Võrokiilne lugõmik (1996)). In the 1920s Paulopriit Voolaine initiated a vigorous effort to create a vernacular Setu literature with a history of its own. The attempt remained unparalleled for many decades. A new and more robust South Estonian cultural movement and the ascent of Võru literature began only in the late 1980s. In the early 1990s standard literary Võru was established, of which the second edition of the reader was the first major representation. There are twelve texts, written in the period of 1930-1960, which offer a historical survey of South Estonian literature or some part of it. Most of this material belongs to local studies or literary tourism. Striking exceptions are the survey of the literature of Mulgimaa by August Annist and the historical survey of the poetry written in South Estonian, by Viktor Kõressaar. Those two texts suggest some interpretational assumptions that emerged alongside the proclamation of a separate Võru literature, of which the Võru reader was one of the first signs.

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