Eesti varase tööliskirjanduse piirjooned ja tunnused
The outlines and features of early Estonian working-class literature

Summary/Abstract: The article is motivated by the marginal position of working-class literature in modern academic literary studies and the available theoretical views and definitions of working-class literature, which are largely obsolete or just superficial. The article highlights the problems associated with defining the concept of working-class literature, based on the relevant theories of well-recognised researchers such as John Lennon, Magnus Nilsson, Raoul Palmgren, Elsi Hyttinen and others. The focus is on the main definitions of working-class literature so far and their critique. The article seeks to provide answers to questions concerning the definition of working-class literature, its spread, research and main features. A polemic discussion is also pres­ented about the definition of a workers’ writer. In addition, the text examines the relationship between working-class literature and other realistic literary currents prevalent in the late 19th and early 20th century, and outlines its spread and research specifically in Estonia. The final part of the article summarises the specific traits of Estonian working-class literature from the early 20th century, including traces of the relationship between Estonians and Baltic Germans, the Estonians’ agrarian point of view, the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, etc. The article is a follow-up of a Master’s thesis on Estonian working-class poetry, defended in the spring of 2019.

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