Poeedirahu – Andrus Kasemaa kirjanduslik omailm

Author(s): Brita Melts / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 06/2013

The article analyses a subjective poetic world and terms it as a literary Umwelt. Poeedirahu ‘lit. Poet’s peace of mind’ is a small place described by bits and pieces by Andrus Kasemaa (born 1984) throughout three collections of poetry and one prose work, using slight mentions, cues and significant objects. The name has been invented for a place whose geography recognizably coincides with the author’s home environs, yet which represents, above all, a literary or mental space, thus vibrating on the fascinating boundary between the real and the imaginary. There is no such Poeedirahu anywhere in real Estonia. Although the prototypical surroundings can be found out, Poeedirahu is mainly a mindscape gradually established by literary works exactly as the author wishes his readers to see it. When applied in literary studies the biosemiotic term Umwelt tends to become somewhat metaphorical, inevitably touching upon what belongs to cultural geography. This way it should rather be termed as a mindscape containing both the real and the imaginary, the autobiografical and the fictional, the landscapes created in texts as well as their real prototypes coinciding with the author’s home surroundings, involving the author’s geographic perception, his inner man, his deliberate selection of the surrounding objects and his imaginations, as well as the projection of all this into his works via the meaningful elements belonging to the narrator’s space. Poeedirahu as a creative world built purposefully with the involvement of the author’s senses, will and aspirations looks successfully accessible for literary analysis via the bio-semiotic mindscape model, which is indeed one of the most alluring ways to address the author’s home-inspired personal mythology and his home-centered lyric „I”.

Leitmotiivide poeetika Jaan Krossi romaanis "Keisri hull"

Author(s): Lea Pild / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 12/2012

The specifics of the technique of leitmotifs as used by Jaan Kross in his novel Keisri hull („The Czar’s Madman”, 1978) is discussed. According to the tradition of literary theory, leitmotif means a recurrent text element (word, phrase, parallel episodes etc.), which in combination with other analogously recurrent elements serves to build up the specific compositional structure of the text. This kind of text structuring is found in J. Kross’s novel The Czar’s Madman, which (as well as some other historical novels by the same author, esp. Kolme katku vahel („Between Three Plagues”) and Professor Martensi ärasõit („Professor Martens’ departure”) is, in this article, classified under the 20th-century neo-mythological novels. Neo-mythological texts are characterized by antique or Biblical images forming a special layer in the text and lending the novel an eternal perspective. Likewise, in „The Czar’s Madman” we find not only the technique of leitmotifs but also persistent reference to symbols from the Old and New Testaments, parallel presentation of the historical and notional symbolic levels, a deep-going psychological insight revealed in descriptions of the subconscious and in inner monologues.

Trikster ja mütoloogiline turist: Pärimuse ümberpööramine Kreutzwaldi „Kalevipojas”

Author(s): Hasso Krull / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 03/2012

In Estonian mythology landscape is an image of a primordial time, when the earth was created. This mythical time can be compared to some of the oldest and remotest oral traditions, like Dreamtime among Aboriginal Australians or the First Order among African Bushmen. There were two principal figures: one was the first, or more perfect creator, and the other a trickster, who added necessary imperfections and continued the process of creation. The first creator is often called Grandfather (Vanaisa), while the trickster is called Old Pagan (Vanapagan). Together they form a creator pair that functions in a supplementary manner: while Grandfather creates the earth all flat, Old Pagan also creates hills and valleys, etc. In the recorded fragments creation time is often referred to as a period when the stones where soft, because Old Pagan was still roaming on earth and left his footprints, fingerprints etc. on the stones. Consequently the landscape turns into a cosmological reservoir, a vast space of mythical inscriptions, or as Christopher Tilley has put it: „The landscape is thus represented in myth and represents the myth. It is a mnemonic for past generations and a means of establishing continuity with the past. Time becomes collapsed into space.” This kind of space, that Tilley calls pre-capitalist or non-Western space, is radically different from our modern, capitalist or Western space. The character of the mythical landscape is seminal and the narratives are quite indifferent to geographical singularity. As Gustav Schüdlöffel pointed out in 1836, „was hier als an einem Orte geschehen erzählt wird, mag auch anderswo von andern Orten gelten”. The reason for this seminality is simple: in the oral tradition each locale embodies a cosmological totality, acquiring metonymic qualities. In 1839 Friedrich Faehlmann reversed this principle of the oral tradition, introducing a concept of Tartumaa as „der classische Boden der Ehsten”, where the alleged epic narrative cycle has presumably established univocal relations between the local singularities and epic events, presented in a linear order. This innovation was taken for granted by Friedrich Kreutzwald, who imagined the Estonian landscape as a geographical stage for his epic hero Kalevipoeg. However, the real oral tradition did not fit in with this preconception and Kreutzwald was frustrated. Nonetheless he passed through this phase of depression and produced a new, mystified landscape, represented in his epic „Kalevipoeg”. This brought forth a fundamental reversal of tradition, replacing the trickster with a new literary figure that can be called a „mythological tourist”.

Muld ja aed. Pilk Debora Vaarandi loomingulisse pinnasesse

Author(s): Kadri Tüür / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 11/2015

Soil constitutes the living ground from which cultures stem, alongside with all other manifestations of life. Soil has been an important trope in the poetry of Debora Vaarandi (1916-2007), one of the leading poets of mid-20th century Estonia. She grew up in the countryside and agricultural work was an essential part of her life experience. Political conditions left their mark on Vaarandi’s poems: in her propagandistic poetry of the 1950s soil appears only as an emblem of socialist agriculture. The poem „Dear soil...” (1954) marks a turning point; from there on, an intimate and emotionally enriching bond with soil appears in Vaarandi’s poetry. Its apotheosis is reached in the poem „Estonian soils” (1964), where soils are likened to human tissues. Through fertility and exhaustion, soils are metaphorically associated with the situation of women. Gardens appear in Vaarandi’s poetry only toward the end of her literary career. Through the lyrical depictions of gardening, a „turn of faith” and resignation are expressed that eventually lead to creating via gardening instead of creating via literature.

Cultiural Diversity and Transnationality in Baltic German Autobiografical Texts

Author(s): Tiiu Jaago / Language(s): English Issue: 157/2015

This article stems from the research of oral history and life stories in Estonia. While both stories and research studies made on the basis of stories at the end of the 20th century concentrated on the experience of the 20th-century events (World War II, mass repressions, life under the conditions of the Soviet authority, etc.), more and more attention is currently paid to the present day (multicultural environments, virtual communities, communication space of transnational families, etc.). The article observes, on the basis of Baltic German texts, life in a culturally diverse environment and transnational family in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. By means of text analysis, the authors’ subjective geographies are mapped and thereafter, their attitudes to one or the other territory and the cultural “other” are described. The question is, what is the common share of cultural diversity and transnationality in the past and in the present-day society; which factors favour this common share (mutual relationships of family members, existence of communication networks etc.) and which ones exclude it (historical-cultural features, like e.g. the existence of the class society).

Lõpuni elamatu elu - Aino Kallase biograafia

Author(s): Silja Vuorikuru / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 08-09/2017

In the 21st century, Aino Kallas has become one of the most famous female authors in Finnish literary studies. A traditional biography of Kallas had not, however, been published until now. An artist biography is nowadays a popular nonfiction genre. In recent years, various kinds of biographical questions and aspects have also become more popular in humanities research. In the new biography (called Aino Kallas. Maailman sydämessä, 2017), Aino Kallas is described as a Finnish-Estonian author, whose authorial figure is very different in Finland and in Estonia. Completely different literary works and themes of Kallas have been highlighted in Finnish and in Estonian research. Aino Kallas called Estonia „a country of my fate”. Her relationship towards Estonia was, however, ambivalent. In her literary career, Kallas did not want only to describe Estonian milieus and people. She constantly and consciously chose to write about other themes, too. Aino Kallas was sensitive to the social inequality of her own time and she devoted a lot of discussion to relevant themes and issues. An earlier impression about her as a self-conscious, even selfish artist is, thus, one-sided. Both in her journals and in her essays, Kallas writes about various social questions of her own time and interprets them in fresh ways.

Ahasveeruse tunnistus. Kirjanduslik palverännak kui eetiline kohustus Ene Mihkelsoni "Ahasveeruse unes"

Author(s): Aija Sakova / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 04/2018

Ene Mihkelson (1944-2017), one of the most philosophical authors in modern Estonian literature, has chosen the title of her novel Ahasveeruse uni (“The Sleep of Ahasuerus”) (2001) associating it with a figure from a medieval legend. The same figure occurs in the title of the story Ahasverus död (“The Death of Ahasuerus”), 1960, Estonian translation published in 1971) by Swedish Nobelist Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974) . While Mihkelson’s Ahasuerus sleeps or dreams (the Estonian word uni can mean either state of mind), Lagerkvist’s Ahasuerus is either dying or dead. Both titles are very intriguing as both word pairs are oxymoronic. According to a legend, Ahasuerus was a former shoemaker who came to be called Wandering Jew since he was deprived of the right to have a rest, let alone sleep or dream. Neither was he entitled to find peace in death as his task was to keep wandering around the world, telling people about the passion of the Christ right until His Second Coming, thus bringing Christianity nearer to infidels.The aim of the article is to analyse what kind of a testifier Ahasuerus is according to Ene Mihkelson’s novel and what his witness is about. The study sheds light on different aspects of the Ahasuerus legend as well as on some books dealing with the subject and bearing the name of Tallinn as their fictitious place of publication in the early 17th century, which is also mentioned in the novel. A comparative analysis of “The Sleep of Ahasuerus” by Ene Mihkelson and “The Death of Ahasuerus” by Pär Lagerkvist is focused on whether the existentialist memorial wanderings of the first-person narrators of the two books are absolutely necessary, and if so, then whether those wanderings are dominated by the retributive element, or rather by the feeling of being the chosen one.

Traditsioonist ja modernismist eesti sonetis

Author(s): Rebekka Lotman / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1/2019

The sonnet, like other forms of poetry that follow prescribed formal patterns, is also referred to as a classic or traditional poetic form. Nevertheless, during the periods of great changes in the poetic discourse, this traditional form has gained significant importance. It emerged during the modernist and vanguard era both in the age-old European poetic cultures and also in newer literary cultures like that in Estonia. There are two main reasons for this. The first lies in the strict rules of the sonnet, as every rule offers the possibility to bend it or even break it entirely. The other reason is in its vast popularity – from its birth in the 13th century, the Sicily sonnet has become the most often used prescribed poetic form in Western literature, and has given rise to many new poetic traditions and subgenres. The modernist schools of poetry have adopted this centuries-old and powerful symbol of traditional poetry to showcase within it their fresh ideas, subjectivity and renewed poetic devices. Thusly the tradition has been altered or even deconstructed within the tradition itself. The situation was, however, completely different in Estonian literature. The first Estonian-language sonnets were published in 1881 and by the time the first modernist sonnets emerged in Estonia in 1905 the Estonian sonnet tradition had yet to form. Therefore, Estonian modernist poets had a twofold task: both to create a sonnet tradition and then to break from it. The intention of this article is to expound the relationship between modernism and tradition in the Estonian sonnet with the aim of exploring the relativity of the very concepts of the tradition and modernism, and their dependence on the perspective.

Traditsioon ja avangard eesti kirjandusõpetuse kujunemisloos

Author(s): Katre Talviste / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1/2019

The paper discusses two traditions that developed in the Estonian literary pedagogy of the twentieth century. The first one concerns the structure of the subject matter. Literature was taught as two separate sub-disciplines, one of them being Estonian literature and the other covering other literatures using varying terms. The composition of this other field of study has varied over time. The early focus on the Western canon, with a diversifying preference for neighbour literatures as well as other Finno-Ugric literatures, was fueled by the national romanticist ideology. It was then forcibly replaced by a strong priority for Russian literature and other Soviet literatures during the Soviet occupation. This shift was in turn in the 1990s followed by restoration of former priorities and updating of the learning content. The second tradition is that of a strong preference for bio-historicist narratives as learning content. This tradition was inspired by the early twentieth-century literary scholarship and was necessitated by the conditions of the Estonian literary field at the time: a relative lack of available translations and the general public’s limited literary education. Focusing on narratives of literary history created a tendency to perceive literature as a field of positivist knowledge instead of interpretive competences and activities. The Soviet literary pedagogy perpetuated that tendency. Finally, the paper describes the efforts of the twenty-first-century curriculum development that aims to change these two traditions. The goal is to introduce an integral view of literature, and to develop teaching of interpretive skills and critical reading. These elements have so far depended mostly on individual teachers’ efforts, without sufficient systematic support from literary scholarship in the form of adequately adapted skillsets. It is important that the academic discipline renew its own perspectives in order to contribute to the development of such skillsets for general education.

Traditsioon ja avangard: lisandusi 1990. aastate kirjandusmuutustele

Author(s): Piret Viires / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1/2019

In 1990 three Estonian novels were published that have been connected to the prose innovation of the 1990s – Things in the Night (Öös on asju) by Mati Unt, Indigo by Peeter Sauter and Hot (Kuum) by Jaan Undusk. All these works differ from each other significantly; however, in various articles, literary histories and Estonian literary canon, they are considered as flagships of the Estonian literary upheaval of the 1990s. The article analyses the role of these works in the literary changes of the 1990s and discusses if and how these texts became part of the Estonian literary tradition during the 1990s and 2000s. The article discusses how the trends proceeding from Things in the Night and Indigo became part of the Estonian literary tradition and that several other authors followed their examples. Mati Unt’s Things in the Night was one of the first major representatives of postmodernism in Estonian literature and many writers continued this trend by creating postmodernist works in the 1990s and 2000s. Peeter Sauter’s Indigo was written using everyday colloquial speech, which was a new approach in Estonian literary language. Several younger authors in the 1990s and 2000s followed Sauter’s example, writing in colloquial language and using obscene words in their literary texts. However, Jaan Undusk’s Hot, which was stylistically rich, significantly intertextual and explicitly erotic, stood alone following its publication in 1990 and found no followers in the subsequent decades. One reason for this could be the fact that Undusk did not himself have any further novels published. The article concludes that of these three innovative novels, Things in the Night and Indigo became part of the Estonian literary tradition, while Jaan Undusk’s Hot, on the other hand, has remained in Estonian literary history as an example of innovative and avant-garde novel

Kunstiliste maailmade kehastamine Karl Ristikivi „Hingede öö” näitel

Author(s): Anneli Saro,Hedi-Liis Toome / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1/2019

The article explores embodiment as a process of perception, interpretation and co-creation of a literary world from the point of view of producer (director/performer) and receiver (reader/spectator/participant). Estonian classic novel Night of Souls by Karl Ristikivi and the participatory theatre project of the same title by Labyrinth Theatre Group G9 serve as the empirical material of the research. The article compares the literary work with the production and the perceptions of the novel and the production. The analysis relies on a close reading of the novel and on interviews with the producers and 20 spectators. Three forms of embodiment were detected. First, embodiment as a sensuous concretisation of a literary work, through which storyteller’s or main character’s bodily experiences are taken on by the reader/spectator, i.e. gradual immersion into a fictional world and identification with a character takes place. The second form is related to the embodiment of a textual/ fictional world on stage. In theatre theory, embodiment usually only depicts a relationship between a performer and his/her role, but in this article the term denotes materialisation of the whole fictional world. Thus staging is a specific process of perception, interpretation and co-creation that transforms a script into a stage production. The third form of embodiment is characteristic for participatory theatre, where spectators have the possibility to perform somebody in a fictional world or theatre game. The reception research of Night of Souls demonstrated that predominantly the spectators embodied themselves, i.e. a performation of individual existence was realised. Since open participatory theatre works enable receivers to fill gaps with their personal mental and psychical material, spectators interpreted the production either as an artistic environment/world, an exciting role play, a psychotherapeutic trip into personal worlds, or a metaphor for life pilgrimage. Embodiment as a research instrument highlights the embeddedness of body and soul in perception and cognition of an environment/the world. The main character of Night of Souls realises that analysis of singular objects is not reliable, especially when caught by a memory or existential space. Embodiment leads both the character and the reader or spectator to a holistic perception and cognition of the (fictional) world.

Ajalooline müüt Jaan Kaplinski draamas „Neljakuningapäev“

Author(s): Paavo Põldmäe / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1/2019

This paper examines the phenomenon of historical myth, presented in the form of a piece of theatre. Jaan Kaplinski’s historical and allegorical drama Day of the Four Kings is presented as a prime example. The play is based on a well-known historical event, namely the brutal murder of ancient Estonian chiefs by German conquerors during the rebellion of 1343 (St. George’s Night Rebellion). As Estonian theatre researcher Piret Kruuspere has noted, during the 1970s, re-tellings of national history on the Estonian theatre stage were clothed in metaphors, allusions and secret codes – Aesopian language. In addition to this secret code, the author of Day of the Four Kings used a kind of doubling, placing historical events into the setting of a contemporary house party. This change of perspective causes some degree of alienation as well as amplifies the essential allegorical message of the drama. Representing the real run of historical events, the play is effectively communicating with a contemporary audience, dealing with the problems and themes closely connected with contemporary society. In addition to its allegorical meaning, the play underlines the importance of maintaining ethnical and archaic values and warns against sacrificing these in return for short-time utilitarian purposes. The allegory of the play was even too obvious, so that the first production of the play (in 1977) was practically banned by the official powers of Soviet Estonia. Contrary to the first stage performance of the play, the second attempt – which took place a decade later – was an unfortunate example of the disappearance of the mythical dimension of the drama. This kind of poor production was no longer able to overcome the historical-cultural and national psychological contradictions inherent in the play. The analysis is mainly based on reviews of the play from the period as well as the social and cultural conditions in existence when the theatrical versions were staged. It is easy to conclude that during the process of producing this kind of stage play, it is far more fruitful to accent all kind of allusions and allegorical metaphors than to simply follow the formal development of the external plot. If the mythical dimension disappears, the message of the play loses its essential meaning.

On Cultural Contacts and their Impact on Literature in Tallinn

Author(s): Aigi Heero / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The present paper describes the literary field in Tallinn in the early modern period, specifically the early 1630s.1 It was a time when several cultural innovations reached this region (via social carriers as well as via the book trade). Hereby, the professors of the newly founded gymnasium (1631) played a crucial role. Thanks to these scholars completely new genres (such as the autobiography) are documented. Furthermore, new core texts were introduced, which had a huge impact on further cultural developments in Tallinn and in Northern Estonia: the formation of German-language (occasional) poetry and the emergence of Estonian-language literary culture.

Ričardas Gavelis’ Paranoid Guide to Post-Soviet Vilnius

Author(s): Ramūnas Čičelis / Language(s): English Issue: 76/2021

The aim of this article is to analyze the relationship that the protagonist of Ričardas Gavelis’ novel “Sun-Tzu’s Life in the Holy City of Vilnius” has to the place, as well as his own paranoid character in post-Soviet reality. Taking into account the previous studies of Gavelis’ work, the article applies the theory of topophilic analysis – which has not been used so far to understand the writer’s oeuvre – that French literary scholar Gaston Bachelard and his follower Denis Sobolev have developed, along with the methodology that post-modern psychoanalysis (mainly Slavoj Žižek) offers, which allows us to arrive at a number of propositions that significantly complement the literary treatment of the writer’s last piece. The Lithuanian writer Ričardas Gavelis is best known to readers in the Western world as the author of the novel “Vilnius Poker”. According to many reviewers of the book and numerous scholars who have studied it in Lithuania and other countries, this work is a phantasmagoric epic of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, in the late Soviet and early post-Soviet eras. Gavelis still represents, and is identified in Lithuania and in post-Soviet space with, a specific type of author who is characterized by isolation from social life, lockdown in his own home, and writing based on his previous experience of self-isolation and inwardness. This kind of writer does not maintain any communication with the outside world and, in a sense, is antisocial – but at the same time, he does not lack the ambition to make his life meaningful by writing and to write into a literary history that may one day recognize such an author as a classic.

Üksinduse maastikud Milan Kundera, Bohumil Hrabali ja Mati Undi teostes: “Olemise talumatu kergus”, “Liiga vali üksindus”, “Sügisball”

Author(s): Emma Lotta Lõhmus / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 83/2022

The feeling of loneliness, the topicality of which is gradually increasing in time, requires more and more different approaches for understanding it. Fiction is one of the possible ways to untangle this feeling in a versatile, poetic manner. The writer Milan Kundera in his novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, Bohumil Hrabal in his story “Too Loud a Solitude”, and Mati Unt in his novel “Autumn Ball” have discussed loneliness from different angles, which, put together, enable us to build up a broad picture of this controversial feeling. As the research method, close reading and text analysis were used. The article introduces the psychological concept of loneliness and its types and analyses the literary works based on American philosopher Rubin Gotesky’s classification of loneliness. The article aims to find out what types of loneliness are discussed in the books and in what way they are manifested. All the books analysed in the article present situations and trains of thoughts in which the presence of loneliness is clearly perceivable. However, the border between the different types of loneliness is somewhat blurred. All these works include situations in which both forced and existential loneliness are present. There are also cases of intertwining physical and voluntary loneliness, but these are not the only combinations. Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” presents the greatest number of philosophical ideas related to loneliness; in Hrabal’s story “Too Loud a Solitude” successive abandonments in human relationships can clearly be noticed, and in Unt’s “Autumn Ball” the urban space bursting with existential loneliness enforces itself at the very beginning, casting a shadow on all the characters and their performance. Each of these works refers to loneliness both in a positive and negative key and the characters are often controversial.

Luuletaja ilmumine

Author(s): Viivi Luik / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 01/2012

Omaenese inimese- ja luuletajakogemuse põhjal võin kinnitada: jah, luule väljendab tõepoolest seda, mis mõistuspäraselt peaks olema keele abil väljendamatu, võimatu. jah, luules võib võimatu võimalikuks saada. siin peaks muidugi arvesse võtma seda, et enamik tekste, mis teesklevad luuletusi, ei ole luule, sest neis puudub see kaasahaarav jõud ja intensiivsus, ilma milleta jääb tekst surnud tekstiks. surnuist ülestõusmise müsteeriumi ei toimu, silda inimesest inimeseni ei ehitata.

BYĆ I BYĆ ESTOŃCZYKIEM, NIE BYĆ SUBALTERNEMO BOHATERACH PROZY HISTORYCZNEJ JAANA KROSSA UWAG KILKA

Author(s): Andrzej Polak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 33/2023

The aim of this article is to analyze three works by Estonian writer Jaan Kross by taking into account postcolonial research (Between Three Plagues, Mi c h e l s o n’s Matriculation and Stones from Heaven).In all of them, the main characters, who are of Estonian origin, do a lot to give themselves and their compatriots subjectiv-ity, and thus free themselves from the position of a person dominated by invaders and colonizers. These characters try to speak in their own voice; they want to stop being subalterns. In these stories, the role of the colonizers is played primarily by the German-speaking population, and to a lesser extent by the Russians. Although the action is set in three different centuries, the problems faced by Estonians are similar and are related to political, civilizational and cultural subordination.

Ühe Tuhkatriinu lugu. Luule(kogu) käsitlemine eesti kirjandusõpetuses

Author(s): Marie Udam,Joosep Susi,Merilyn Meristo / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 11/2023

Luuleõpetuse klassik Michael Benton (1978: 114) märkis pea poole sajandi eest tabavalt, et luuleõpetus on inglise keele ja kirjanduse ainekava Tuhkatriinu. Tuhkatriinu metafoor avab üllatavalt täpselt ka luule praeguse asendi Eesti kirjandusõpetuses ja laiemalt hariduseski: rikkalik pedagoogilis-poeetiline potentsiaal jääb kasutamata, poeesia tundub hämar ja eemaletõukav, nii et lihtsam oleks selle ees sootuks silm kinni pigistada. Meenub ühe noore pedagoogi naljatlev vastus mõne aasta taguses intervjuus, mis uuris algajate õpetajate töökoormust: kui hakata luulekoguga õpilasele lähenema, pistab viimane kohemaid plagama (Palk 2020: 42).

Dekadents kui ambivalentside esteetika. Segunemised ja sünteesid

Author(s): Mirjam Hinrikus,Jaan Undusk / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1-2/2024