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Vastuoluline kaasajakujutus stalinismiaja proosas. Koosoleku motiiv

Author(s): Inga Sapunjan / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 4/2021

Stalinist literature has not received much attention from the aesthetic viewpoint. True, this could not even be expected of the criticism of the time, but a certain inconsistency can hardly escape the eye of today’s reader. The reason probably lies in the internal contradiction of socialist realism – the incompatibility of realistic vs romantic or utopian modality. Things were required to be depicted at once as they were and as they should or would be in the future. The article is focused on the depiction of meeting as one of the recurring motives in stories set in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Here the contradiction is in that the relatively realistic and democratic portrayals of meetings evolve into a utopistic unanimity of the so-called workpeople’s democracy, which is seen as the democratic ideal of the bright future. Such transition is accounted for by the dialectic of spontaneity and consciousness as a subtext of the social realist masterplot: in the course of the meeting the volatile force of the working people is transformed into a conscious Soviet-minded citizenship. Although the elaboration of the subtext can clearly be followed, the emphasis tends to shift from a convincing portrayal of the characters to that of the main character’s leadership. In this way, many a meeting in artistic representation (as an abstraction of social relations) unintentionally discloses its authoritarian essence.

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„Kuid kirjanike liit pole seni veel kõiki suutnud liita ühiseks pereks”. Lisandusi Eesti Nõukogude Kirjanike Liidu asutamise loole aastatel 1943–1946

Author(s): Tõnu Tannberg / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 7/2021

A survey is given of how the Estonian Soviet Writers Union was created and developed as a Sovietized creative organization and how the final formation of its membership took place from 1943–1946. Special attention is paid to the Board meeting of the ES Writers Union (22.12.1945) and the general meeting of Soviet Estonian writers (30.12.1945) as key events of the process. The membership formation of the Estonian Soviet Writers Union as a Soviet-minded creative association started in 1942 in Soviet rear, when four leading writers were accepted as members of the Union of Soviet Writers, which united writers from all over the Soviet Union. The founding conference of the Estonian Soviet Writers Union, which took place in Moscow in 1943, granted membership to nine writers, followed by four more the following year. Thus the new union exited the Soviet rear with 17 members. The writers who had remained in Estonia during the war were not immediately admitted to the organization after Soviet re-occupation of Estonia in 1944, but they were registered as candidates for membership. Only at the end of 1945 the merger of the two groups into a single membership with equal rights was completed. On December 30th, at the general meeting of Soviet Estonian writers, that membership elected full-staffed governing bodies of the union. This was the consummation of the process in progress since the very first year of Soviet power in Estonia (1940-1941) leading to a full Sovietization of the Estonian Soviet Writers Union. Another important point in the agenda of the 30th December general meeting was the change of the chairman of the ES Writers Union: August Jakobson was replaced by Johannes Semper. This administrative change was orchestrated by Nigol Andresen, then responsible for the management of the whole Estonian culture, who blamed the previous board for a failure in effectively launching the union, the implementation of its ideological reform and its involvement in serving the new authorities. The new chairman Johannes Semper was rather a representative figure, while practical management of the union became the responsibility of its vice-chairman Mart Raud and its secretary Paul Viiding. The knotty personal relationships and rivalry did not make things easier for anybody. The settling of accounts and taking sides after A. Jakobson’s removal in December 1945 had lasting ramifications. The confrontation (both behind the scenes and public) lingered for many years significantly affecting personal destinies as well as further developments in Soviet Estonian literary life.

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Täiendust XVII sajandi Eesti luulele

Author(s): Jaak Urmet,Kristi Viiding / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 10/2021

The article introduces four 17th-century poems belonging to Estonian literary history, which were discovered at the beginning of 2021 by literary researcher Jaak Urmet in the course of a systematic study of the hitherto digitized prints and manuscripts in the libraries and archives of Germany, Latvia, Denmark and some other nearby countries. Two of the four are authored by Reiner Brockmann: a nuptial poem in Latin, published in Germany in 1632, and a congratulatory poem in German, published in 1654 as dedicated to Georg Mancelius, who is remembered, inter alia, by his contribution to the development of literary Latvian. In addition, there was an Estonian couplet by Joachim Salemann, published in the album amicorum of his fellow student Adolph Saubert in 1654, and an anonymous Estonian congratulatory poem for the Master’s promotion of Eberhard Eckholtz, published in 1682 and attributed to Johann Hornung by the present study. Apart from biographical and genre contextualization of the poems and a linguistic analysis of the Estonian poems, the German and Latin original poems are provided with Estonian verse translations, whilst Salemann’s Estonian verses are subjected to a modern transpoetization.

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Veel Joachim Salemanni eestikeelsest paarisvärsist

Author(s): Enn Ernits / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 12/2021

Hiljuti avaldasid kirjandusteadlased Jaak Urmet ja Kristi Viiding huvipakkuva kirjutise XVII sajandi Eesti luule uutest leidudest. Artikkel põhineb esimesena mainitud autori süsteemsetel otsingutel välismaa arhiividest. Iga värsirea avastamine sellest perioodist on hindamatu väärtusega nii kirjandus- kui ka keeleteaduse jaoks. Muude põnevate leidude hulgas pakub tõsist huvi hilisema Oleviste kiriku pastori ja Eestimaa piiskopi Joachim Salemanni (1629-1701) põhjaeestikeelne paarisvärss aastast 1654. See avastati kreeka- ja ladinakeelse teksti hulgast ja oli kirjutatud kaasüliõpilase Adolf Sauberti (1635-1678) reisialbumisse. Paraku pole kirjutises paarisvärsi keeleline analüüs lõpuni veenev.

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Mitmekeelsus eesti luules

Author(s): Liina Lukas,Saara Lotta / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 8-9/2022

Apart from Estonian, some other language – from local dialects to major languages such as German and Russian – has usually been spoken in parallel on the Estonian territory. As a result, the literary culture of the local (small) language came to evolve in dense contact with some foreign literatures and cultures. However, there is still no thorough analysis of how the historical change in the linguistic situation manifests itself in Estonian literature. The aim of our article is to draw attention to the multilingual nature of the Estonian literary field by giving a historical survey of the relations, contacts and intertwining of the languages used in Estonian poetry from the 17th century to the present. To reflect the multiple facets of multilingualism revealed in poetry we mainly use a four-level approach based on Jaan Undusk’s typology of Estonian-German cultural contacts, adding literary field as the fifth level covering whatever is left over. Thus, we treat multilingualism as a phenomenon observable within a language, text, author, and the literary field. In terms of this study, intralinguistic multilingualism means language mixing in otherwise monolingual poetry, intratextual multilingualism refers to abrupt transitions from one language to another (code switching) within a text, while author multilingualism assumes a multilingual poet. Multilingualism within the literary field covers, apart from the phenomena just mentioned, literary subfields in different language variants (e.g. literature created in South Estonian, or Russian, but on the Estonian territory). First, we will survey multilingualism in Estonia poetry before the Republic of Estonian was established in 1918, concluding that German being the major culture language up to the beginning of the 20th century, all poets, whatever their ethnicity, must have been fluent in two (or more) languages. The next period analysed spans the 20th century. The local Estonian poetry of the Soviet period stands out, with a few exceptions, for an consistent use of the Estonian language, while some of the expatriate poets would also use English or Swedish. Third, we analyse contemporary poetry, where multilingualism is manifested not only by the use of local minority languages but also by intertwinings with English, Chinese or Japanese, thus giving evidence of an open society. Based on the picture emerging from the article we can say that apart from a historical overview the multilingualism of Estonian poetry also needs a closer poetic analysis.

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Liikumine allikate poole

Author(s): Janika Kronberg / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 12/2022

Review of: Aivar Kull. August Gailit. Lahtiste allikate poole. (Eesti kirjanikke.) Tartu: Ilmamaa, 2022. 400 lk.

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Naisfiloloogi naeruväärsus ja ebamugavus hilisnõukogude Eesti kultuuris

Author(s): Johanna Ross / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1-2/2023

The article looks at the figure of the woman philologist in the 1970s–1980s Soviet Estonia. Although philology (defined as the study of language, literature, and folklore) was itself a reputable discipline, the character of the woman philologist stands out as ridiculous in the literary fiction of the era. She is depicted as an embittered, aging single woman who has failed to create a nuclear family and is disappointed in her career. The analysis underlines the motif of sexual coldness: male authors (Oskar Kruus, Mihkel Mutt, Juhan Viiding) ridicule women philologists as frigid, whereas texts by women authors (Ene Mihkelson, Ann Must, Aino Pervik) subtly convey a sense of being bound by “forced open-mindedness.”Patterns identified in literary prose are compared with interviews conducted with seven women who studied philology at the University of Tartu during the period in question. The interviewees mostly had families and enjoyed their job, so did not identify with the literary characters in this respect; rather, they pointed out difficulties with reconciling work and family life. In general, they denied being ridiculed or ill-treated due to their gender. However, their accounts expose notable gender disparities, such as the fact that most professors and other socially recognized philologists were men.It is concluded that in literary works by male authors, the woman philologist became a metonym for several demographic problems also discussed in contemporary print media: changing gender roles, gender gaps in education, divorces, falling birth rates. The motif of “forced open-mindedness” in works by female authors is interpreted as expressing discomfort with women’s role as a friend and muse. Although gender roles and women’s emancipation were a hot topic in late Soviet print media, the flesh and blood women philologists that were interviewed perceived this as something irrelevant to their personal lives. This, as well as the „forced open-mindedness,” seems to indicate that the language used to address these topics proved insufficient for many women.

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Inimene kui looduslik keha

Author(s): Epp Annus / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1-2/2023

People develop their sense of self partly as a social self-consciousness, but also through the way their immediate perceptual world registers upon consciousness. This primary place perception of the self is, at the same time, inseparable from the circulation of ideas within culture more broadly. This article considers the relationship between a sense of self and the natural environment during the Soviet period, as it appears in the fiction and nonfiction of that era. More particularly, the article analyzes the role of the natural environment in cultural consciousness, viewing it in the context of the global sphere of ideas and the behavioural patterns of the time. The self is understood not as a closed and fixed set of characteristics, but as a relational space where different factors are constantly creating and recreating the self-consciousness of the subject. In support of this reading, the article develops a multiscalar model of naturecultural selfhood.The first part of the article focuses on perception-based selfhood and its representation in Estonian literature, while the second gives an outline of the main aspects of environmental thought and environmental issues of the time and builds on the notion of a perception-based selfhood to conceptualize a multiscalar, perception- and idea-based selfhood. The discussion touches upon Jaan Kruusvall’s short story “Sorcerer’s Bread” (Sortsi leib), Teet Kallas’s short story “The Death of a Dog” (Koera suremine), Mats Traat’s novel “Pasqueflower, a Cure of Sadness” (Karukell, kurvameelsuse rohi), Edgar Kase’s auto-ethnographic “Road to Tranquility. Muraka Wetland Complex” (Tee vaikusesse. Muraka soostik), and Jaan Kaplinski’s essays. Kaplinski traces the relationship between selfhood and the living environment back to childhood: the self is based on a child’s sensuous experience of place. Kruusvall and Traat bring a literary focus on the intensification of place-attachment that leads to the recognition of one’s “true self,” or the feeling of being completely one with the surrounding world.From the late 1960s, discussions of environmental ethics in Estonia come to refer to the moral philosophy of Albert Schweitzer and the cautionary modelings of the future offered by the Club of Rome. Schweitzer’s environmental ethics binds the selfhood constructed from the experience of one’s own environment with a sense of global responsibility and the idea of oneness with all life.

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Isegi udu oli neile teada ehk boreaalsete rahvaste jutte

Author(s): Ott Heinapuu / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 5/2023

Review of: Ilmaveere jutud. Valik põlisrahvaste pajatusi. Ymber pannud ja takka kiitnud: Nuga Soopealt (Lauri Sommer). Kaarnakivi Seltsi Kirjastus, 2023. 270 lk.

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Kamen’ i trava di Jurij Lotman: traduzione e lettura critica

Author(s): Emilio Mari / Language(s): Italian Issue: 62/2019

Uscito postumo nel 1995 sul primo Lotmanovskij sbornik, il saggio Kam en’ i trava (La pietra e l’erba) appartiene a quella categoria di scritti lotmaniani, alcuni dei quali già noti da tempo al lettore italiano, capaci di coniugare in modo originale storia letteraria, semiotica della cultura e “poetica” del comportamento quotidiano. Nel caso del testo qui presentato, parte di una mai ultimata cronaca del byt nobiliare pietroburghese dei secoli XIX e XX, il discorso è arricchito da una convergenza altrettanto feconda: esso si inserisce infatti in quel cospicuo filone di ricerca che, muovendo a sua volta dal lavoro svolto dalla scuola semiotica di Tartu-Mosca nei primi anni Ottanta, ha teso a considerare il paesaggio urbano, nei suoi aspetti enunciativi/strutturali (l’architettura), ricettivi/percettivi (il byt, le pratiche quotidiane e festive, etc.) e descrittivi/mitopoietici (l’arte, la letteratura, il folklore, etc.), come una forma, seppur iperstratificata e “polilogica”, di testualità.

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Jurij Lotman, La pietra e l'erba

Author(s): Emilio Mari / Language(s): Italian Issue: 62/2019

Alla base della struttura del byt v’è una contraddizione originaria che nell’araldica in particolare si è espressa nell’antitesi fra il nero e il verde. Si tratta dell’opposizione fra due simboli costitutivi: la pietra e l’erba. Tale simbologia è alla base della contrapposizione fra la vita di città e la vita di campagna, la casa e il campo, la cultura e la natura. Questi simboli hanno assorbito diversi strati della semantica geografica, sociale e storica. Essi si sono sviluppati in piramidi semantiche: da un lato in modo antitetico, dall’altro assumendo un senso in reciproca contrapposizione e non in modo isolato. Da questa base nasceva storicamente l’unione-opposizione, il rapporto di amore-odio fra la cultura urbana e la cultura rurale. Nei momenti di acuta tensione sociale questi tipi di cultura non si sono solo scontrati o a malapena sopportati. Nel byt nobiliare, ad esempio, si manifestava chiaramente la volontà di introdurre in campagna il byt urbano e in città quello rurale. L’espressione architettonica di ciò erano i palazzi suburbani e i parchi cittadini.

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Juhan Liiv’s Comprehension of Poetry

Author(s): Tanar Kirs / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Juhan Liiv (1864-1913) is considered to be the first important innovator of Estonian poetry. So far, it has been underlined in Estonian culture that Liiv lacked any ties with world literature and thus world literature had no role to play in the birth of the innovation of Estonian poetry. In this article, I am showing that Liiv’s comprehension of poetry is closely tied to German poetic culture. These connections arise from Liiv’s essays, which have not been studied so far. I analyse Liiv’s essay Ääremärkused (Marginalia) and formulate the main theses in his comprehension of poetry

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Naisproosakirjanikud kultuuriloos ja tänapäeva eesti kultuuriteadvuses

Author(s): Eve Annuk / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 8-9/2023

This article explores a number of factors that have shaped the understanding of the role of women prose writers in Estonian literary history and in contemporary cultural consciousness. Little attention has been paid to the works of women prose writers in literary history, and the cultural consciousness contains myths and stereotypes about women authors which upon closer examination prove unfounded. According to the common perception, women’s strong suit is poetry, whereas in the realm of prose, the creative output of male authors is afforded greater importance. This perspective has sometimes been used to justify the limited attention given to the works of women prose writers. However, the role of women prose writers in Estonian literary history can also be seen from a different angle by asking whether they should indeed be consigned to a more modest place in literary history compared to male authors and what the reasons for this might be. The creative output of women prose writers has highlighted themes and perspectives that do not always align with what is considered “important”, especially in the context of the national narrative, which emphasises the national subject and is implicitly male-oriented. The visibility of women authors in the cultural field is also shaped by the literary institution and its participants, as well as the literary canon, which has included few women. Geopolitical factors, i.e. different social systems, also influence the cultural consciousness. The Soviet period, in particular, shaped entrenched perceptions of authors through ideological pressure, the effects of which can still be felt. Since the works of women prose writers from the first half of the 20th century have not been extensively studied, the exploration of the reasons behind the marginalization of women prose writers remains largely ahead.

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Moodne daam 1910. aastate naiskirjanduses

Author(s): Johanna Ross / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 8-9/2023

This article examines the portrayal of socially active modern urban women in Marta Sillaots’s novellas “Juta” (1912) and “Anna Holm” (1913), as well as in Alide Ertel’s short story collection “The Modern Lady” (Moodne daam, 1919/1920). The characters are analyzed within the framework of the “New Woman”, as surveys sort both Sillaots’s and Ertel’s early works under the theme of women’s emancipation, without acknowledging that they depict emancipated women in a negative light. Such women are characterized by a pursuit of independence, cultural interests, and creativity; mostly, they appear sympathetic at first. However, the authors’ ultimate judgment of these women’s aspirations is one of disapproval – they turn out to be nothing but frivolous socialites. The article contextualizes these characters within earlier depictions of emancipated women in Estonian literature and examines the social and cultural factors that may have motivated this kind of literary portrayal. It is concluded that the authors in question were drawn to the image of an independent woman, but in the 1910s Estonia, a broadly suitable social space did not yet exist for such an image, nor had fitting literary plots been established. This led to an ambiguity surrounding these characters. A particularly vivid example is Sillaots’s character Juta, who appears in two novellas and is initially developed as an extraordinary, decadent female figure. She possesses a lively imagination and an independent mindset, while also functioning as a morbidly passive observer; she is interested in the sciences of the mind and conducts psychological experiments on both herself and others. However, as there seems to be no clear path for such a character, she is relegated to the status of a peripheral cautionary figure, a dollfaced socialite, in the later text. Similarly, Ertel’s short story protagonists have no other outlet besides trivial social life. The analyzed characters deviate from the traditional monogamous heterosexual marriage – a defining point for the New Woman, which, however, upon closer examination often proves a tragic necessity rather than a mark of independence. As such, the portrayal of the modern lady exemplifies the tensions within the category of the New Woman: neither the characters nor the authors are entirely certain what a woman’s role should be in the contemporary urban society; which behaviors should be considered bold and independent, and which ones should be seen as moral laxity or meaningless social provocation.

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„Kui ilusasti on Jumal mind loonud, et ma tohin eestlane olla.” Lapsepõlveprojektsioone naisautorite 1930. aastate teise poole realistlikus lasteproosas

Author(s): Mari Niitra / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 8-9/2023

The period of Estonian independence between 1918 and 1940 was also a prolific time for Estonian children’s literature: various genres evolved and books were being published vigorously. However, works from that period have received relatively little attention from researchers. This article focuses on realistic children’s fiction written by women in the second half of the 1930s, known as the authoritarian Era of Silence. Characteristically of the era, there were public debates on whether children’s literature should depict reality in an idealized way or handle problematic aspects as well. In this article, I have analyzed how childhood and the conditions of children’s upbringing are depicted in these works, as well as how societal and educational expectations are reflected in them. The range of families portrayed in these stories varies from orphaned children and poor families to modern, well off households. Recurring themes are the importance of education as the key to a better future and overcoming poverty. Rural life is idealized and essential connections with country life are always emphasized. On the one hand, these works depict the growing up of first generation urban intellectuals who fled the harsh conditions and poverty of countryside, but on the other hand, it is considered important to introduce children to rural life as something “genuinely Estonian”. For example, children working as herders during the summer vacation is a recurring motif. The books reflect the intellectual debates of the time which sought a balance between tradition and modernization, even seeing modern urban life as a certain threat to national identity. Children are associated with the nation’s future, hence the exemplary moral attitudes of the characters and their willingness to assume the role of either a civil or war hero.

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Meeleheide ja morbiidne vitaalsus Djuna Barnesi „Öömetsas” ja Reed Morni „Andekas parasiidis”

Author(s): Raili Marling / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 8-9/2023

This article focuses on American writer Djuna Barnes’s novel “Nightwood” (1936) and Estonian writer Reed Morn’s novel “The Talented Parasite” (Andekas parasiit, 1927). Specifically, the article analyses how the two novels represent bodies, affects and materiality, relying on the notion of affective modernism (Taylor 2012). English language modernist texts have been frequently portrayed as aiming for impersonality and the rejection of emotions and sentiment. Authors like Julie Taylor have challenged this assumption, demonstrating the presence of emotions, drives and sensations in modernist texts. New research on modernism has shown modernist texts both portraying and theorizing bodies (Watts et al. 2019), discussing the relationship between the human and the nonhuman (Ryan 2015) as well as the Anthropocene (Adkins 2022). This article focuses on affects and senses, in particular the way affects move between bodies, being simultaneously creative and disruptive (Taylor 2012: 1). Both authors analyzed here employ affective ambivalence (Taylor 2012: 2). The article uses Tim Clarke’s (2021) concept of morbid vitalism to analyse how the two novels engage with a central problem of modernity: how to live in the context of despair. This question is viewed from a gendered perspective. The article builds on Taylor’s and Clarke’s analysis of Barnes, enriching their interpretations with insights from other scholars to bring the notion of affective modernism into the study of Estonian literature. The analysis shows that Barnes’s novel provides an excellent example of morbid vitalism, showing recognizable affective tensions between life and death, felt especially keenly in the social margins where gender trouble does not permit characters to identify with normative social fantasies. Marginality becomes a privilege that permits the characters to see the contradictions in ideologies promising coherent subjected and to create modes of being that are oriented towards death while remaining open to the presence of others. The morbidity of Morn’s novel does not come to a similar understanding of affects and embodiment or embrace the vital potential of morbidity. “Nightwood” challenges the binary gender system, while “The Talented Parasite” fails to break out of the culturally prescribed internalized misogyny.

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Multilingualism in Estonian Poetry

Author(s): Saara Lotta Linno,Liina Lukas / Language(s): English Issue: 90/2023

Apart from Estonian, some other languages – from local dialects to major languages such as German and Russian – have usually also been spoken on the territory of Estonia. As a result, the literary culture of the local (small) language evolved in close contact with some foreign literatures and cultures. However, there is still no thorough analysis of how the historical change in the linguistic situation manifests itself in Estonian literature. Our article aims to draw attention to the multilingual nature of the Estonian literary field by giving a historical survey of the relations, contacts, and intertwining of the languages used in Estonian poetry from the 17th century to the present. To reflect the multiple facets of multilingualism revealed in poetry we mainly use a four-level approach partly based on Jaan Undusk’s typology of Estonian–German cultural contacts, adding the literary field as the level covering whatever is left. Thus, we treat multilingualism as a phenomenon observable within a language, text, author, and literary field. In terms of this study, intralinguistic multilingualism means language mixing in otherwise monolingual poetry, while intratextual multilingualism refers to abrupt transitions from one language to another (code-switching) within a text, and author multilingualism assumes a multilingual poet. Apart from the phenomena just mentioned, multilingualism within literature covers literary subfields in different language variants (for example literature created in South Estonian or Russian, but on Estonian territory). First, we will survey multilingualism in Estonia poetry before the Republic of Estonian was established in 1918, concluding that because German was the major cultural language up to the beginning of the 20th century, all poets, whatever their ethnicity, must have been fluent in two (or more) languages. The second period analysed spans the 20th century. The local Estonian poetry of the Soviet period stands out, with a few exceptions, for consistent use of Estonian, while some expatriate poets would also use English or Swedish. Third, we analyse contemporary poetry, where multilingualism is manifested not only by the use of local minority languages but also through intertwinings with English, Chinese or Japanese, thus giving evidence of an open society. Based on the picture emerging from the article we can say that apart from a historical overview, the multilingualism of Estonian poetry also needs closer poetic analysis.

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Eesti nõukogude loojak

Author(s): Märt Väljataga / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1-2/2024

This essay explores the emergence and evolution of a literary and artistic trend in Soviet Estonia from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. During this period, young philologists, poets, artists and essayists re-discovered the decadence of the fin-desiècle and its Estonian expressions as a significant source of inspiration. Generally, in the official Soviet jargon, ‘decadence’ was a highly derogatory term, used during Stalin’s rule to stigmatize all of Western bourgeois culture. Consequently, patriotic scholars, even in the face of easing circumstances, were hesitant to associate early 20th century artists with decadence, as that would have meant condemning them. By the late 1970s, the atmosphere had liberalized enough to make engaging with the motifs and attitudes of decadence less perilous. This shift also provided a means to counter the activism of the 1960s generation, whether loyal to the authorities or dissident. In 1978, Germanist Linnar Priimägi marked the initial steps of the neo-decadence trend with the theoretical manifesto “Decadence as a Cognitive Constant” and the generational manifesto “Tartu Autumn”, co-written with art historian Ants Juske. The former text associated decadence with the appreciation of dispassionate beauty, while the latter expressed refined indolence as the main characteristic of the young generation. References to the decadents of the early 20th century became common among the younger generation of poets, including Doris Kareva, Aado Lintrop, Indrek Hirv, Ilmar Trull, and Hasso Krull. This was accompanied by the rehabilitation of Estonian and Russian decadence in academic literary studies. The emergence of the neo-decadence trend may be attributed to late-Soviet social fatigue and stagnation, the generational desire to distinguish from the dominant 1960s generation, and the growing influence of postmodernism as a departure from the international constructivist and austere style of high modernism. Contemporary criticism occasionally discussed signs of Stoicism, Skepticism, and Epicureanism in culture, sometimes drawing parallels between the emerging postmodernism and Hellenistic imperial culture.

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Udu tiheneb

Author(s): Leo Luks / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1-2/2024

Review of: Andrei Ivanov. Hämariku melanhoolia. Vene keelest tõlkinud Veronika Einberg. Varrak, 2023. 375 lk.

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Faktijutustus XVII sajandil Eestimaa rüütelkonna protokollide narratoloogiline struktuur

Author(s): Martin Antonius Klöker / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 5/2024

To date, there has been hardly any scholarly consideration of minutes (Protokoll) and reports (Bericht) as narrative texts with poetic potential, especially in 17th-century literature. In preparation for an edition of the minutes, this article is dedicated to an initial analysis of the minutes written by Caspar Meyer, secretary of the corporation of Estonian nobility (Estländische Ritterschaft) from 1634 to 1653. The analysis comprises several aspects: a preliminary look at definitions is followed by a discussion of the emergence of minutes as a combination of different text forms (e.g., records of meetings, travel reports, court verdicts, letters) in the presumably immediate draft transcript and the subsequent carefully crafted fair copy. It then outlines the narrative means and structures used to construct the lifeworld of the corporation of Estonian nobility in the protocol as a factual narrative. Particular attention is paid to the author of the protocol and his representation in the narrative. The strict requirements of brevity, neutrality, and reliability in representing reality severely limited the author’s options, but allow an illuminating insight into the means of constructing self-narratives, as the author is also a protagonist in the Baltic lifeworld (baltische Lebenswelt) of his time.

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