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The Adriatic-Baltic Transversal: Danilo Kiš Through the Prism of Baltic Writing on Essentialism and Diversity

Author(s): John K. Cox / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The purpose of this paper will be to compare the ideas of one highly regarded southeast European writer, Danilo Kiš (1935–1989) of Yugoslavia, with those of some leading writers and thinkers from the Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. My analysis will center on the vague concepts of “identity” and “national culture”. I will explore, by reference to the many essays and interviews of Danilo Kiš, concrete topics such as essentialism and linguistic and ethnic diversity and look for parallels or contrast in the works of some Baltic writers. These thoughts will, I hope, spark a discussion based on sources broader than those that I command about what terms such as identity and national culture actually mean and how they effect the production, or reputation, of writers. It should also be possible to look at some issues relating to cultural translation in Kiš, because he grew up in the contested border area between Hungary and Serbia, was the product of an ethnically and religiously mixed marriage, and translated and taught internationally for much of his life.

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J. Randvere’s “Ruth” (1909) as an Example of Literary Decadence and the Quintessence of Young Estonia’s (1905–1915) Modern Ideology

Author(s): Mirjam Hinrikus / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

This article is based on the interpretation of a segment of the reception of J. Randvere’s provocative, short essay-novella “Ruth” (1909), which was written by Johannes Aavik, a well-known Young Estonian and one of the principal modernizers of the Estonian language. This segment of reception regards “Ruth” as the quintessence of Young Estonia’s ideology, but does not offer a full explanation of how this ideology in “Ruth” is associated, on the one hand, with Young Estonians’ ambitions in modernizing Estonian literature and, on the other, with the broader fin de siècle European culture. I shall ask through which discourses does this ideology, which is innovative in the context of Estonian culture at the beginning of the 20th century, express itself in “Ruth”? What imaginations, representations and associations appear in “Ruth” in relation to the Young Estonian program, which interweaves tradition and/ or Estonian national-mindedness on the one hand, and Europeannes and/or modern ideas on the other. Or who are these Europeans and Estonians with whom Young Estonians wish to identify? Although Young Estonian ideology in “Ruth” has mostly been associated with connotations of decadence like “a culture of individuality”, “artificiality” and “aestheticism”, I will argue that in “Ruth” counter-discourses also come to the forefront. In other words, “Ruth” becomes the quintessence of the Young Estonia ideology, because it serves as a metaphoric counterpart to the Young Estonians’ program: “let us be Estonians, but let us become Europeans”. Through the reproduction of decadent discourse, which is in this text in the dominant position, “Ruth” oscillates between the ambivalent valorizations of signs of health (norms) and disease or decadence (deviation from the norms), accompanied, on the one hand, and among other things by opposition to the national discourse and, on the other hand, to the signs of decadence, that is the neutralization of the symptoms of decadence.

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Lühidalt

Author(s): Brita Melts,Mall Jõgi,Vivian Siirman / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 03/2018

Reviews of: Kirjanduslikud (eksi)rännakud Tartus. Kokku pannud Halliki Jürma, Katrin Raid, Maia Tammjärv. Tartu, 2017. 118 lk. Karl Asti ja Friedebert Tuglase reisid. Sõprade teateid rännuteedelt 1905–1950. Koostanud ja kommenteerinud Janika Kronberg. Tallinn: Go Group, 2017. 167 lk. Methis. Studia humaniora Estonica 2017, nr 20. Sotskolonialism Eesti NSV-s: kultuurist argiilmani. Koostaja ja toimetaja Epp Annus. 194 lk. Kohtumised Siberis. Eesti asundused VIII. Koostanud ja toimetanud Anu Korb. Tartu: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Teaduskirjastus, 2017. 422 lk. Tiit Aleksejev, P. I. Filimonov, Meelis Friedenthal, Andrei Hvostov, Jan Kaus, Indrek Koff, Kalle Käsper, Paavo Matsin, Ülo Mattheus, Enn Nõu, Olev Remsu, Peeter Sauter, Lauri Sommer, Urmas Vadi, Rein Veidemann, Toomas Vint. Kuusteist Eesti kirja. Loomingu Raamatukogu 2018, nr 1–2. Tallinn: SA Kultuurileht. 105 lk.

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Eesti punkluule ja siirdeajastu algus

Author(s): Piret Viires / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1/2021

The article discusses Estonian punk poetry, which is one of the most interesting literary phenomena during the beginning of the Estonian transition period. Punk poetry had become viable in Estonian culture from the early 1980s and its heyday was at the end of that decade. Punk poets utilised both literary and subcultural landscapes, their texts were powerful and intense, using unconventional poetic language, colloquialisms, obscene expressions and expressed sharp social criticism. Punk poetry developed quickly from a subcultural niche phenomenon into a politically engaged patriotic protest literature in the late 1980s and played a visible role during the Singing Revolution. At the same time, punk poetry entered vigorously the Estonian literary canon, changing and expanding it considerably: bringing new techniques and features to literature. Punk poetry was also a precursor to the literary upheavals of the 1990s. While the political engagement of punk poetry remains in the period of the Singing Revolution, its position in Estonian literary canon is secure. This is demonstrated by the analyses of punk poetry in literary history volumes, the inclusion of punk poetry in the national school curriculum, as well as, its treatment in several school textbooks.

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Lühidalt

Author(s): Not Specified Author / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 05/2013

Reviews of: 1. Культура русской диаспоры: эмиграция и мифы. Сборник статей. Редакторы-составители А. Данилевский, С. Доценко. Acta Universitatis Tallinnensis. Tallinn: Izdatelxstwo Tallinskogo uniwersiteta, 2012. 260 lk. 2. Paul Ariste. Mustlaste raamat. Töid antropoloogilise ja etnolingvistika vallast 7. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2012. 206 lk. 3. Marie Heiberg, Marta Veiler, Bertha Veske. Vanavara kogumisretkedelt 9. Koostaja ja eessõna autor Piret Õunapuu. Tartu: Eesti Rahva Muuseum, 2012. 94 lk. 4. Raamat: kirjanduslik mälumäng. Idee ja teostus Tarmo Tuule, Katrin Kurik, Külli Nidermann; küsimuste koostajad Eva Lepik, Mai Raet, Katrin Kurik, Tarmo Tuule, Kadre Vaik. Ajakirjade Kirjastus 2012. 699 lk.

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Põlevkivitööstuse kujutamisest ajakirjas Looming aastail 1940–1956

Author(s): Elle-Mari Talivee / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 1-2/2023

The focus of the article is on the depiction of oil shale mining, which had intensified after the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union in 1940, in Looming magazine during the first decades of the occupation. It also provides a brief overview of the coverage of the extraction of this natural resource during the Republic of Estonia: from the second half of the 1930, in particular, literature, art, film and photography began to be urged to cover topics deemed to be of national importance, while the exports of shale oil increased as a result of the armament of Nazi Germany.To the modern reader, the post-war Soviet Estonian propagandist literature on oil shale mining reads like a form of colonial violence or a consequence thereof, distorting both the object depicted and those who depicted it. The so-called oil shale literature of the time is meant to convey a message (Stalin’s socialist-realist writer as an engineer of human souls), while making concessions to form. The description of conditions emerges as a new genre. The authors published in Looming during that era often had a similar background: they had served in the Red Army or spent time in the Soviet home front or came from Russia, hence they had had time to acquire the main principles of socialist realism. Novice writers also began to produce texts. Both writers and artists were sent to cover the oil shale basin, and Looming makes up only a portion of the whole coverage (which includes film and news media). Texts in various genres that are dedicated to the extraction of natural resources come in waves after guidance and calls to depict the industry in connection with national economic planning and five-year periods. On the other hand, there are periods where whole issues go by without a word on Estonia’s most important industry. The oil shale narrative centres on a grand industry and the wondrous Stalinist mining town(s) built for it, reframing the local history of the extraction of this resource from the perspective of the occupying power.

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Aegadeülene heitlus I

Author(s): Tõnis Parksepp / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 4/2023

The inspiration for this article came from Jüri Talvet’s observation that Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s „Faust” and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald’s „Kalevipoeg” show some remarkable similarities in their philosophical structure and plot. This article therefore aims to compare these two masterpieces by using Harold Bloom’s and Paul de Man’s understanding of tropes. While allusion and intertextuality studies typically focus on a limited number of similarities between two texts, Bloom’s anxiety of influence theory helps to apprehend both texts as a whole. This objective is achievable with two constraints. Firstly, making such a comparison requires us to widen our understanding of tropes. In this analysis, tropes do not signify limited transfers of meaning (from one word to another), but the full transformation of a text’s meaning. The background to this article lies in the hypothesis that large chunks of ¬„Kalevipoeg” can be read as tropes that are derived from the verses of „Faust”. ¬Secondly, this kind of analysis cannot focus on the style, genre or semantic nuances of both works, but only on the general picture: the stories and their protagonists. The anxiety of influence theory shows that the change of meaning from one work to another can be described by means of two kinds of tropes: limiting and repeating ones. In this article, the limiting tropes of irony, metonymy and metaphor can be used to depict the change of meaning from „Faust” to „Kalevipoeg”. The story of an intellectual who makes a pact with the devil, seeks absolute love and wishes to accomplish godly deeds becomes a story of a mythically strong hero who has no choice, never finds true love and achieves predestined greatness. According to Bloom, this is only half of the comparison. In a follow-up article, I will show how the repeating tropes of synecdoche, hyperbole and metalepsis can be used to demonstrate that the fate of these different protagonists is in fact somewhat similar.

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„Sõbrad elus ja surmas” valgevenelaste, venelaste ja eestlaste folklooris

Author(s): Elena Boganeva,Mare Kõiva / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 4/2023

The article presents a comparative historical analysis of fairy tales of the Friends in Life and Death (ATU/SUS 470) plot type, their features and distribution among Belarusians, Russians and Estonians. In the Estonian and Belarusian material, stories of this type are in some cases contaminated with the ATU 470A and 471A types. We examine differences in the flow of time in the real world and other worlds, and consider the features of the chronotope of fairy tales and the organization of artistic space within them, as well as ways of transition and communication between the worlds. According to the most common plot of ATU/SUS 470 fairy tales, two friends promise to be guests at each other’s weddings. One of them dies and the living friend invites the dead one to his wedding; however, after receiving a counter-invitation, he finds himself in another world. There he either travels with the deceased friend through his world, where he sees various curiosities and paradoxes, or celebrates at the wedding of the deceased friend. It seems to the living person that he spent several hours with the deceased friend (or with his brother or father in some Estonian versions), but when he returns to his own world, he discovers that decades or centuries have passed on Earth. Most often, after this discovery, the hero dies and turns to dust, but there are some rare Estonian versions where he miraculously restores ¬himself and his bride to their original state (and age), after which they get married again.

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Emad ja tütred eluloos

Author(s): Tiiu Jaago / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 5/2023

Recent public debates on family-related issues (What constitutes a traditional family? How widespread is domestic violence? What is the purpose of child protective services?) prompted an examination of these themes from the perspective of people’s personal experience. The article is based on manuscripts of life narratives obtained from the collection of Estonian Life Histories in the Estonian Cultural History Archives (EKM EKLA, f 350). The narratives were written down between 1989 and 2017 and provide a glimpse into the societal changes that took place between the 1930s and the early 21st century. The favoured narrative techniques and the ways these changed at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century also become apparent. The article compares Estonian narratives with Finnish ones. The comparison is aided by similar collection methods used both for Estonian and Finnish stories – these are thematic narratives archived by volunteer correspondents. More specifically, the focus is on generational conflicts present in life narratives. Family relationships (including conflicts) are revealed in the narratives through the lens chosen by the narrator. It seems that family relationships were overshadowed by political issues in Estonian life stories narrated in the 1990s: the narrators concentrated on descriptions of people’s relationship with the Soviet power, including repressive experiences. In the early 2000s, this perspective receded, allowing more space for descriptions of relationships within the family. Depictions of post-war childhood sometimes suggest that children who grew up separately from their mother due to economic, social or other reasons never developed a close bond with her. In narratives collected in 2017, the narrator often looks at her life experience both as a daughter and a mother. In such cases, the focus of the narrative shifts from the relationship between herself and her mother to the development of the narrator as a person. The comparison between Finnish and Estonian stories reveals that Finnish families tended to remain silent on difficult circumstances, whereas Estonian narratives emphasized the parents’ ability to explain difficult situations to children. Comparing the stories also pointed to a change in the family structure and functions in the 20th century: the pre-war family model included the parents and the children, while in wartime and post-war families, the mother had to take on the father’s former responsibilities. In Finnish research, this is addressed through the lens of trauma studies (e.g., the aggressiveness of the exhausted single mother towards her children). In Estonia, the issue is seen through the framework of the impact of political repressions on a person’s life. However, the trauma discourse is also evident in Estonian narratives. That is, if the narrators themselves have used corporal punishment on their own children. In such cases, the focus is not so much on the events that took place as on a perception of changing values.

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Aegadeülene heitlus II

Author(s): Tõnis Parksepp / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 5/2023

This article is a sequel to “Struggle over the ages I: Reading Kreutzwald’s “Kalevipoeg” as opposite in meaning to Goethe’s “Faust”” (Parksepp 2023). The pair of articles aims to exemplify how Harold Bloom’s and Paul de Man’s complementary views on rhetoric and tropes help to reveal the differences and similarities between Goethe’s and Kreutz¬wald’s masterpieces. The objective of the first article was to describe how, according to the anxiety of influence theory, the limiting tropes of irony, metonymy and metaphor can be used to depict the change in meaning from “Faust” to “Kalevipoeg”, whereas this article shows how the Bloomian recurring tropes of synecdoche, hyperbole and metalepsis define ways in which the Estonian national epic recreates the meaning of Goethe’s grand tragedy. Underneath all the stylistic and genre conventions lies a story of two opposite protagonists with a similar fate. Both Faust and Kalevipoeg commit crimes, although the full tragedy of Gretchen is reduced to a synecdoche: an episode where Kalevipoeg meets an island maiden whose death he causes by accident. Both protagonists get help from the devil or hell, but Mephistopheles’ and Faust’s imaginative paper money finds a hyperbolical counterpart in the later work: Kalevipoeg defeats the devil and brings real treasures out from the underworld. However, a Bloomian metaleptic reversal of history occurs in the final episodes of both works. The salvation of Faust raises questions; one could argue that it is an example of Aristotle’s deus ex machina method, where the fate of Faust’s soul does not follow from the plot. By comparison, the final scene of “Kalevipoeg” seems more logical. Although the deceased national hero is briefly cheered in heaven, he is still sent to hell as a gatekeeper. Even on a white horse his disabled body is a gruesome reminder of his blood guilt. His wrongdoings and evil deeds are not forgotten as in “Faust”, where the protagonist is saved from hell due to his eternal drive. Even the prophetic final lines of “Kalevipoeg” include a warning taboo: with the return of the mighty Estonian hero, evil will also be set free. Therefore, on a rhetorical level, it can be argued that the end of “Kalevipoeg” is more refined and fulfils the Bloomian trope-reversing trope of metalepsis. Rhetorically, the ending of “Kalevipoeg” can be read as an original to the closing scene of “Faust”, where the interrogation of good and evil (the hero and the devil bound together at hell’s gate) is replaced with an idea of good always prevailing over evil (an all-powerful heaven with Mater Gloriosa just waiting for Faust). Of course, this is only one point of view, but it shows how Bloomian ideas can be used methodically to analyse great works of literature. It also raises the objectively unanswerable question of why great works of literature survive over the ages.

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Lühikroonika

Author(s): Not Specified Author / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 3/2023

2. detsembril 2022 peeti Tallinna Kirjanduskeskuse Tammsaare muuseumi 17. sügiskonverents „Kui seda metsa ees ei oleks? Metsa kuvand eesti kirjanduses”. 2. detsembril toimus Tallinna Ülikoolis VIII teaduskeele konverents. 6.–7. detsembril toimus Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumis 15. meditsiiniantropoloogia konverents „Üksindus ja selle varjundid”. 9. detsembril peeti Tartus Eesti Akadeemilise Usundiloo Seltsi aastakonverents. 9. detsembril toimus Kodavere Pärimuskeskuses Palal seminar „Moenasjutuss pajatusseni Kodavere nukan ja mõjal” („Muinasjutust pajatuseni Kodavere kandis ja mujal”) 15.–16. detsembril peeti Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumis 66. Kreutzwaldi päevade konverents „Sõda eesti kultuuris, kirjanduses ja ajaloos”. 13. detsembril toimus Pariisis UNESCO peakorteris põliskeelte dekaadi pidulik üritus. 16.–17. detsembril toimus veebinar „Udmurdi traditsiooniline kultuur kaameraläätses”. 19. detsembril korraldas Underi ja Tuglase Kirjanduskeskus seminari „Dekadentsi mõiste tähendus ja kontekst Nietzsche filosoofias”. 20. jaanuaril 2023 peeti Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumis Jaan Kaplinski päeva „Kaplinski tõlkes ja kirjades”. 25. jaanuaril toimus Tallinnas Hõimuklubi õhtu „Siiski, kes on saamid?”. 26. jaanuaril Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumis peetud Akadeemilise Rahvaluule Seltsi kõnekoosolekul esines Jüri Metssalu. 6. veebruaril esines Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi seminaril Reet Hiiemäe teemal „Kaitsemaagia tänapäeval: kogumisest ja uurimisest”. 10. veebruaril toimus Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumis rahvusvaheline konverents „Koha kultuuriline maine ja mentaalne kaart postimperiaalses vaates”. 13. veebruaril Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi seminaril pidas Aleksandr Panchenko ingliskeelse ettekande „Ökosüsteemid ja „meeleviirused” folklooriuuringutes: kas folkloristika vajab memeetikat”. 15.–16. veebruaril toimus Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumis Eesti-uuringute Tippkeskuse lõppkonverents „Dialoogid Eestiga”. 17. veebruaril tutvustati Tallinnas Eesti Keele Instituudis ÕS-i ja EKI teatmiku koostamise tegevuskava. 17.–18. veebruaril tähistati konverentsiga Tartu Ülikooli Narva kolledžis Ungari rahvusluuletaja Sándor Petőfi 200. sünniaastapäeva. 20. veebruaril anti Tallinnas Teaduste Akadeemia saalis üle 2022. aasta riiklikud preemiad. 20. veebruaril peeti Tallinna Ülikoolis emakeelte ja väikeste keelte seminar. 23. veebruaril korraldas Akadeemiline Rahvaluule Selts Tartus kõnekoosoleku. 27. veebruaril toimunud Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi seminaril esines Tartu Ülikooli vene keele kaasprofessor Anastasiia Ryko.

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Tõrked Eesti venekeelse kirjanduse omaks tunnistamisel 1918-1940. Igor Severjanini juhtum

Author(s): Igor Kotjuh / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 6/2023

The article looks at the history of Estonian Russian-language literature in the young Republic of Estonia (1918–1940) and the life and work of the Russian-speaking poet Igor Severyanin (1887–1941) from the perspective of Estonian literature. In 1918, Severyanin, as a mature author, moved permanently from Russia to Estonia. Gradually, he developed a hybrid identity: he became fond of Estonia and wrote in Russian. However, his works have been omitted from the Estonian literary history. The article sets out the following hypotheses: 1) Estonian Russian-language literature from 1918 to 1940 has not become part of Estonian literature of that period, as its acceptance is hindered by various cultural-historical barriers for literary researchers. The main barriers have been highlighted by means of source criticism. 2) Igor Severyanin’s life and work serve to situate him as a representative of Estonian literature. Terms such as integration and identity were not used in his day, but Severyanin’s personal and creative choices help to understand, retrospectively, that it was important for him to live in Estonia, write poetry inspired by local material, interact with Estonian-speaking colleagues, remain connected with Estonian public and cultural institutions. I have approached Severyanin’s case through the identity theory (the work of John Charles Turner and Homi Bhabha), as well as Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the literary field. Both hypotheses were confirmed in the article. However, the values of modern multicultural society dictate that the discussion of Estonian literary history should include the Russian-speaking authors of the interwar period. Currently, there are gaps in Estonian literary history regarding these authors. Filling these gaps would mean overcoming the cultural-historical barriers.

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Need teised laulikud. Regilaulutraditsiooni vähem aktiivsetest osalistest

Author(s): Liina Saarlo / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 6/2023

This article discusses the terminology and representations concerning the older Estonian oral song tradition specialists in Estonian folkloristic literature from the late 19th century to the second half of the 20th century. The folk singers’ relationships with their family, community, and folklorists from the perspective of diachronic and synchronic intersubjectivity is also considered. At the heart of the documentation and study of runo songs (regilaulud) are folk singers who actively embody the song culture. They are specialists who, in addition to having knowledge of the lyrics, tunes and performing practices, also have a need to perform in public, learn from other (older) singers, and share their skills with the next generations. At the height of the documentation of folklore at the turn of the 19th and 20th ­centuries, runo songs had receded to the periphery of cultural life and lost their importance in musical self-expression. So, too, the runo singer became the embodiment of the margins of society – someone old and poor. As folklore studies developed, the representation of the folk singer gained agency – the singer was not only a reservoir of knowledge or a repeater of rituals, but also a specialist in communication. In the 1960s, a wedding singer – an improviser who actively used poetic means – took over as the collective image of a folk singer. However, the song tradition is also carried on by people of a different nature, who know a lot of songs and the context in which they are used, but do not wish to perform in public. In this article, I focused on the inactive, modest singers. The main subjects of this article are the folk singers recorded in the 1960s, during the last great wave of runo song documentation. All those studied were „of singers’ blood”: their immediate family were well-known singers. In order to become proficient in performing the runo songs, they had to have grown up in a close relationship with their grandmother. It was the modest singers, in particular, who continued to express themselves by means of the runo songs in the form of autocommunication. The relationship of the modest singers with the collectors of folklore may even have been more positive than that of the active ones; they developed a closer bond with the collectors, were more patient and more accommodating.

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Romantic Poets in Epic Form of Nordic Countries and Estonia’s Classical Dialect Poetry

Author(s): Lauri Pilter / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The recently awakened academic interest in the multilingual character of the written culture of the Baltic region in more distant times calls for fresh attention to and reassessment of the poetry of the ethnic minorities that have inhabited the territory of Estonia. One such minority was the Estonian Swedes who dwelt in western Estonia up to 1944. This paper mainly focuses on the lifecourse, as reflected in his poems, of Estonian Swedish native skald Mats Ekman, who wrote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since his work and the whole topic of Estonian Swedish culture are largely unknown in Estonia and everywhere else, except for the direct descendants of that minority, the paper offers the necessary background information, while also applying the method of close reading to a few of the author’s poems in the original Swedish dialect and in English. Parallels are drawn with the major classical authors of neighbouring Nordic countries, such as Esaias Tegnér of Sweden and Aleksis Kivi of Finland, authors who can be seen as models not only for Ekman, but also for a number of significant ethnic Estonian poets who wrote in Estonian, such as Juhan Liiv and Ernst Enno.

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Estonian, Russian and Samizdat Identity: Arno Tsart and Elena Shvarts

Author(s): Miriam Rossi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The article explores a case of literary mystification by Elena Shvarts that occurred in samizdat during the eighties, featuring a fictitious Estonian poet. Aware of the relevance that translation played in the literary samizdat of Leningrad during the eighties, the investigation focuses on the similarities between the poetess’ hoax and the concept of pseudo-translation, analysing the reasons for and outcomes of her endeavour in terms of identity research. Engaging with Shvarts’ verses, Sergei Stratanovsky’s account of the episode and the position that Estonia played in the samizdat imagined world, the article explores the role of Shvarts/Tsart’s mystification in relation to the poetess and her readership.

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Naised ja proosa. Pilk XX sajandi alguskümnendite eesti kirjandusele

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

Käesolev teemanumber on pühendatud XX sajandi alguskümnendite tuntud ja vähem tuntud naissoost eesti proosakirjanikele. See sündis vajadusest kirjutada naised tagasi kirjandusajalukku ja kultuurimällu. Enamik artikleid on alguse saa-nud 2022. aasta oktoobris Tartus Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumis peetud konverentsilt „Kas sa Reed Morni oled lugenud?”, ent idee tegeleda unustatud naiskirjanikega sündis palju varem. Eret Talviste taust inglise modernismiuuringutes, kus on alates 1970-ndatest tehtud palju (taas)avastustööd, et kaanonitesse kaasata mitmeid nais-kirjanikke, nt Jean Rhys, Djuna Barnes, Katherine Mansfield jpt, pani teda küsima, kus on eesti naiste sulest ilmunud proosa, kui mõelda XX sajandi algusele. Sellest küsimusest ajendatuna hakkas koos käima lugemisgrupp, kus 2021/2022. akadee-milisel aastal loeti eesti naiste proosat läbi aegade ning 2022/2023. aastal keskenduti XIX sajandi lõpu ja XX sajandi alguse kirjanike, näiteks Marta Sillaotsa, Helga Pärli-Sillaotsa, Aino Kallase, Reed Morni, Leida Kibuvitsa, Lilli Suburgi, Elisabeth Aspe, Alma Ostra-Oinase loomingule. Lugemisgrupi raames tutvus Talviste Eve Annuki mahuka uurimistööga eesti naiste varasest kirjandusest, eriti Lilli Suburgist, ning sel-gus, et XX sajandi alguse naiste proosat vaatleva konverentsi korraldamine on ühine soov.

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Mõeldes rahust rongisõidu ajal ehk kui Leida Kibuvits ja Virginia Woolf oleksid kohtunud

Author(s): Eret Talviste / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 8-9/2023

This article reads Estonian writer Leida Kibuvits’s (1907–1976) novel “An Evening Ride” (Rahusõit, 1933) in dialogue with Virginia Woolf’s book-length feminist essay “Three Guineas” (1938) in order to explore how these two writers critique violent and patriarchal nationalism. In its place they imagine, through their affective aesthetics, a peaceful and feminist relationship to the land. The article sees this imaginary meeting as something that Saidiya Hartman would term critical fabulation, and it situates Kibuvits’s and Woolf’s dialogue in the critical framework of transnational feminist modernist studies. By doing so, the article demonstrates that although these writers never met and may never have heard of one another, a comparative approach to their work fills in certain archival silences, also providing a nuanced understanding of how questions relating to women’s role in nation states were addressed similarly by writers across national borders during the first decades of the 20th century.

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Gender Conventionalism in Estonian Girls’ Novellas during the Era of Stagnation: the Silja Series by Silvia Truu

Author(s): Johanna Ross / Language(s): English Issue: 52/2023

The article explores gender roles in four Stagnation era Estonian novellas for girls – the so-called Silja series by Silvia Truu, which focuses on educational work experience gained in a candy factory. The stories are analyzed against the background of public discussions of that time which were characterized by a strong opposition between genders and fueled by buzzwords such as “women’s emancipation” and “crisis of masculinity”. The aim of this article is to find out whether and how this opposition was reflected in youth fiction, both on the level of its young protagonists and on the level of supporting adult characters. The books are also compared with advice literature for girls of that time. It is concluded that whereas the author of the Silja series takes care to use some of the constant motifs of Soviet youth education and to lay out a seemingly gender-neutral setting, the final result points in another direction: the fundamental difference between genders, even their incompatibility, is given more emphasis. The arising contradictions are reconciled through individual narrative solutions, often characterized by gender conventionalism – a conscious favoring of gender roles perceived as “natural” and “traditional”. The tensions familiar from media and adult literature of the same period are most evident in the background descriptions of families and their problem areas (divorce, alcoholism, and single motherhood); the desirable solutions seem to rely heavily on gender conventionalism here as well.

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Christian Felix Weiße’s Poetry in Latvian and Estonian Literature

Author(s): Ave Mattheus,Pauls Daija / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The article analyzes the translations of Christian Felix Weiße’s poems in Latvian and Estonian within the context of cultural transfer during the age of Enlightenment. Translations of Weiße’s poems were of great significance because they paved the way for the emergence of secular poetry in both languages. First translations appeared in the 1770s, and others followed in the next decades. While the first Latvian translations were connected to the popular enlightenment efforts of Baltic German pastor Gotthard Friedrich Stender and addressed to the peasant readers, the first Estonian translations were written in the context of experiments with the language and addressed to the Baltic German intellectual elite. First translations that were addressed to Estonian peasants appeared in the early 19th century. The frame of reference of the poems was transformed when they were addressed to peasant reading public: they acquired didactic meaning. At the same time, these translations demonstrated the poetic possibilities of Estonian and Latvian languages. The analysis as a case study reveals the multifaceted influence of German poetry on Estonian and Latvian literary cultures.

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Discussing Nature, Ideology, Technology, Spirituality, Literature and Language at the Start of the 21st Century

Author(s): Lu Jinjin / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

Review of: Jüri Talvet, Ten Letters to Montaigne: Self and Other. Translated by Jüri Talvet & H. L. Hix. Toronto: Guernica World Editions, 2019. 132 pp.

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