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The primary objective of this paper is to show how Oedipa Maas, the central character in Thomas Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49, navigates the world by adhering to traditional and formal methods of rationalization. This entails creating a structured framework for understanding the world and its phenomena through strict logical connectives. Traditionally, such a form of rationalization has been associated with the analytical capacities of individuals, with the expectation that it can yield a singular, valid interpretation of the world. In this paper, we will examine Oedipa Maas’s condition and actions within the framework of two linguistic theories: one positing the existence of universal interpretive tools (Logos) aimed at providing a singular worldview, and the other emphasizing the social-historical influences on individuals and the contingent nature of language as tools for interpreting the world. We attribute the first theory to Ferdinand de Saussure and the second to Jacques Derrida. This theoretical foundation will help us highlight the epistemic dimensions of the novel, where the protagonist attempts to adhere to a logocentric approach in her understanding of the world. Oedipa rejects Derrida’s view of language, fearing that it will lead to meaninglessness or chaos, and instead strives for a harmonious vision of the world (cosmos). However, the order she seeks and occasionally perceives is merely a reflection of her interpretive framework. She desires to perceive order, but it exists solely within the confines of her language.
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Using the example of two novels by Dževad Karahasan, The Night Council and Introduction to Floating, this paper provides a comparative analysis of the characters of Simon Mihailović and Peter Hurd in relation to the figure of the stranger, who is searching for parts of his being in a dislocated space. Considering the spiral structure of both novels and the intertextual connections with Dante’s Divine Comedy, this paper uses a comparative approach to discuss the treatment and role of the guide through the different types of “hell” which the characters experience. Along with the question of artistic motivation and the motivational system of a literary work, the work analyzes and problematizes the relationship of the characters to situations. In addition, the paper questions the literary constructions through which the characters move in getting to know themselves. Through the comparison of the characters of Simon Mihailović and Peter Hurd, this paper questions Mihailović’s and Hurd’s relationship with their guides through “hell”, Enver Pilav and Rajko Šurup. Using a comparative approach to analyse the characters of the strangers in two novels by Dževad Karahasan, this paper shows different relationships to the same phenomenon, as well as different ways of manifesting the intertextual connection.
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This article aims to reconstruct the philosophical message found in Jaan Oks’ fragmentary works “Females” (Emased, 1908), “Flesh” (Ihu, 1908), and “Nameless Beast” (Nimetu elajas, 1909). The author argues that within these works, amidst alternating and colliding voices, a louder and more distinct one emerges – a propheticphilosophical narrator who uses unfolding sketches to provide broad metaphysical generalizations and assessments, primarily concerning human nature and gender differences. In addition to reconstructing the philosophical positions, these are compared with Friedrich Nietzsche’s views on the same subjects, exploring the extent of Nietzsche’s influence on Oks’ works. In the first step of the interpretation, the article examines how Oks’ texts define human nature. Human beings are reduced to natural creatures lacking a soul, with sexual drive at the core of their essence. A comparison reveals significant similarities between Oks and Nietzsche’s perspectives on human nature. Both also declare the invalidity of Christian moral teachings. However, Oks’ texts do not lead to a celebration of the natural human sexual drive; instead, an aversion persists. The article continues with a reconstruction of the philosophical generalizations explaining this situation. In the second step, the article explores the relationship of Oks’ texts with secularization. It becomes apparent that the divine, transcendent sphere cannot be simply erased from Oks’ works, despite declarations to the contrary. For Oks, God remains a problem addressed through blasphemous fantasies in the examined works. Additionally, the hypothetical godless life is not enjoyable for Oks’ philosophical voice; existential meaninglessness dominates. The mood contained in Oks’ works is compared with Nietzsche’s concept of the “death of God”, finding significant similarities. In the third aspect, the article examines the relationships between the two sexes. Here, too, substantial overlaps are identified between Oks and Nietzsche’s perspectives. Both assert an insurmountable tension and conflict between the sexes, emphasizing women’s greater affinity to nature. In Oks’ works, men are attributed the desire to distance themselves from their nature – sexual drive – and retreat into solitude. From this distance, the female sex is insulted and degraded so vehemently and at such great length that a parallel can be drawn to a blasphemous relationship with God. The final section examines the pursuit of detachment from life, of overcoming humanity, attributed to the poet in Oks’ works, comparing it to Nietzsche’s concept of art. Despite several similarities, a significant difference emerges: Nietzsche understands art’s main purpose vitalistically, as a means to overcome decadence, the defining movement of his era. This requires the overcoming of humanity as it exists. Oks’ conception, on the other hand, remains programmatically decadent and is directed towards the decline and end of humankind.
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This article delves into the modernist/avant-garde subject that emerges in Jaan Oks’ poetic prose, utilizing psychoanalytic theories. It aims to elucidate how the libidinalimpulsive dynamics of the psyche manifest within the context of the poetic revolution seen in the texts under scrutiny, expanding the concept of the subject beyond fixed identities and the conventional portrayal of selfhood as something stable and permanent. Key concepts include Julia Kristeva’s subject in process and the Freudian oceanic feeling: these concepts are employed to describe various movements of this elusive modernist subject as, for example, atomization, flowing, and disintegration, thereby framing different phases in the avant-garde rejection of illusory wholeness to unveil the fundamental fragmentation of the psyche. In doing so, the article also explores the emergence of a complex sexual paradigm in Oks’ poetics and its potential transgressive semantic associations with the possibilities inherent in the subject’s gender identity.
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This article explores the profoundly affective and ambivalent aesthetics of decadence. The analysis focuses on two examples from the early prose of A. H. Tammsaare (1878–1940) and Johannes Semper (1892–1970): “The Fly” (Kärbes, 1917) and “Sacred Weed” (Püha umbrohi, 1918). These works are viewed within the broader context of the authors’ entire body of work. The decadent aesthetics of Tammsaare’s and Semper’s works derive from Nietzschean and Bergsonian notions of decadence and life. The article illustrates the contrasts and similarities between these two notions, with the latter elucidated by reference to movement, change, and transition. Critics have also suggested connections between Nietzschean concepts, such as life and the Dionysian, and Bergson’s élan vital and duration. Scholars have similarly highlighted the association of decadence with change. Moreover, decadence and life as movement and change partly resonate with Baudelaire’s portrayal of modernity as fleeting, ephemeral and incidental, which is rooted in the experience of the urban environment. Through these interpretations, the analyzed texts clearly respond to accelerated modernization. The article emphasizes that the Nietzschean-Bergsonian framework is considerably broader than Baudelairean definitions of modernity inspired by the urban environment. At the core of “The Fly” and “Sacred Weed” are practices that enhance one’s perception of reality, building on concepts, images, and ideas related to Nietzsche’s and Bergson’s decadence and life. Both authors are concerned with the confluence of crises, the representations of which become dynamic through textual strategies associated with decline and decay, as well as their overcoming. The article concludes with a realization that the rich intertextuality steeped in a heightened perception of movement and flow, inspired not only by Nietzsche, Bergson, and Baudelaire but also by several other key influencers of decadent aesthetics, renders Tammsaare’s and Semper’s works innovative and demanding for the reader.
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Since the emergence of decadent literature, sonnets have played a significant role within its realm. Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal contains 72 sonnets in all. In the preface to the posthumous edition of 1868, Théophile Gautier describes Baudelaire’s style as decadent. Paul Verlaine’s seminal sonnet Langueur, published in 1883, opens with the well-known line: Je suis l’Empire à la fin de la décadence (“I am the Empire at the end of decadence”). This sonnet had an enormous impact on fin de siècle poetry, earning recognition as both the ars poetica of decadence and its most representative example. The concept of decadence also found its way into Estonian literary circles through sonnets when Johannes Aavik published his article Charles Baudelaire ja dekadentismus (“Charles Baudelaire and the Decadent movement”) in 1905, alongside translations of Baudelaire’s poems, including two sonnets (De profundis clamavi and La Destruction). The first original Estonian decadent sonnets appeared four years later, in 1909, marking the beginning of their heyday in the subsequent decades. The aim of the article is twofold: to explore the development of the Estonian decadent sonnet within a cultural-historical context, primarily drawing from the 1903/1904 correspondence between Gustav Suits and Johannes Aavik, who first introduced the decadent sonnet to Estonian culture. Additionally, the article delves into the poetics of the Estonian decadent sonnet, distinguishing between three types, often intertwined: firstly, those expressing decadent melancholy; secondly, sonnets depicting aestheticism, synaesthesia, and the dissolution of perceptual boundaries; and finally, poems expressing the so-called radical decadence of the Estonian sonnet – conveying moral decline, sexual desires, and excessively morbid motifs.
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4. detsembril 2023 esines Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi seminarisarjas Emma Lotta Lõhmus ettekandega „Üksindus kirjanduses ja kirjutamises”. Esineja võttis kokku paar aastat tagasi kirjutatud uurimistöö teemal „Üksindus Milan Kundera „Olemise talumatus kerguses”, Bohumil Hrabali „Liiga valjus üksinduses” ja Mati Undi „Sügisballis””.
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11. detsembril 2023 kaitses Maili Pilt Tartu Ülikoolis folkloristika erialal doktoritöö „Kogemuslood ja koosloome: sissevaateid jutustamispraktikasse sotsiaalmeedias ja selle uurimise metodoloogiasse”.
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This article provides an overview of Estonian literary criticism during 2022–2023. The archetype that emerges from the articles of this period is that of a critic who exhibits varying degrees of doubt, a yearning for connection and engagement, as well as sharpness, acumen, and empathy. While criticism remains constructive and thought-provoking, there is a pertinent question about the necessity to redefine its core. In the realm of online publications, traditional literary criticism may require re-evaluation, with a potential need for a heightened attention to visuals and user experience. Moreover, there is a discernible trend towards favouritism in literary criticism, which warrants a counterbalance through bolder and more analytical reviews. Newspapers appear to be grappling with diminishing quality standards, often presenting overly commercial and superficial book reviews. Naturally, social media has an increasing influence on literature and poetry, offering avenues for amplifying authorial identity while posing challenges in translating so-called “Instagram poetry” into more conventional book formats. The authors also underscore the importance of supporting young critics and providing them with a safe space for experimentation.
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Review of: Jaan Kaplinski, Tõnu Õnnepalu. Kirjad. [Tallinn:] Aadam ja pojad, 2022. 389 lk.
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Renowned Estonian novelist Karl Ristikivi published a gothic short story titled Luigelaul (“Swansong”) in 1968, drawing inspiration from a true event from the Baltic Middle Ages. In 1428, Goswin von Aschenberg, a Vogt of the Teutonic Order stationed at Grobiņa Castle in the south-western corner of present-day Latvia, perpetrated the murder of Livonian bishops’ envoys en route to Rome to denounce the Order’s tyranny. The precise source of Ristikivi’s inspiration remains obscure. This article endeavours to trace the massacre on Lake Liepāja as a motif in Baltic German and Estonian fiction, exploring its significance as a lieu de mémoire. The historical episode gained widespread recognition through the publication of the famous Wandalia by Albertus Krantz in 1519. Baltic Enlightenment authors (Arndt, Bergmann, Merkel, Küttner) utilized it in their general polemics against medieval feudal barbarism. By the nineteenth century, the event had firmly entrenched itself in the collective understanding of the Livonian Middle Ages. Baltic German writers crafted ballads (Andrejanoff, Hirschheydt) and light fiction (Schneider) around the incident. In 1866 the first literary adaptation of the massacre on Lake Liepāja emerged as a sentimental novella in Estonian, akin to the tales of Genevieve of Brabant and Robinson Crusoe popular among Estonian readers at the time. Although the event took place relatively far from Estonia, it remained embedded in the memory of Estonian readers throughout the first half of the twentieth century, primarily through sporadic newspaper articles as well as history textbooks. Thus, the massacre on Lake Liepāja provides a good example of the intertwined cultural memories of Estonians and Baltic Germans. While these cultural memories have often been perceived as conflicting or, at best, mutually unaware, there are notable instances of overlap and consensus that warrant further exploration and consideration in future research.
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Review of: Jaak Tomberg. Kuidas täita soovi. Realism, teadusulme ja utoopiline kujutlusvõime. (Studia litteraria Estonica 24.) Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2023. 307 lk.
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The aim of my research project described in this article was: 1) to create a framework for studying the perception of print-based poems and their transmedial interpretations; 2) to test its practical application in order to see whether further adjustments are necessary. The first section of the article is a review of the historical context (previous research in sensory and text perception, recent developments in reading patterns and text comprehension). The next section is a contextual analysis of theoretical literature focusing on the semantics of print-based versus trans-medial poetry (key authors: Katherine N. Hayles, Espen Aarseth, Mirona Magearu, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari), level and type of immersion (Marie-Laure Ryan), and literariness (David Miall and Don Kuiken), which are the building blocks for my Reader Experience Questionnaire (REQ). It is followed by a description of how the REQ was tested by conducting an anonymous online study evaluating respondents’ perception of four selected poems and their audiovisual interpretations (each with a specific agenda) in order to: 1) test whether the questionnaire fulfils its purpose; 2) see whether the collected qualitative and quantitative data reflect the author’s initial expectations in regard to the level and type of immersion, perception of literariness, and interpretation of meaning(s) of the print-based versus trans-medial poems presented. In conclusion, there are suggestions about possible further applications and adjustments of REQ, and a brief overview of some of the observations on reader’s/viewer’s perception based on the data collected.
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Review of: Piret Jaaks. Taeva tütred. Tallinn: Varrak, 2023. 268 lk.
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Review of: Tõnis Vilu. Vana hing. Luuletused 2021– 2023. [Väike-Maarja:] Häämaa, 2023. 73 lk.
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1. aprilli Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi seminaril kõneles Natalia Ermakov teemal „Pühad allikad kui pidev side esivanematega ja/või „unustatud” kommetega”. Ersa allikad esindavad pidevat looduse kaudu suhtlemist esivanematega. Esitlus toetus ersa külades välitöödel kogutud materjalidele ja tähelepanekutele
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This paper explores a set of narratives that the writer, educator and feminist leader Amanda Labarca published in the first quarter of the 20th century, namely the novel En tierras extrañas (1915), the short novel La lámpara maravillosa and the collection of stories Cuentos a mi señor (both 1921). We are interested in inscribing this corpus of Labarca’s work mainly in the criollismo, thought of as the Latin American and Chilean literary sensibility of the first half of the 20th century. With this, we contribute to the studies that have set out to explore one of Labarca’s most unknown areas: her literature. Specifically, it traces the spirit that runs through these texts, emphasizing the typification of discourses, characters and social contexts that allow sustaining the proposal of analyzing this prose from the point of view of criollismo. Indeed, the results show the presence of several characteristics of this trend, such as the presence of the peripheral or marginal element, the traveler as protagonist or the enhancement of local customs. It is concluded that Labarca’s lyrics dialogue with the proposals of Chilean criollismo, although they are also inspired by other aesthetic and ideological proposals of her time.
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The problem of the fictional truthfulness of deviant evaluations is a description of a paradox that has become the subject of debate in the philosophy of literature of the analytical tradition in the last thirty years. Philosophers such as Walton, Tanner, Moran, Gendler, and others have constructed “mini-stories” in order to show that the authors of fiction, regardless of the almost unlimited powers of what they can make true in their fictional storyworlds cannot successfully construct a fiction in which an objectively false evaluation would nevertheless be fictionally true in the story. For example, someone comes up with a fictional account in which a brutal unmotivated murder takes place. The author merely postulates such an event, and then readers accept it as true in the story. But let us imagine that the description of the murder also contains the evaluation of such an act as a morally right thing to do. We do not accept an evaluation that we consider “deviant” in relation to our current (moral) beliefs as an integral part of the fictional world, even though the author asks us to do so. The paradox is that it seems to be a basic convention of fiction that all third-person narrative statements that cannot be attributed to fictional characters are always fictionally true. This seems to constitute a major restriction to the narratorial authority prompting us to question our usual understanding of the phenomenon of fiction. However, by analysing specific “mini-fictions”, the article argues that (i) there is no good reason to assume that deviant evaluations in these mini-stories are uttered by some thirdperson narratorial voice that cannot be identified with a fictional character; (ii) that deviant evaluations must always be voiced by a personal narrator; (iii) that such personal narrators are never sensu stricto “omniscient” and that we do not need to trust them unquestioningly when, for example, they evaluate a murder as “the right thing to do”. The whole paradox, we claim, is just a pseudo-problem generated by ignoring concrete reading practices and a simplified understanding of narrative conventions.
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In the attempt to get an insight into how “happiness” is conceptualized in Chinese tradition, this case study adopts tools of cognitive linguistics and poetics and investigates ci (詞) poetry of Yan Shu 晏殊 (991–1055), a successful politician and artist who is one of the most representative poets of the genre from the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), a relatively peaceful and abundant era in Chinese history, known for its hedonistic psychology. From his remaining 139 poems, the study selected 13 of the poems that explicitly express a happy state of mind or some positive emotions, and through analysis of the traditional images (yixiang 意象) in these poems attempts to extract the conceptual metaphors regarding “happiness” the poet lived by and the scenarios underlying the metaphors. The results reveal some cultural conceptual patterns in sync with the era in question but also some personal characteristics of the poet.
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