Tüviteksti mõistest
On the semantics of tüvitekst

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the synonyms, equivalents and connotations of the Estonian term tüvitekst ’core text, seminal text; lit. stem text’, which in the new century has gained popularity both in Estonian criticism and in the Estonian media. The notion was first introduced in Estonia by orientalist Linnart Mäll, who studied and translated the basic works of Oriental thought, which he called humanistic base texts. These are fundamental classical texts that consolidate the past and build the future by shaping the mentality of communities and the discourses to follow. Literary scholar Jaan Undusk has referred to the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg as a national core text building up the national psyche. By now, the term tüvitekst has become frequent in the Estonian humanities as well as in public use, largely due to the cultural articles by Rein Veidemann. There is a clear difference between the more exclusive or elitarian literary use of the term and the more inclusive or democratic one allowing for any text, written or other, to be perceived as an origin of something else or as an impulse for a discourse. A number of usage examples are brought not only from literary studies or criticism, but also from the fields of science, social issues, theatre, cinematography, music and figurative arts. The term can be applied to song festivals, official documents, products and manuals, and even to postings on social media. The semantics of the term is analysed pointing out parallels with such concepts as deep structure, rhizome, hypertext, archi-text, archi-writing and method. As metaphoric terms have semantic ramifications, the author suggests nursery text as another possible equivalent, inspired by the biological term nursery log.

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