History of Estonian Literature as a Kernel Structure of Estonian Culture
History of Estonian Literature as a Kernel Structure of Estonian Culture

Summary/Abstract: The history of literature is not only a summary of writers’ biographies, their creative work and its reception but also about the change of literary consciousness (i.e. visions and conceptions of literature) in the history. During different periods different texts have been gathered under the term “literature”, which means that the boundaries of literature have changed during history. The process has occurred on axes, one boundary of which is the objectivity of literature – the acknowledgment of its ever-valid value. The fundamental Theory of Literature by René Wellek and Austin Warren suggests the following wording: “The term ‘literature’ seems best if we limit it to the art of literature, that is, to imaginative literature” (Wellek&Warren 1977: 22). According to these authors it is better reflected in the German languages, in which a synonym to literature is Wortkunst – art of words. The approach, which focuses on the value means actually that in every piece of literature we should not seek for the literary reflection of imagery or the amplification of reality but rather for the “literariness” in the meaning of the Russian form school of the 1920s. At the other end of the process axis literature is comprehended contextually. Terry Eagleton has said in the introductory chapter “What is Literature?” of his Literary Theory that “There is no such thing as a literary work or tradition, which is valuable in itself (---) ‘Value’ is a transitive term: it means whatever is valued by certain people in specific situations, according to particular criteria and in the light of given purposes.” (Eagleton 983: 11).

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