Eesti novelli poeetikast
Poetics of the Estonian novell (classic short story)

Summary/Abstract: Although the Estonian novell is highly regarded in Estonian literature, the term’s implicit meaning has gradually grown less distinguishable from broader definitions associated with short stories overall. Some recent critics tend to consider the novell to be any narrative short prose, placing less emphasis on traditional genre conventions – such as punchlines, subtext, the transformative function and retroactive reading, or flashlight technique. This article uses Toomas Liiv’s theory of the classic novell to illustrate structuralist schemes of narrative counterpoint (subtext), plot dynamics, and retroactive reader phenomenology as well as to highlight the two different levels and three degrees of punchlines in an innovative way. While the black-and-white fabula may have a textually explicit surface (external verbal) punchline, below may lie its subtextually implied, deeply embedded (internal) counterpart – the actual point of the story – deductible only through retrospective rethinking. It is possible to classify an external verbal punchline according to its degree of strength (as in speech act theory): a straightforward full-punchline, a more weakly emphasized semi-punchline, and a zero-punchline, when an external punchline has been avoided. In this article, two model cases are analyzed using the principle of analogy and contrast to highlight their conceivably humanistic and ideological deep punchlines: Leo Anvelt’s close-structured novell “Raveli boolero” (Ravel’s boléro, 1983) and Jaan Kross’s more open-structured novell “Väike Vipper” (Little Vipper, 1981), both of which employ external semi-punchlines. These cases are the basis against which Estonian short stories published in the last three years (2018–2020) will be briefly analyzed in an attempt to classify them within the genre: whether they are traditional novell’s (with or without a punchline), more novell-like narratives, or other, non-novell-like short prose forms.

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