"Ma laulan seni kui tuksub elu mu käte all". Trauma poeetika Bernard Kangro luules

Author(s): Maarja Hollo / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 11/2017

The article discusses six poems from the poetry collection Põlenud puu (Charred tree, 1945) and three cycles from the collection Varjumaa (Shadowland, 1966), both published in exile by Estonian author Bernard Kangro (1910–1994). Those autobiographical poems and cycles are interpreted as a testimony, testifying not only to the author’s personal experiences of the World War II, but also in the name of the other Estonian refugees and in the name of those who suffered and perished in their home country. The article analyses Kangro’s themes, motifs and figures of speech associated with traumatic experience and remembering, as well as the witness position of the lyrical I. The themes of Kangro’s testimony poems include the great escape from Estonia in 1944, loss of homeland, its violent occupation, and also remembering, commemoration, witnessing, testification and the sinking of the traumatic events into oblivion, which all brings sadness, anxiety and melancholy to his lyrical I. Melancholy is associated with motifs of death referring either to the death wish of the lyrical I or to the painful events caused to the homeland by war and occupation. The gist of Kangro’s testimonial poetry consists of traumatic memories and emotions of recalling them, mainly expressed by means of personification, symbols and depersonification, as well as allegory.

A lív költészet nyomában

Author(s): Péter Pomozi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 05/2017

This short study evokes a Baltic Finnic language that is now almost extinct, i.e. Livonian. After offering basic information on the medieval Livonian language area and the former dialectal distribution, the article focuses upon the linguistic heritage of the Salaca Livonian groups, who once lived along the seabanks of the Riga gulf and the Salaca and Svētupe rivers. The Livonians’ history does not end with their ancestors’ death. Curland Livonian has been revitalised, a standard grammar, vocabulary and spelling have been developed. This language is spoken in many places and on many forums, e.g. at summer courses and universities. Two remarkable volumes of poetry, containing the poems of Ķempi Kārl, were also published recently. The second part of the study is dedicated to the lyrical world of Ķempi Kārl, who experiments in his work with the poetical infinity of Salaca Livonian.

A Small Literature in the Service of Nation-Building: the Estonian Case

Author(s): Arne Merilai,Katre Talviste / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2019

The idea of Estonia’s cultural and national self-sufficiency emerged in the nineteenth century. The contribution of writers and poets was essential to this development. Literature anticipated not only cultural, linguistic, and artistic, but also the economic and political emancipation of Estonians. Cultural practices leading to this emancipation were largely based on Baltic German models; many key elements to the independent Estonian national identity are of foreign origin. On the one hand, the nineteenth-century nationbuilding could therefore be described as self-colonization. On the other hand, it rather created a new nation than transformed a preexisting one, since the very concept of national identity was introduced by this process. Through various political and cultural upheavals, the most influential authors from this seminal period of the Estonian modern culture have remained iconic to this day. The traditional identification with them is so strong that the tentative origins of the nation and the identitary struggles of the national poets themselves may often be forgotten and the personal and individual nature of their contribution downplayed.

AARDEPÄRIMUSE TÜPOLOOGILINE TEGELIKKUS

Author(s): Mare Kalda / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 08-09/2015

Aated ja stiiliotsingud: ekspressionism 1920. aastate eesti teatris

Author(s): Luule Epner / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 17/2015

In Estonian theatre, the experience of World War I found expression somewhat belatedly, in the early 1920s, when Expresssionist plays, mainly by contemporary German playwrights – Ernst Toller,Walter Hasenclever, Georg Kaiser et al – were staged in the Estonia Theatre, in the Drama Theatre and in the amateur Hommikteater (Morning Theatre, 1921–1924). The article examines the most significant Expressionist stage productions, focusing on the relations between their ideological, affective and stylistic dimensions. Critical and audience receptions of Expressionist plays are discussed as well.In the Estonia Theatre, a group of young actors and directors(Ants Lauter, Erna Villmer, et al) sought to innovate theatrical language by making use of new, Expressionist devices. In contrast, the amateur Hommikteater (led by August Bachmann and Nigol Andresen)placed emphasis on spreading the ideals of new humanity and social justice, which reflected the left-wing sympathies of the troupe , but their work was also distinguished by an inventive style and a strong emotional impact on audiences. The members of the literary group Tarapita (who promoted Expressionism themselves)enthusiastically supported Hommikteater. This little theatre became highly influential in the process of theatre innovation, despite its very small audiences.However, the key ideas and ideals of postwar Expressionism (including a strong anti-war pathos) had rather little effect on Estonian theatre in general. Expressionism mainly contributed to the widening of the stylistic palette of Estonian theatrical art. This can be partly explained by the social situation of the 1920s: victory in the War of Independence and the subsequent building of the independent Estonian state raised nationalist spirits and made people less sensitive to the destructive experiences of World War I as reflected in postwar German Expressionism.

Ahasveeruse tunnistus. Kirjanduslik palverännak kui eetiline kohustus Ene Mihkelsoni "Ahasveeruse unes"

Author(s): Aija Sakova / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 04/2018

Ene Mihkelson (1944–2017), one of the most philosophical authors in modern Estonian literature, has chosen the title of her novel Ahasveeruse uni (“The Sleep of Ahasuerus”) (2001) associating it with a figure from a medieval legend. The same figure occurs in the title of the story Ahasverus död (“The Death of Ahasuerus”), 1960, Estonian translation published in 1971) by Swedish Nobelist Pär Lagerkvist (1891–1974) . While Mihkelson’s Ahasuerus sleeps or dreams (the Estonian word uni can mean either state of mind), Lagerkvist’s Ahasuerus is either dying or dead. Both titles are very intriguing as both word pairs are oxymoronic. According to a legend, Ahasuerus was a former shoemaker who came to be called Wandering Jew since he was deprived of the right to have a rest, let alone sleep or dream. Neither was he entitled to find peace in death as his task was to keep wandering around the world, telling people about the passion of the Christ right until His Second Coming, thus bringing Christianity nearer to infidels.The aim of the article is to analyse what kind of a testifier Ahasuerus is according to Ene Mihkelson’s novel and what his witness is about. The study sheds light on different aspects of the Ahasuerus legend as well as on some books dealing with the subject and bearing the name of Tallinn as their fictitious place of publication in the early 17th century, which is also mentioned in the novel. A comparative analysis of “The Sleep of Ahasuerus” by Ene Mihkelson and “The Death of Ahasuerus” by Pär Lagerkvist is focused on whether the existentialist memorial wanderings of the first-person narrators of the two books are absolutely necessary, and if so, then whether those wanderings are dominated by the retributive element, or rather by the feeling of being the chosen one.

ANALÜÜTILISED TULEVIKUTARINDId 17.–18. SAJANDI PÕHJAEESTI KIRJAKEELES

Author(s): Liina Pärismaa / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 64/2018

This article is part of a broader morphosyntactic study and deals with analytic saama ’get, become’, pidama ’must, have to’, tahtma ’want’ and võtma ’get’ constructions which express future tense in Old Written Estonian. This study also focuses on elucidation of the future forms used by the 17th century author Christoph Blume. The study is usage-based and relies on the framework of historical sociolinguistics. The material used in the study is comprised of 610 tagged examples from 17th and 18th century ecclesiastical and didactic texts, which are from the corpuses of Old Written Estonian and the Concordance of Estonian Bible Translations. It was found that the literary language reform influenced the more native and even use of future tense. Although abrupt changes in the expression of future tense occurred from the end of the 17th century, e.g. the usage proportion of the German-influenced saama future construction decreased considerably, although it never fully disappeared, early indications in that direction can also be seen in the middle of the 17th century in the texts of Blume.

Antihumanism ilma reservita: nalja funktsioon ja hävituse mõõtmed (:)kivisildniku viimase aja luules

Author(s): Neeme Lopp / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 10/2016

In keeping with Kivisildnik’s disposition of construing poetry, which opposes any socially or culturally dominant value or meaning, his poetry of the first half of the current decade – especially in the collections Liivlased ja saurused („Livonians and dinosaurs”, 2011), (:)soari evangeelium („The Gospel of (:)soar”, 2012) published in collaboration with Navitrolla, and Inimsööja taksojuht („The man-eating taxi-driver”, 2013), but also Enne sõda ja kõike seda („Before the war and all this”, 2012) – strikes the eye with some antihumanist traits. Although Kivisildnik’s palette of literary devices had always implicitly spoken of antihumanist ideas („machine poetry”), the above collections mark a transition from implicit antihumanist pathos to a nearly explicit programme, which could as well be called an antihumanist counter-ideology. The mission of Kivisildnik’s antihumanist counter-ideology is to reveal the biologist and commercial foundation of the humanist illusion, i.e. to unfold the covert cynical core of humanism. To achieve this aim, Kivisildnik uses the reversal technique, creating a comical effect. The fun, however, is not innocent, as it enjoys seeing its object as small, low and despicable by exchanging an ideological hyperbole for a litotes, thus performing a symbolic neutering of the object. With the same purpose in mind the author is trying to neuter the humanist image of man, the core of which is human free will. However, this leads us to Kivisildnik’s paradox: the condition of the possibility of his vision is also the condition of its impossibility. As long as there are readers of that poetry the realisation of Kivisildnik’s vision of total destruction must be still a little away. Yet, with no more readers around the prophecy must have been realised. Thus, the poetry referred to above manifests itself as a kind of text of warning, with a constantly haunting menacing potential on its limits.

Avalduste tekstistrateegiad

Author(s): Riina Reinsalu / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 62/2016

Professional and administrative communication requires the creation of different types of texts. While some of them merely serve the purpose of preserving information, others are intended to influence people’s actions. In this article, I will explore applications as a textual genre based on 19 applications presented to Sauga Municipality. My goal is to find out what kind of generic structure these applications have and by what linguistic means the applicants aim to direct the actions of those who receive them. Since the applicants are citizens and the receiver is a state authority, the analysis of textual strategies also sheds light on practices between citizens and local authorities as well as on possible power relations between them. The structural analysis of the applications reveals that they have a somewhat rigid generic structure stemming from the tradition of the genre, the particular communicative situation, and the relations between the applicants and the receiver. Applications, in general, are based on two obligatory moves (presenting background information and naming the desired action) and an optional move (expressing one’s point of view). In addition, in presenting the background information, we can distinguish between three steps: one can elaborate when and where the problem occurred, how the applicant is related to the problem, and what in fact is the problem. While the general structure of the analyzed applications is fairly standardized, some differences can be detected in the particular order of moves and steps. The choices of strategies in applications appear in certain textual patterns. The content of an application is usually either a request or wish and expressed as I request, I wish, and wish. In some rare cases, citizens also use propositions or orders in communicating with their local government. Since the application is in the applicant’s own best interest, a direct obligating or coercive approach is usually found inappropriate. The citizen’s demand or order would come across as harsh and as violating the traditions of the genre, and in doing so would create unnecessary opposition from state authorities and thereby undermine the communicative purpose of the application: influencing the receiver to perform the act desired by the applicant.

Baltisakslase romaan

Teos ja autor

Author(s): Ljubov Kisseljova / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 01/2016

The article discusses the Russian historical novel „Constantin Loeven (From my memoirs)” (1831) by Baron Karl Georg Woldemar Friedrich von Rosen (1800–1860), who was born in Estonia. Rosen’s literary activities started from writing poetry in Latin, of which no example has survived. He used German to publish criticism and translations, but most of his oeuvre is in Russian. He started learning Russian at the age of 19. Since 1825 he published in Russian, as his ambition was to become not only a Russian author, but also a Russian national ideologist. So he wrote some plays on themes of Russian history and a libretto for the first Russian national opera „A life for the Tzar”. The article analyses the innovative qualities. of Rosen’s novel. The scene is laid in Estonia, southern Russia, and Greece. The protagonist participates in the Greek War of Independence. The Greek theme enables „Constantin Loeven” to be classified as a historical novel, which was the most topical genre of the time. Unlike in earlier Russian literature Rosen’s romantic hero of Baltic German origin is not a gloomy criminal, but rather a modern man with a complex and strange mindset, a freedom fighter. The character owes to the German sentimentalist and romanticist tradition, as well as to the French libertine novel. In addition, the article specifies on some biographical details of baron Rosen.

Constructing a Text, Creating an Image: The Case of Johannes Barbarus

Author(s): Anneli Kõvamees / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2018

The Estonian poet, physician and politician Johannes Vares-Barbarus (1890–1946) is a contradictory figure in Estonian history and culture. He was a well-known and acknowledged doctor named Vares, but also a poet named Barbarus who was notable for his modernistic poems in the 1920s and 1930s. His actions in the 1940s as one of the leading figures in the Sovietization of Estonia have complicated the reception of his poetry. His opposition to the Republic of Estonia and his left-wing views are nearly always under observation when he or his poems are discussed. Predominantly his poetry has been discussed; his other works have received much less attention. This article analyses his travelogue Matkavisandeid & mõtisklusi (Travel Sketches and Contemplations) based on his trip to the Soviet Union. It was published in the literary magazine Looming in 1935 and reprinted in 1950 in his collected works.

Cultiural Diversity and Transnationality in Baltic German Autobiografical Texts

Author(s): Tiiu Jaago / Language(s): English / Issue: 157/2015

This article stems from the research of oral history and life stories in Estonia. While both stories and research studies made on the basis of stories at the end of the 20th century concentrated on the experience of the 20th-century events (World War II, mass repressions, life under the conditions of the Soviet authority, etc.), more and more attention is currently paid to the present day (multicultural environments, virtual communities, communication space of transnational families, etc.). The article observes, on the basis of Baltic German texts, life in a culturally diverse environment and transnational family in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. By means of text analysis, the authors’ subjective geographies are mapped and thereafter, their attitudes to one or the other territory and the cultural “other” are described. The question is, what is the common share of cultural diversity and transnationality in the past and in the present-day society; which factors favour this common share (mutual relationships of family members, existence of communication networks etc.) and which ones exclude it (historical-cultural features, like e.g. the existence of the class society).

Diderot in Estonian: In Search of a Dialogue

Author(s): Katre Talviste / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

Denis Diderot’s work has recently been enthusiastically translated into Estonian. Translations of Neveu de Rameau, Jacques le Fataliste, Paradoxe sur le comédien, Lettre sur les aveugles and Lettre sur les sourds et muets have been published from 2003 to 2015. In the 20th century, there was seemingly much less interest for his work. Only a few excerpts from his texts were translated and critical attention rarely focused on him. However, a closer look reveals that Diderot has held a rather important place in several culturally significant debates and that the relatively discreet response to his work reflects some key developments of Estonian literature.

Digitaalse kirjanduse defineerimisest ja periodiseerimisest

Author(s): Piret Viires / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 1/2017

The article examines the links between digital literature and digital humanities, as well as various definitions and periodisation of digital literature. Digital literature is ‘digitally born’ literature, created and studied since the end of the 1980s and largely defined as a work with an important literary aspect that takes advantage of the capabilities and contexts provided by computer technology (e.g. hypertext literature, multimedia poetry, interactive literature, etc.). In the periodisation of digital literature, two generations have so far been differentiated (late 1980s until 1995 and from 1995 until today). The article adds a third generation to this periodisation, starting from2006–2007 and linked with the development and spread of social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr) and smart gadgets.The article defines the third generation of digital literature as literature created via social media (including so-called Alt Lit literature), characterised by its democracy, dialogue between participants, textual and narrative dynamics, and mixing of various forms of media. In addition, it is suggested that this type of literature can be associated with post-postmodernist literary trends. A closer look is taken at the work of Estonian authors Kaur Riismaa, Liina Tammiste and Keiti Vilms, who have all used social media platforms (Facebook,Twitter). The article discusses whether these authors can be associated with the term ‘Alt Lit’. The conclusion reached is that several of the features of Alt Lit can be ascribed to the texts and activity of Riismaa, Tammiste and Vilms; Alt Lit features seem to correspond best to Vilms.The overall conclusion of the article is, however, that the content and essence of digital literature does not so much depend on the will of the authors, creative impulses or inner-literature movements, but instead on the development of computer technology. Thus the definitions of digital literature are dynamic in time and depend on the technological solutions that are emerging in a given period and the types and works of digital literature these new technologies can inspire.

EBAÕDUS KOJUTULEK EESTI KIRJANDUSES

Author(s): Leo Luks / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 03/2018

The article addresses homecoming as described in Estonian literature. First, a brief introduction is given to the theoretical foundations of the present approach to cosily settled vs. homeless, with references to some of the author’s earlier publications. Speaking from experience, homecoming from afar is a festive, even solemn occasion – thus, its literary depiction should presumably use the festive register. The main argument of the article is that a typical case of homecoming in Estonian literature is associated with a home lost, due to which homecoming fails to meet the expectations of a celebration, turning instead into a weird, if not scary experience. The theoretical basis of the article lies in Sigmund Freud’s treatment of the uncanny (das Unheimliche). It is argued that Freud’s approach is appropriate for the analysis of homecomings in Estonian literature. The theoretical introduction is followed by a parallel analysis of how homecoming is described in Estonian postwar exile literature and in homeland Estonian poetry. There follows a definition of the motifs of an eerie revenant and an empty house in Estonian literature (mainly based on Friedebert Tuglas’ short story Kuldne rõngas (“Golden ring”). The article is concluded by an analysis of homecoming as a frustrating experience as depicted in Peet Vallak’s short story Hulkur (“A vagabond”) and in Merca’s poem Saabumine (“Arrival”). The conclusive part of the article contains some rather far-reaching generalisations. It is argued that depiction of the cosy and the normal is not the mission of literature, which should instead generate malfunctions in the world of the everyday. It is doubted whether a literary work of high artistic value could ever be built on the sweet idyll of homecoming, which doubts are escalated in the following speculations about the onthology of literature and human nature. The article ends in a list of ways for the writer to avoid turning the description of a homecoming uncanny, namely, describe the homecoming as a process, but never depict the arrival.

Eesti ja läti luule sünd saksa laulu vaimust. I osa

Author(s): Liina Lukas / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 10/2019

The year 1779 could well go down in history as the year of Estonian poetry, as this is when two seminal works were published. Those two differed in their understanding of the mission of poetry, thus anticipating two competing possibilities for the development of Estonian written poetry. One of them was Part Two of the collection of folk songs called Volkslieder, which was compiled by Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) and contained some Estonian folk songs as treated by Herder, while the other was the poetry almanac Ehstländische poetische Blumenlese für das Jahr 1779 by Johann Friedrich Ernst Albrecht (1752–1814), published in Rakvere, representing not only local German-language poems, but also Estonian translations of three popular German songs. As for timing, both books saw the light of day when a debate was gaining momentum in the Baltics discussing the prospects of development of non-German literature. According to the ideologists of popular enlightenment, Estonian as well as Latvian poetries were to be cultivated following the example of translations from culturally superior languages. Herder, however, sensed real poetry in the folklore of primitive peoples, which he regarded as the right basis for the written poetry to come. Now, which of the two ideas gained the upper hand? How was either theory realised in poetic practide? The article takes the reader back to the sources of Estonian poetry. The treatment includes the beginnings of not only Estonian but also Latvian poetry and the relevant polemics, as confinement of oneself to Estonian material alone would leave one but halfway to solving the problems of early Estonian literary history. Part One of the article discusses the influence that the folklore concept of Johann Gottfried Herder as well as his folklore collections might have exercised in the Baltics, and their role in the emergence of Estonian and Latvian poetry.

Eesti keele sõltuvuspuude pank ja selle keeleteoreetilised lähted

Author(s): Kadri Muischnek,Kaili Müürisep / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 62/2016

This article presents the Estonian Dependency Treebank (EDT) and discusses its language-theoretical basis. EDT contains ca 400,000 tokens of fiction, newspaper and science texts. Its syntactic annotation is based on principles of dependency syntax. Previous experiments with annotating Estonian sentences according to the principles of phrase structure syntax have shown that the resulting trees tend to be too shallow and thus do not encode the linguistic information in the best possible way. Therefore dependency-syntactic representation was chosen instead. Dependency relations are efficient for encoding typical head-dependent relations like verb-argument or head-modifier but are not so suitable for analyzing adpositional phrases, verbal chains, multi-word expressions or other constructs without clear internal syntactic relations. In such cases, there are arguments both for and against all possible solutions.

Eesti kirjandusest Euroopas

Author(s): Cornelius Hasselblatt / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 1-2/2019

The article investigates the foreign reception of Estonian literature and concentrates on why some piece of literature is chosen for translation and how its distribution works. It comprises four case studies, i.e. the Estonian epic „Kalevipoeg” by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, the novel „The Czar’s Madman” by Jaan Kross, „The Man Who Spoke Snakish” by Andrus Kivirähk, and „Child of Glass” by Maarja Kangro. It shows how different times, different language areas and different approaches constitute various versions of reception.

Eesti looduslikud pühapaigad suulises ja kirjalikus kultuuris „Kalevipoja” näitel

Author(s): Ott Heinapuu / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 04/2019

The article demonstrates differences between the symbolic landscapes of an oral vernacular culture and a literate culture, drawing on examples of perceiving and depicting sacred natural sites in Estonia. Vernacular oral culture and written national culture are considered as subsystems of a wider cultural system, following Yuri Lotman. In the literate Estonian culture from the 19th century onward, references to oak groves dominate as a typical image of ancient Estonian sacred sites. The symbol of the sacred oak grove is literary in origin, deriving from European examples of the Romantic Era. An important source contributing to the spread of the idea of ancient oak groves has been the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg by Fr. R. Kreutzwald, first published as a full edition in 1862. An analysis of the text of the epic shows that most references to sacred oak groves and oaks in the epic are rhetorical in nature, featuring as poetic devices, figures of speech or abstract symbols signifying the idea of an ancient golden era. Only in two instances can they be considered to refer to concrete landscapes that can be precisely located. In the 20th century, sacred natural sites known to the local vernacular religion are increasingly interpreted in written national history as monuments of pre-Christian times. This is evidence of the hybridisation of certain features of written and oral culture after the national written culture has become established as the dominant subsystem.

Eesti näitekirjandus ja teater kultuurimälu meediumidena

Author(s): Piret Kruuspere / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 1/2017

Literature, especially the historical novel, has been analysed as one of the main media of cultural memory. At the same time, the importance of translational transfers between media and art forms, as well as audio-visual media, has been stressed more often. The role of theatre as the medium of cultural memory has not been analysed so frequently. This article focuses on the relationship between dramatic art and national memory culture, including dramatic interpretations of historical epic literature, as well as the manner in which traumatic experiences of historical past have been processed in the form of drama and performance.On the basis of a number of works of Rein Saluri, Madis Kõiv and Merle Karusoo, the article also considers the possibility of defining Estonian memory theatre as a phenomenon. This research is based upon the studies of relations between memory and history, and drama and theatre (Malkin,Carlson, Rokem), as well as studies of cultural memory (Lotman, Assmanns, Erll, Rigney).