Category
Topic
Year
Motion verbs along the horizontal and vertical axes
Keywords: verb meaning, motion verbs, classification, experimental semantics
In this paper, the meaning of motion verbs is analysed by means of a sorting task. The aim of the study was to identify the degree to which motion verbs in Estonian express horizontal and/or vertical motion. For that, 95 frequent motion verbs of Estonian were presented one by one to 39 native-speaking participants. Their task was to classify the verbs into one of the four pre-defined categories: ‘upward motion’, ‘horizontal motion’, ‘downward motion’, ‘don’t know’. Multidimensional scaling and a clustering technique were then used for statistical data analysis. The results show four…
In this paper, the meaning of motion verbs is analysed by means of a sorting task. The aim of the study was to identify the degree to which motion verbs in Estonian express horizontal and/or vertical motion. For that, 95 frequent motion verbs of Estonian were presented one by one to 39 native-speaking participants. Their task was to classify the verbs into one of the four pre-defined categories: ‘upward motion’, ‘horizontal motion’, ‘downward motion’, ‘don’t know’. Multidimensional scaling and a clustering technique were then used for statistical data analysis. The results show four…
Analysis is tenderness
Keywords: literary criticism, cultural journalism, modern literature, meta-criticism, reception
The article is focused on literary criticism published in Estonian press from 2019 to 2020. The aim of the article is to capture some general tendencies observed in modern Estonian literary criticism and to highlight certain aspects which have hitherto received less attention. One of such aspects is the underestimation of editor influence on the field of criticism. Another observation reveals that critics often fail to find fruitful angles to analyse such literature where the borderlines between fiction and document as well as between speakerʼs and authorʼs egos get blurred. Yet these…
The article is focused on literary criticism published in Estonian press from 2019 to 2020. The aim of the article is to capture some general tendencies observed in modern Estonian literary criticism and to highlight certain aspects which have hitherto received less attention. One of such aspects is the underestimation of editor influence on the field of criticism. Another observation reveals that critics often fail to find fruitful angles to analyse such literature where the borderlines between fiction and document as well as between speakerʼs and authorʼs egos get blurred. Yet these…
Rural prostitutes as reflected in folklore and court materials
Keywords: folk songs, rural prostitution, sexual culture, peasants, court materials
By juxtaposing runo songs as well as newer folk songs with court and police materials, an attempt is made to find out whether prostitution, or paid sex, occurred in 19th-century Estonian rural settlements. The research question is whether the typical venue for the activity was the tavern, which has usually been associated with immoral sexual behaviour, or whether the practice was also carried on, e.g., by female farm servants, herd girls of the manor, cottagers, soldier’s wives etc. The terminology used for such women is also discussed. It turns out…
By juxtaposing runo songs as well as newer folk songs with court and police materials, an attempt is made to find out whether prostitution, or paid sex, occurred in 19th-century Estonian rural settlements. The research question is whether the typical venue for the activity was the tavern, which has usually been associated with immoral sexual behaviour, or whether the practice was also carried on, e.g., by female farm servants, herd girls of the manor, cottagers, soldier’s wives etc. The terminology used for such women is also discussed. It turns out…
The poetics of ambivalence
Keywords: poetics, ambivalence, game, performativity, Theatre NO99
The article investigates the double nature of arts and the related poetics of ambivalence. Similarly to other forms of play, arts are simultaneously operating at two levels: at the symbolic level of play and the non-symbolic level of reality. The intentional strategy of playing at these levels simultaneously causes ambivalence of meanings and affects and has a strong transgressive potential.
The article is divided into three parts. First, different approaches (Barthes, Alter, Burns, Epner) to the double nature of arts are introduced. In the second part, the term ”ambivalence” and poetics based on the notion…
The article investigates the double nature of arts and the related poetics of ambivalence. Similarly to other forms of play, arts are simultaneously operating at two levels: at the symbolic level of play and the non-symbolic level of reality. The intentional strategy of playing at these levels simultaneously causes ambivalence of meanings and affects and has a strong transgressive potential.
The article is divided into three parts. First, different approaches (Barthes, Alter, Burns, Epner) to the double nature of arts are introduced. In the second part, the term ”ambivalence” and poetics based on the notion…
Text and performance in sound poetry: Eesti by Jaan Malin
Keywords: sound poetry, music, text, performance, form, Jaan Malin
There exist no well-established methods for discussing sound poetry. Sound poetry can be associated with music through a specific relationship between text and performance. According to modern understanding, in music, performance is seen not only as a realization of the structure of a work, i.e. of its content, but also as its essential component, and this can also be said about sound poetry. At the same time, sound poetry contains a semantic aspect, due to which it, unlike music, also operates with specific meanings. Consequently, the form of a work of sound…
There exist no well-established methods for discussing sound poetry. Sound poetry can be associated with music through a specific relationship between text and performance. According to modern understanding, in music, performance is seen not only as a realization of the structure of a work, i.e. of its content, but also as its essential component, and this can also be said about sound poetry. At the same time, sound poetry contains a semantic aspect, due to which it, unlike music, also operates with specific meanings. Consequently, the form of a work of sound…
The conflict between lyric and autobiographical
Keywords: lyric time, immersion, performativity, hyperbole, apostrophe, fictionality
Several features of lyric poetry – e.g. subjectivity, vague deixis, monologic structure, low mediation, and weak narrativity – provide a good ground for reading lyric texts as a priori reliable and autobiographical. The metatheoretical discussion here takes a lyricological approach to the relationship of referentiality and self-referentiality in lyric poetry with a view to illuminating the general field of tension between the lyric and the autobiographical. The focus of the discussion is on the following five prototypical features of lyric poetry: temporality, immersion, performativity, hyperbole, and apostrophe.
As is proved by case studies, lyric…
Several features of lyric poetry – e.g. subjectivity, vague deixis, monologic structure, low mediation, and weak narrativity – provide a good ground for reading lyric texts as a priori reliable and autobiographical. The metatheoretical discussion here takes a lyricological approach to the relationship of referentiality and self-referentiality in lyric poetry with a view to illuminating the general field of tension between the lyric and the autobiographical. The focus of the discussion is on the following five prototypical features of lyric poetry: temporality, immersion, performativity, hyperbole, and apostrophe.
As is proved by case studies, lyric…
Poetics of the Estonian novell (classic short story)
Keywords: short story, novell, poetics, structure, composition, punchline, subtext, criticism
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…
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…
The poetics of young Jaan Bergmann: Poetic art as pleasure and instruction
Keywords: Jaan Bergmann, poetics, Estonian poetry, runo verse, strophe-forms, classical translations, poetic reform
Jaan Bergmann (1856–1916) can be considered one of the founding figures of Estonian poetics: He authored the first Estonian survey of poetics, he also introduced various canonical forms of poetry in his native original poetry, broadened Estonian poetry by genres and enriched it by translations, being the first Estonian translator of several ancient authors. Bergmann’s efforts to diversify Estonian poetic culture mainly belong to his student years, age 18–22. Thus the focus of the present article lies on Bergmann’s contribution to the development of Estonian poetics and versification…
Jaan Bergmann (1856–1916) can be considered one of the founding figures of Estonian poetics: He authored the first Estonian survey of poetics, he also introduced various canonical forms of poetry in his native original poetry, broadened Estonian poetry by genres and enriched it by translations, being the first Estonian translator of several ancient authors. Bergmann’s efforts to diversify Estonian poetic culture mainly belong to his student years, age 18–22. Thus the focus of the present article lies on Bergmann’s contribution to the development of Estonian poetics and versification…
The strophic structure of ancient Hebrew affective and reflective distress poetry, on the example of the speeches of Job
Keywords: Old Testament, Hebrew Bible, poetry, biblical poetry, strophe, verse
The paper suggests that there is enough reason to maintain the genre of distress poetry in Ancient Hebrew poetry. It helps to overcome the limits of the poetical corpora of psalms, prophets and wisdom overestimated so far in research history, and to see connections between texts that seem different at first glance. Even though in ancient times there seem to have been nobody to consider the category of distress poetry, it still has a functional role nowadays. The present small study requires a multilayered, redaction-critical look at the Book of Job…
The paper suggests that there is enough reason to maintain the genre of distress poetry in Ancient Hebrew poetry. It helps to overcome the limits of the poetical corpora of psalms, prophets and wisdom overestimated so far in research history, and to see connections between texts that seem different at first glance. Even though in ancient times there seem to have been nobody to consider the category of distress poetry, it still has a functional role nowadays. The present small study requires a multilayered, redaction-critical look at the Book of Job…
Repeating repetitions: Rendering figures of repetition in Estonian translations of Greek novels
Keywords: Greek novels, rhetorical figures, figures of repetition, Estonian translation
The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of transferring the rhetorical figures, specifically the figures of repetition which occur in the Greek novels, into Estonian translation. The use and function of sound-repetitions, word- and stem-repetitions and structural repetitions in two Greek novels (Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius from the 2nd century AD and Hysmine and Hysminias by Eustathius Macrembolites from the 12th century AD) are shortly described, examining which figures can be rendered into Estonian in exactly the same form, in which cases some minor changes have…
The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of transferring the rhetorical figures, specifically the figures of repetition which occur in the Greek novels, into Estonian translation. The use and function of sound-repetitions, word- and stem-repetitions and structural repetitions in two Greek novels (Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius from the 2nd century AD and Hysmine and Hysminias by Eustathius Macrembolites from the 12th century AD) are shortly described, examining which figures can be rendered into Estonian in exactly the same form, in which cases some minor changes have…
A pair of fading disciplines – the art of phrasing based on the art of thinking: The emergence of rhetoric and the poetics of philosophy in Greece and their lingering in other places
Keywords: Plato, Gorgias, Aristotle, Dionysius from Halicarnassos, Cicero, Horace, Morgenstern
The article discusses the emergence and development of poetics and rhetoric as a complementary pair of disciplines bound to the arts of speech, with a particular focus on antiquity and on the theory defining poetry and prose and their relationship. It emphasizes the often unrecognized role of Gorgias’ “Encomium of Helen” in the formation of Plato’s and Aristotle’s views on “poiesis” and their studies of the effect of words used artistically. Ever since Gorgias, arts theories keep emphasizing the same moments – change of opinions, incitement and alleviation of passions –when…
The article discusses the emergence and development of poetics and rhetoric as a complementary pair of disciplines bound to the arts of speech, with a particular focus on antiquity and on the theory defining poetry and prose and their relationship. It emphasizes the often unrecognized role of Gorgias’ “Encomium of Helen” in the formation of Plato’s and Aristotle’s views on “poiesis” and their studies of the effect of words used artistically. Ever since Gorgias, arts theories keep emphasizing the same moments – change of opinions, incitement and alleviation of passions –when…
Poetics is in genes: A manifesto
Keywords: poetics, pragmapoetics, genetics, self-reflexivity, CRISPR, biosemiotics, biolinguistics
The article reveals the commonality between poetics and genetics for the first time. Thus far, outside of cellular biology, attempts have been made from both (text)linguistics and semiotics to describe the genome and its interactions similarly to language. However, the approach in this manifesto relies particularly on the poetic function of language and its underlying self-referentiality as its starting point. Poetic relevance reveals itself explicitly in its relation to the cutting-edge concept of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which thematizes abundant metrical and figurative phenomena and terms on several levels: accumulation, regularity, interval, different repetitions, rhythm; equivalency, substitution, connotation;…
The article reveals the commonality between poetics and genetics for the first time. Thus far, outside of cellular biology, attempts have been made from both (text)linguistics and semiotics to describe the genome and its interactions similarly to language. However, the approach in this manifesto relies particularly on the poetic function of language and its underlying self-referentiality as its starting point. Poetic relevance reveals itself explicitly in its relation to the cutting-edge concept of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which thematizes abundant metrical and figurative phenomena and terms on several levels: accumulation, regularity, interval, different repetitions, rhythm; equivalency, substitution, connotation;…
The Estonian liisuma and its attendants
Keywords: Estonian, lexical history, etymology, Baltic loanwords
The Estonian verb liisuma ’grow stale, become vapid’ is provided with a Baltic etymology: Blt. *līsV-, whose descendants in modern Baltic languages are, e.g. Lith. lýsti (lýsta, lýso) ’grow thin or lean, become emaciated (of a sick person or animal); become lean, barren (of a field or soil)’. For example the Lith. líesti (líesta, líeso) ’become emaciated (of an animal), become barren (of land)’, líesas ’meagre, emaciated (person or animal), lean (meat), lean, poor, hungry, barren (soil); shriveled (ear of grain)’, Latv. liẽst (liẽst, liẽsa) ’become lean’, liẽss ’thin, meagre (person), lean (meat), lean,…
The Estonian verb liisuma ’grow stale, become vapid’ is provided with a Baltic etymology: Blt. *līsV-, whose descendants in modern Baltic languages are, e.g. Lith. lýsti (lýsta, lýso) ’grow thin or lean, become emaciated (of a sick person or animal); become lean, barren (of a field or soil)’. For example the Lith. líesti (líesta, líeso) ’become emaciated (of an animal), become barren (of land)’, líesas ’meagre, emaciated (person or animal), lean (meat), lean, poor, hungry, barren (soil); shriveled (ear of grain)’, Latv. liẽst (liẽst, liẽsa) ’become lean’, liẽss ’thin, meagre (person), lean (meat), lean,…
From Foreign Literature to World Literature
Keywords: world literature, literatures of western Europe, Hispanic studies, continuity in teaching world literature
The article deals with the transition from the Soviet-era concept of foreign literature (väliskirjandus) to the historically justified concept world literature (maailmakirjandus) in Estonian literary studies and the role of Professor Jüri Talvet (b. 1945) of the University of Tartu in this process. Although the concept of world literature was not taboo in the Soviet Union, its content was hardly found taught in institutions of higher education. Instead, there was a subject called Foreign Literature, which mainly included literatures of western Europe since early Middle Ages. In…
The article deals with the transition from the Soviet-era concept of foreign literature (väliskirjandus) to the historically justified concept world literature (maailmakirjandus) in Estonian literary studies and the role of Professor Jüri Talvet (b. 1945) of the University of Tartu in this process. Although the concept of world literature was not taboo in the Soviet Union, its content was hardly found taught in institutions of higher education. Instead, there was a subject called Foreign Literature, which mainly included literatures of western Europe since early Middle Ages. In…
On professional correspondence between Julius Mägiste and Andrus Saareste when in exile
Keywords: exile, correspondence, linguistics, dialectology, informants
The article describes the correspondence between two language professors of the University of Tartu before the Second World War, Julius Mägiste (1900–1978) and Andrus Saareste (1892–1964), which lasted for nearly two decades in exile from 1944 to 1964. There are 68 letters from the former Finnic professor Mägiste and 80 from the Estonian professor Saareste. The letters are kept at the Cultural History Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum (EKM EKLA, f 254, m 22:22; EKM EKLA, f 340, m 30:23).
After staying in refugee camps both professors found jobs in Swedish universities: Mägiste as…
The article describes the correspondence between two language professors of the University of Tartu before the Second World War, Julius Mägiste (1900–1978) and Andrus Saareste (1892–1964), which lasted for nearly two decades in exile from 1944 to 1964. There are 68 letters from the former Finnic professor Mägiste and 80 from the Estonian professor Saareste. The letters are kept at the Cultural History Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum (EKM EKLA, f 254, m 22:22; EKM EKLA, f 340, m 30:23).
After staying in refugee camps both professors found jobs in Swedish universities: Mägiste as…
Folk expressions of the corona crisis in Estonia: Reuse of folklore as a way of coping
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic tradition, folkloristics, folklore reuse, memes, narratives, proverbs
The aim of the article is to provide an overview of the reuse of folklore as a way of coping, based on the narratives related to COVID-19 pandemic collected from written, oral and online sources from March to June 2020. By giving examples of thematic religious and belief tradition, memes and proverbs, we point out how each new epidemic revives certain core motifs and root texts, some of which are exceptionally productive. We conclude that such a creative reuse of certain well-known and tested motifs in the interpretation of the disease…
The aim of the article is to provide an overview of the reuse of folklore as a way of coping, based on the narratives related to COVID-19 pandemic collected from written, oral and online sources from March to June 2020. By giving examples of thematic religious and belief tradition, memes and proverbs, we point out how each new epidemic revives certain core motifs and root texts, some of which are exceptionally productive. We conclude that such a creative reuse of certain well-known and tested motifs in the interpretation of the disease…