Category
Topic
Year
On the poetics of transgressive literature (II)
Keywords: transgressive literature, scandal, lawsuit, contemporary Estonian literature, pornography, parody, grotesque, horror vacui
In his short story „Untitled 12”, ambivalent Estonian author and journalist Kaur Kender describes sex addiction in a middle-aged man, which supported by the need for control leads to a growing succession of acts of violence, torture and murder. Kender has received a criminal charge for his detailed and violent descriptions of sexual intercourse between the man and children. From the literary point of view, Kender uses the language of pornography in its whole richness, yet not with an aim of stimulating the sexual instinct, but rather to criticise…
In his short story „Untitled 12”, ambivalent Estonian author and journalist Kaur Kender describes sex addiction in a middle-aged man, which supported by the need for control leads to a growing succession of acts of violence, torture and murder. Kender has received a criminal charge for his detailed and violent descriptions of sexual intercourse between the man and children. From the literary point of view, Kender uses the language of pornography in its whole richness, yet not with an aim of stimulating the sexual instinct, but rather to criticise…
The crazy idea of etymologising plant names
Keywords: Finnic languages, Baltic loanwords, lexical history
A Baltic etymology is suggested for an Estonian-Finnish root name for seaweed (Est adru, adra etc, Fin haura, hauru, hatru ‘kelp, bladderwrack’). The hypothetical origin of the word is *šandra, continuing in the modern Lithuanian šañdrai pl, šandros pl ‘trash, litter, blades of grass, wash-up left by floods on riverbanks or in flood meadows’. The idea looks impeccable both from a phonetic and semantic point of view.
Lembit Vaba (b. 1945), PhD, Foreign Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, phorest45@gmail.com
A Baltic etymology is suggested for an Estonian-Finnish root name for seaweed (Est adru, adra etc, Fin haura, hauru, hatru ‘kelp, bladderwrack’). The hypothetical origin of the word is *šandra, continuing in the modern Lithuanian šañdrai pl, šandros pl ‘trash, litter, blades of grass, wash-up left by floods on riverbanks or in flood meadows’. The idea looks impeccable both from a phonetic and semantic point of view.
Lembit Vaba (b. 1945), PhD, Foreign Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, phorest45@gmail.com
Oskar Loorits and perspectivism
Keywords: perspectivism, animism, Finno-Ugric mythology, cosmology, heteronomy
Perspectivism is a philosophical category that has recently been transposed to cultural anthropology. It is based on a Nietzschean idea that there is no pure reason or absolute spirituality but „only a perspectival seeing, only a perspectival ‘knowing’” (On the Genealogy of Morality, III, 12). Viveiros de Castro has identified perspectivism as a multinaturalism, opposing this concept to the dominant form of multiculturalism: the core of multinaturalism is the idea that „a perspective is not a representation” and „every existent can be thought of as thinking” (Cannibal Metaphysics). Therefore a perspectivist way of thinking…
Perspectivism is a philosophical category that has recently been transposed to cultural anthropology. It is based on a Nietzschean idea that there is no pure reason or absolute spirituality but „only a perspectival seeing, only a perspectival ‘knowing’” (On the Genealogy of Morality, III, 12). Viveiros de Castro has identified perspectivism as a multinaturalism, opposing this concept to the dominant form of multiculturalism: the core of multinaturalism is the idea that „a perspective is not a representation” and „every existent can be thought of as thinking” (Cannibal Metaphysics). Therefore a perspectivist way of thinking…
The competence and use of Estonian as a second language
Keywords: language choice, language shift, census, mixed methods, Russian speakers, Estonia
The programming period of „Development Plan of the Estonian language 2011–2017” will end soon. It is high time for an interim evaluation of the status quo of Estonian but also for setting new strategic targets. Puur et al. (2016) have taken up the task by providing an overview of native languages spoken in Estonia, the competence of Estonian as a second language, and the processes of language shift over the last 25 years. While they might be right that the analytic potential of the census data has not been exhausted yet, this…
The programming period of „Development Plan of the Estonian language 2011–2017” will end soon. It is high time for an interim evaluation of the status quo of Estonian but also for setting new strategic targets. Puur et al. (2016) have taken up the task by providing an overview of native languages spoken in Estonia, the competence of Estonian as a second language, and the processes of language shift over the last 25 years. While they might be right that the analytic potential of the census data has not been exhausted yet, this…
Letters from Estonians in Siberia
Keywords: communication, fieldwork, letters, Siberian Estonians
The majority of Estonian settlements in Siberia were founded in the last decade of the 19th century and in the early 20th century by Estonian emigrants in search of their own land. Settlements that were established yet earlier were made up of people deported to Siberia by the Russian Tsar.
In the article I analyse the letters sent to me from Estonian villages in Siberia following my folkloristic fieldwork in the region in 1991–2010. In the late 20th century and the early 21st century, exhanging letters with Estonians in Siberia had an important function both for me and my correspondents.…
The majority of Estonian settlements in Siberia were founded in the last decade of the 19th century and in the early 20th century by Estonian emigrants in search of their own land. Settlements that were established yet earlier were made up of people deported to Siberia by the Russian Tsar.
In the article I analyse the letters sent to me from Estonian villages in Siberia following my folkloristic fieldwork in the region in 1991–2010. In the late 20th century and the early 21st century, exhanging letters with Estonians in Siberia had an important function both for me and my correspondents.…
What to do with the Estonian term suremus ‘mortality’?
Keywords: mortality, demography, general statistics, epidemiology, mass event, population process, measurement, absolute and relative numbers
One of the central terms in demography, epidemiology, health statistics and some other disciplines is mortality (Est. ‘suremus’). In Estonian this term is used in three senses: to denote the number of deaths, the number of deaths in relation to population size, and a population process. A possible way to overcome such terminological ambiguity is to stick to the ideas developed in demography and general theory of statistics, and introduced in Estonia more systematically by Uno Mereste in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Mortality is a population process measured by absolute…
One of the central terms in demography, epidemiology, health statistics and some other disciplines is mortality (Est. ‘suremus’). In Estonian this term is used in three senses: to denote the number of deaths, the number of deaths in relation to population size, and a population process. A possible way to overcome such terminological ambiguity is to stick to the ideas developed in demography and general theory of statistics, and introduced in Estonia more systematically by Uno Mereste in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Mortality is a population process measured by absolute…
Wh-questions in Estonian everyday conversation
Keywords: spoken Estonian, everyday dialogue, questions, social action, wh-questions, conversation analysis
The purpose of the article is to research the social actions of wh-questions in Estonian everyday conversations and find out whether there is a connection between the form of the question and the social action. Wh-questions are formed with question words (mis ‘what’, kuidas ‘how’, kes ‘who’ etc.) and the question does not contain an answer. The material consists of 271 extracts collected from the Corpus of Spoken Estonian of the University of Tartu. The extracts were analysed using the methodology of conversation analysis.
There were four social actionsperformed by the wh-questions analysed: Request for information (144), Rhetorical question (65),…
The purpose of the article is to research the social actions of wh-questions in Estonian everyday conversations and find out whether there is a connection between the form of the question and the social action. Wh-questions are formed with question words (mis ‘what’, kuidas ‘how’, kes ‘who’ etc.) and the question does not contain an answer. The material consists of 271 extracts collected from the Corpus of Spoken Estonian of the University of Tartu. The extracts were analysed using the methodology of conversation analysis.
There were four social actionsperformed by the wh-questions analysed: Request for information (144), Rhetorical question (65),…
Philology that is no more
Keywords: exegesis, etymology, Goethe, Lotman, memory, translation
Here we define „philology” as a discipline studying how reality is transformed into text and vice versa. The question of philology is wording, while its object encompasses everything accessible to verbal reference.
Philology belongs to Culture, not to Civilisation. Civilisation consists of knowledge and skills, answering the question „How to do/make it?” Culture consists of norms, orders and prohibitions, of do’s and don’ts, answering in the end the question „How to understand it?” Civilisation is developed by sciences, Culture is developed by the humanities. Philology belongs to the humanities, perhaps even, considering its function of…
Here we define „philology” as a discipline studying how reality is transformed into text and vice versa. The question of philology is wording, while its object encompasses everything accessible to verbal reference.
Philology belongs to Culture, not to Civilisation. Civilisation consists of knowledge and skills, answering the question „How to do/make it?” Culture consists of norms, orders and prohibitions, of do’s and don’ts, answering in the end the question „How to understand it?” Civilisation is developed by sciences, Culture is developed by the humanities. Philology belongs to the humanities, perhaps even, considering its function of…
On the poetics of transgressive literature (I)
Keywords: transgressive literature, contemporary Estonian literature, transgression, postmodernism, event, abject, scandal, carnival, graphic description, reflexivity
Transgressive poetics is a genre-appropriate selection of devices to describe deviant behaviour and phenomena regulated by prohibitions. The article presents a two-level approach starting from the theoretical framework of transgressive literature, which is subsequently filled in with examples of transgression found in contemporary Estonian literature. At first, the general concept of transgression is discussed based on Georges Bataille, which is followed by the description of a transgressive work of literature as an event formatted by provocation and scandal. The transgressive nature of the conditions and phenomena…
Transgressive poetics is a genre-appropriate selection of devices to describe deviant behaviour and phenomena regulated by prohibitions. The article presents a two-level approach starting from the theoretical framework of transgressive literature, which is subsequently filled in with examples of transgression found in contemporary Estonian literature. At first, the general concept of transgression is discussed based on Georges Bataille, which is followed by the description of a transgressive work of literature as an event formatted by provocation and scandal. The transgressive nature of the conditions and phenomena…
The question of municipality names in the Estonian municipality reform of the 1930s
Keywords: municipality names, municipality reform, Estonianisation of names
By changing place names, authorities have always had the chance to impose their ideology. Therefore, every power changed those names in their own way – some of them more extensively, some just slightly. The aim of this study was to find out which were the main aspects of changing municipality names in the 1930s and who had the most impact on the process that was especially related to the municipality reform finalised in 1939. The study is based on archive materials from the Estonian National Archives. Some additional information was found from newspapers…
By changing place names, authorities have always had the chance to impose their ideology. Therefore, every power changed those names in their own way – some of them more extensively, some just slightly. The aim of this study was to find out which were the main aspects of changing municipality names in the 1930s and who had the most impact on the process that was especially related to the municipality reform finalised in 1939. The study is based on archive materials from the Estonian National Archives. Some additional information was found from newspapers…
Antihumanism without reserve
Keywords: Estonian poetry, 21st century, antihumanism, ideology, humour, poetics, psychoanalysis
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…
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…
Eine Reise, zwei Tagebücher
Stichwörter: deutschbaltisch, Genderforschung, Reisen, 18. Jahrhundert, Tagebücher, Romantik
1797–1799 führte eine Europareise Gustav und Sophie von Stackelberg, zwei Adlige aus Estland, nach Deutschland, Österreich und in die Schweiz. Das eigentliche Reiseziel – Italien – konnte wegen Besetzung durch napoleonische Truppen nicht besucht werden. Während der Reise haben beide Ehepartner separat ein Tagebuch geführt. Dies gibt Gelegenheit, dieselbe Reise aus zwei verschiedenen Blickwinkeln bzw. aus männlicher und weiblicher Perspektive zu beobachten. Das Tagebuch der Frau ist wesentlich umfangreicher. Es setzt schon fast am Anfang der Reise an, für die Frau war die Fahrt von Anbeginn bis zum Ende ein Abenteuer. Das Tagebuch…
1797–1799 führte eine Europareise Gustav und Sophie von Stackelberg, zwei Adlige aus Estland, nach Deutschland, Österreich und in die Schweiz. Das eigentliche Reiseziel – Italien – konnte wegen Besetzung durch napoleonische Truppen nicht besucht werden. Während der Reise haben beide Ehepartner separat ein Tagebuch geführt. Dies gibt Gelegenheit, dieselbe Reise aus zwei verschiedenen Blickwinkeln bzw. aus männlicher und weiblicher Perspektive zu beobachten. Das Tagebuch der Frau ist wesentlich umfangreicher. Es setzt schon fast am Anfang der Reise an, für die Frau war die Fahrt von Anbeginn bis zum Ende ein Abenteuer. Das Tagebuch…
Marie Under as the Estonian translator of „The Poems of Yuri Zhivago”
Keywords: Marie Under, Boris Pasternak, Poems of Doctor Zhivago, poetics and strategies of translation
The present article is focused on the first Estonian translation of Doctor Zhivago’s last chapter „The Poems of Yuri Zhivago”. This translation was published in 1960 by the publishing house Vaba Maa in Stockholm shortly after Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature (1958). Artur Adson translated the prose, while „The Poems of Yuri Zhivago” were translated by Marie Under.
The article aims to reproduce a succession of some facts related to the translation process and the translation itself with the purpose of helping readers to…
The present article is focused on the first Estonian translation of Doctor Zhivago’s last chapter „The Poems of Yuri Zhivago”. This translation was published in 1960 by the publishing house Vaba Maa in Stockholm shortly after Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature (1958). Artur Adson translated the prose, while „The Poems of Yuri Zhivago” were translated by Marie Under.
The article aims to reproduce a succession of some facts related to the translation process and the translation itself with the purpose of helping readers to…
On tense and consciousness
Keywords: complement clauses, sequence of tenses, indirect speech, indirect perception, discourse vs. narrative, deictic points of orientation, absolute and relative tense, translation theory
Testing Adrian Barentsen’s insights regarding tense in Russian complement sentences on Estonian material, the article examines the use of the present and preterite tenses in Estonian complement clauses if the main clause verb is in the preterite. The starting point is the well-known observation that some languages show a shift in verb tense (sequence of tenses) in indirect speech, while some others do not. Estonian, while not having tense shift in indirect speech, has it in sentences embedded…
Testing Adrian Barentsen’s insights regarding tense in Russian complement sentences on Estonian material, the article examines the use of the present and preterite tenses in Estonian complement clauses if the main clause verb is in the preterite. The starting point is the well-known observation that some languages show a shift in verb tense (sequence of tenses) in indirect speech, while some others do not. Estonian, while not having tense shift in indirect speech, has it in sentences embedded…
Return of the South Estonian language into literary prose
Keywords: August Kitzberg, Jaan Lattik, Ernst Enno, Hermann Julius Schmalz, Estonian prose, South Estonian, dialects, language in literature Although the turn of the 20th century marked a retreat of the South Estonian literary language, also called Tartu language, from the printed word, the period brought some new ways to use dialects in fiction. The most prominent users of South Estonian dialects in the prose of the time were August Kitzberg, Jaan Lattik, Ernst Enno and Hermann Julius Schmalz, which makes the four authors responsible for bringing South Estonian back to literature.
Kitzberg, who was the first of the four to start…
Kitzberg, who was the first of the four to start…