The article asks about the boundaries of drama. There are a few strategies of producing dramatic texts that are popular in Western theatre, yet not very widely used in Estonia: (1) devised theatre, where the staging process does not start from a finished play; (2) documentary theatre, where the dramatic text is compiled using various documentary sources, and (3) verbatim theatre, using interviews and oral tradition in general. The article defines those methods and explains their historical background. The definition of the verbatim-technique is extended to cover not only the use of recordings of oral speech, but also the use…

Die Studie untergliedert sich in zehn Kapitel. Zu Anfang werden die poetologische Rezeption von Pindar und das daraus folgende „Pindarisieren” seit der Renaissance im französischen und besonders deutschen Sprachbereich geschildert. Danach wird der Herderschen Interpretation der „pindarischen” Dithyramben und den dichterischen Initiativen des jungen Goethe nachgespürt. Im Kapitel „Das Enjambement” (fr. ’das Überschreiten’, dt. Zeilensprung) wird gezeigt, wie das Pindarisieren in der neuen Dichtung fast verpflichtend mit dieser Versfigur in Verbindung gebracht wurde. Die Pindar-begeisterten Dichter haben seine Oden in der sog. kolometrischen Schreibweise gelesen, wobei der Text in kurze Zeilen von unregelmäßiger Länge eingeteilt wurde, die wie Freie Rhythmen…

In the rapidly changing world of today many adults have gained an impression that young people are sitting in front of a computer rather than reading fiction. Nevertheless, according to a study carried out in Estonia in 2008–2009 most of the schoolchildren can name their favourite authors as well as books, giving reasonable arguments for their choice. Literature lessons have a significant role in shaping pupils’ taste in literature, as many a good book would otherwise miss their attention. However, in drawing up the lists of school literature, more attention should be paid to the age and abilities of the…

From 1875–1886, Jakob Hurt, who was the initiator of the first major campaign of collecting Estonian folklore, managed to publish only the first two volumes of the Vana Kannel („The Old Kannel”) series (songs of Põlva and Kolga-Jaani). Hurt’s next publication was Setukeste laulud („The Songs of the Seto People”) (I–III, 1904–1907). Hurt’s scientific principle has remained basic for the later publishers of Estonian folk songs. Herbert Tampere brought out „The Songs of Kuusalu” (1935) and „The Songs of Karksi” (1941). In the 1960s and 1970s the publication of the series ceased to be an effort of lone enthusiasts, becoming…

The article discusses noun and verb conversion in Estonian. Unlike in analytical languages, such as English, Estonian conversion is not about homonyms, as in Estonian nouns and verbs take different inflectional paradigms. In addition, Estonian word stems may have different phonological shapes, neither need the stem allomorphs of a stem-sharing noun and verb be similar. The existence of mono-vowel derivative suffixes (-u, –i, –e) poses an additional problem of how to differentiate between a vowel suffix and a stem vowel.
The first part of the article explains the boundaries of suffixal derivation and conversion in stem-sharing nouns and verbs. The second…

Bücher in den Nachlassverzeichnissen Tallinns im 18. Jahrhundert. Der Weg der schöngeistigen Literatur in die Büchersammlungen der Literaten
Der vorliegende Aufsatz beschäftigt sich mit den Anfängen der Rezeption schöngeistiger Literatur in Tallinn. Als Grundlage der vorliegenden Analyse dienen in Tallinner Nachlassverzeichnissen dokumentierte Bücherlisten, von denen sich die meisten im Magistratsbestand des Tallinner Stadtarchivs (Bestand 230) befinden. Die Analyse konzentriert sich auf die Auswertung der Bücherlisten der Literaten des 18. Jahrhunderts. Nach einer quellenkritischen Einleitung werden die Büchersammlungen dargestellt. In Bezug auf deren Größe wird festgestellt, dass die Büchersammlungen der Literaten Tallinns durchaus mit entsprechenden Sammlungen von Literaten etwa in Deutschland vergleichbar…

The short story „Popi and Huhuu” (1914) by Friedebert Tuglas can be considered the crown of the canon of Estonian short stories. Yet up to now nobody has pointed out its resemblance to an anonymous pastime story Ahvi armastus ja kättemaksmine („The love and revenge of a monkey”) published in the literary magazine Meelejahutaja in 1881. To gain new knowledge about the birth of „Popi and Huhuu” and to clarify the relations of Tuglas with his preceding generation, the so-called epigons, the two stories are compared, using influence criticism’s method. It appears that Tuglas, however overtly sensitive to authenticity problems…

The article throws some light on the post-1940 life of an Estonian female author in relative oblivion. In the 1930s Leida Kibuvits was one of the most talented and prolific female prose writers, whose novels were well received both by readers and critics. The article describes her life in occupied Estonia before and after her arrest in 1950, touches briefly upon changes in her oeuvre, and gives an idea of the life of her daughter and grandson in the 1960s. The main sources used are her arrest file, so far unexplored, and correspondence. Another important source are interviews of her…

Since antiquity the motif of Arcadia has been productive in European cultural history, while undergoing several metamorphoses. The article follows the evolution of the motif in the oeuvre of Karl Ristikivi (1912–1977), relying on the landscapes experienced by the widely travelled author and the works of art critic and theorist Simon Schama, who emphasizes the Light and Dark in Arcadia.
Ristikivi overtly mentions the motif of Arcadia in three works, notably, the novel Rohtaed („The Herb Garden”, 1942), the poem Minagi olin Arkaadia teel. . . . („I too was heading for Arcadia. . . .”, 1950) and the travelogue Itaalia capriccio („Italian Cappriccio”, 1958). In Ristikivi’s…