Estonian literature
Encyclopedia
Estonian literature refers to literature written in the Estonian language
(c. 1.100.000 speakers) The domination of Estonia
after the Northern Crusades
, from the 13th century to 1918 by Germany, Sweden, and Russia resulted few early written literary works in Estonian language. The oldest records of written Estonian date from the 13th century. Originates Livoniae in Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
contains Estonian place names, words and fragments of sentences. The Liber Census Daniae (1241) contains Estonian place and family names. The earliest extant samples of connected Estonian are the so-called Kullamaa prayers dating from 1524 and 1528. The first known printed book is a bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism by S.Wanradt and J. Koell (1535). For the use of priests an Estonian grammar was printed in German in 1637. The New Testament was translated into southern Estonian
in 1686 (northern Estonian, 1715). Based on northern Estonian the two dialects were united by Anton Thor Helle. Writings in Estonian became more significant in the 19th century during the Estophile Enlightenment Period (1750–1840).
The cultural stratum of Estonian, was originally characterised by a largely lyrical form of folk poetry based on syllabic quantity. Apart from a few albeit remarkable exceptions, this archaic form has not been much employed in later times. The most outstanding achievements in this field are the national epic Kalevipoeg
(Son of Kalev), written by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
(1803–1882); Gustav Suits
's ballad Lapse sünd (Birth of a Child); Villem Grünthal-Ridala
's (1885–1942) poem Toomas ja Mai (Toomas and Mai) and three poems by August Annist (1899–1972). At a professional level, traditional folk song reached its new heyday during the last quarter of the 20th century, primarily thanks to the work of composer Veljo Tormis
.
In modern times Jaan Kross
and Jaan Kaplinski
remain to be Estonia
's best known and most translated writers.
period of independence. The first fragmentary records of Estonian folk poetry dating from the 13th century can be found in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
; in the late 18th century Johann Gottfried von Herder published examples of Estonian folk songs in his anthology Volkslieder (1807). Jakob Hurt
(1839–1907) was the first to start systematically collecting Estonian folklore in the second half of the 19th century, planning a multi volume series on Estonian folklore, called Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae
. Hurt coined the phrase which to this day shapes the mentality of the nation of one million people: If we cannot be great in number, then we must be great in spirit.
nobility, formed the basis for local Baltic German literature which, despite the barriers of status and language, had an impact on Estonian literature. The earliest example of Estonian language poetry dates back to 1637, a poem written by Reiner Brockmann (1609–1647), teacher of Greek at the Tallinn
Gymnasium.
Otto Wilhelm Masing
(1763–1832) was the first literate who had a thorough mastery of the Estonian language
.
In the fire of incantation
Rising up to the heavens
Seek for eternity?
Those lines have been interpreted as a claim to reestablish the birthright of the Estonian language. Kristjan Jaak Peterson
(1801–1822) is considered the founder of modern Estonian poetry. He gathered his Estonian poems into two small books but never saw them published this only occurred a hundred years after his death. Three German poems were published posthumously in 1823. One of Peterson's projects was fulfilled in his lifetime, the German version of Kristfrid Ganander's Mythologia Fennica, a dictionary of Finnish mythological words and names (the Swedish original was published in 1789) Peterson's translation of Ganander's dictionary found many readers in Estonia and abroad, becoming an important source of national ideology and inspiration for early Estonian literature. Its dominating influence extended through the first decades of the 20th century.
The most outstanding achievements in folklore imitate the epics: the national epic Kalevipoeg
was compiled by doctors of Estonian origin: Friedrich Robert Faehlmann
began the epic and it was finished by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
. The romantic ideology of the 19th century laid down the requirements for a national literature. The idea of an epic was the product of a humanist circle called the Learned Estonian Society
(Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft), where Faehlmann had presented his paper in 1839 on a mythical hero called Kalewipoeg (Son of Kalew). After Faehlmann's death in 1850 the society handed the manuscripts over to Kreutzwald. The first edition of "Kalevipoeg" (1857–61) was bilingual, the German text being presented side by side with the Estonian original. A popular Estonian edition in a single volume followed in 1862.
Lydia Koidula
(1843–1886) was the initiator of a tradition of Estonian patriotic and women's poetry during the era.
In the late 19th-century a poet emerged who has had a profound impact on Estonian poetry as a whole – Juhan Liiv
(1864–1913). During the last decade of the 19th century, a contemporary of Liiv's, Eduard Vilde
(1865–1933), introduced a realistic direction into Estonian prose.
With the formation of the group Noor-Eesti (Young Estonia) in 1905, led by the poet Gustav Suits (1883–1956), the linguist and poet Villem Grünthal-Ridala and the reformer of the Estonian language Johannes Aavik
(1880–1973), Estonian literature gained a new intellectual impetus. The most prominent prose writer of the time, still widely read today, was Oskar Luts
(1887–1953). Another significant author was Jaan Oks (1884–1918).The poetry of Ernst Enno
(1875–1934) gained popularity much later.
The rationality of the Young Estonians was counterbalanced by the group of writers from the Siuru movement, established in 1917.The central poets of Siuru were Henrik Visnapuu
(1890–1951) and Marie Under
(1883–1980).
The magazine Eesti Kirjandus (Estonian Literature) in 1906 and Eesti Kirjanduse Selts (Estonian Literary Society) were founded in 1907.
(Creation) first appeared in 1923 and is still the main periodical of its sort in Estonia. The Cultural Endowment Fund started work in 1925 and is the major provider of grants in the arts in the present-day Republic of Estonia.
The prevailing tendency in prose writing between the two World Wars was realism. The most prominent writer of the era is Anton Hansen Tammsaare
(1878–1940), the author of 5-volume epic novel Tõde ja Õigus (Truth and Justice, 1926–1933) is considered one of the major works of Estonian literature. Another prominent prose writers were August Mälk
(1900–1987), Karl Ristikivi
(1912–1977). August Gailit
, the incurable romantic appeared on the literary scene along with the Siuru
group.
The Arbujad
("Soothsayers") was a small, but influential group of poets who began collaborating in 1938 at the behest of poet and author Ants Oras
and included: Betti Alver
(1906–1989), Uku Masing
(1909–1985), Mart Raud
(1903–1980), Kersti Merilaas
(1913–1986), Bernard Kangro
(1910–1994), Heiti Talvik
(1904–1947), August Sang
(1914–1969) and Paul Viiding
(1904–1962). While group's poetic works tended to be eclectic, there was a common desire among members to reach a deeper intellectual and emotional plane. The Arbujad poets were for the freedom and independence of the people while being against ideological coercion and totalitarian concepts.
Estonian literature was split in two for almost half a century. A number of prominent writers who spent the war years in Estonia, fled to Germany in 1944 (Visnapuu) or to Sweden, either directly or via Finland (Suits, Under, Gailit, Kangro, Mälk, Ristikivi).Many of those who remained behind and did not follow the ideology of the Soviet occupying power suffered either death in Siberia (Talvik and playwright Hugo Raudsepp) or a combination of repression, a ban on publication and interior exile (Tuglas, Alver, Masing). Despite the modest circumstances of the war and post-war years, creative activity and publishing started almost immediately, both in the temporary stopovers in Finland, and in the refugee camps in Sweden and Germany.
. In 1950 Bernard Kangro
began publishing the cultural magazine Tulimuld in Lund (published until 1993). Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, the largest Estonian-language publishing house in exile was set up and its method of book distribution secured the continuity of literary life on an institutional level and on a global scale, except in Soviet controlled homeland. Estonians abroad also did their best to introduce Estonian literature to the world: in the USA, Ivar Ivask
(1927–1992) edited the World Literature Today
in which he published numerous articles and reviews about Estonian literature.
The poetry collection by surrealist Ilmar Laaban
(1921–2000) was at first the only modernist work, until 1953 when Karl Ristikivi
, essentially a conservative writer, published his novel The Night of the Souls. Arved Viirlaid
's (1922) novel Seitse kohtupäeva (Seven Days of Trial, 1957) was a detour into modernism. Ilmar Jaks (1923) became a more consistent cultivator of the technique of the modern novel. The subject matter of literary output was greatly enriched by descriptions of the countries where various writers had settled, like Karl Rumor (1886–1971) in Brazil, or Gert Helbemäe (1913–1974) in England. In the second half of the 1950s Kalju Lepik (1920–1999) was a poet in exile who rose to prominence alongside Bernard Kangro. Kalju Lepik's first visit to his homeland in 1990 and the publication of his last collections of poetry there, symbolises the end of the split.
(1920-2007) Artur Alliksaar
(1923–1966), Ain Kaalep (born 1921), Kersti Merilaas
(1916–1986) and Ellen Niit (born 1928). Against that background a new "Cassette Generation" emerged in 1962-1967 (so-called because of the small poetry chap-books first appearing grouped together in small cardboard boxes termed kassett in Estonian). Jaan Kaplinski
(born 1941) greatly inspired by Oriental religion and nature; Hando Runnel (born 1938), Viivi Luik (born 1946), Mats Traat
(born 1936), Andres Ehin (born 1940) and Ilmar Laaban
.
From the late 1960s due to the political stagnation that followed the crushing of the Prague Spring
in 1968, was reflected in Paul-Eerik Rummo
's initially banned minimalist collection. The collection did not appear in its entirety until 1989. So-called alternative literature was disseminated in manuscript form, the most significant authors in this field were the dissident poet Johnny B. Isotamm (born 1939) and the prose writer Toomas Vint (born 1944). The most remarkable poet of the 1960s and -70s was Juhan Viiding
(pseudonym Jüri Üdi, 1948–1995, son of former Arbujad member, poet Paul Viiding) whose first collection Nerve Print appeared in 1971. Despite all attempts to ban it, the popular and song-like nature of Hando Runnel's patriotic verse secured its huge circulation. His collection The Purple of the Red Evenings, 1982 was allowed into print but the publication of any reviews in the press remained forbidden.
led to the restoration of Republic of Estonia
's independence. The two Estonian Writers Unions were merged together in 2000.
In a way, Emil Tode’s (pen name of Tõnu Õnnepalu
, 1962) "Piiririik" ("Border State") marked the beginning of a new era in 1993. The novel claimed its place beside the internationally recognised and translated works by Kross or Kaplinski. "Border State" also raised the topic of "Euro-literature" where one of the central issues is the wanderings of Estonians abroad, their search for an identity in a world with open borders.
Jaan Undusk (born 1958), Mati Unt
and Viivi Luik and Hasso Krull (born 1964) intertextual poetry prepared the ground for a bold new Estonian literature. The most remarkable prose writer of the younger generation of recent years are Andrus Kivirähk
(born 1970), Karl-Martin Sinijärv (born 1971), Mehis Heinsaar (born 1973), Peeter Sauter
(born 1962) or Jüri Ehlvest (1967–2006), who deepend the sujets and topics opened up by Õnnepalu in a comical and yet cryptic way.
Jaan Kross
and Jaan Kaplinski
remain Estonia's best known and most-translated writers, although in recent years the short stories of Eeva Park and the novels of Tõnu Õnnepalu and Ervin Õunapuu have also been enjoying moderate success in Germany and Scandinavia.
Jaan Kross has been tipped for the Nobel Prize for Literature on several occasions. On his return from the labour camps and internal exile in Russia where he spent nine long years (1946-1954) as a political prisoner, Kross breathed new life into Estonian poetry. Kross began writing prose in the latter half of the 1960s. Jaan Kaplinski has become the central and most productive Modernist in Estonian poetry. Kaplinski has written essays, plays and has translated. He has lectured in Vancouver
and Calgary
, Ljubljana
and Trieste
, Taipei
and Stockholm
, Bologna
and Cologne
, London
and Edinburgh
. He has been Writer-in-Residence at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
.
Rooste is definitely the most socially-involved and "beat-like" of them all. Sild proclaims his gay outlook, Wimberg creates absurd landscapes through the use of childlike language and style and Ehin maintains the tradition of the "great female poet" of Estonia.
But prose also flourishes. Besides Kaur Kender
(1971), whose finest hour was in 1998 with the debut novel "Iseseisvuspäev" ("Independence Day"), a younger generation is appearing. Sass Henno
(1982) stays in the Chuck Palahniuk
-influenced tradition of Kaur Kender. Chaneldior wrote a quintessential novel in the manner of Bret Easton Ellis
called "Kontrolli alt väljas" ("Out of Control") in 2008 and Peeter Helme's (1978) second novel "September" (2009) received critical acclaim for its realistic description of life in Tallinn's work-place office environments as existed at the dawn of this new millennium.
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
(c. 1.100.000 speakers) The domination of Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
after the Northern Crusades
Northern Crusades
The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea...
, from the 13th century to 1918 by Germany, Sweden, and Russia resulted few early written literary works in Estonian language. The oldest records of written Estonian date from the 13th century. Originates Livoniae in Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
The Livonian Chronicle of Henry is a document describing historic events in Livonia and surrounding areas from 1180 to 1227. Apart from the few references in the Primary Chronicle compiled in Kievan Rus' in the twelfth century, it is the oldest known written document about the history of these...
contains Estonian place names, words and fragments of sentences. The Liber Census Daniae (1241) contains Estonian place and family names. The earliest extant samples of connected Estonian are the so-called Kullamaa prayers dating from 1524 and 1528. The first known printed book is a bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism by S.Wanradt and J. Koell (1535). For the use of priests an Estonian grammar was printed in German in 1637. The New Testament was translated into southern Estonian
Võro language
The Võro language is a language belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. Traditionally it has been considered a dialect of the South Estonian dialect group of the Estonian language, but nowadays it has its own literary language and is in search of official recognition as an...
in 1686 (northern Estonian, 1715). Based on northern Estonian the two dialects were united by Anton Thor Helle. Writings in Estonian became more significant in the 19th century during the Estophile Enlightenment Period (1750–1840).
The cultural stratum of Estonian, was originally characterised by a largely lyrical form of folk poetry based on syllabic quantity. Apart from a few albeit remarkable exceptions, this archaic form has not been much employed in later times. The most outstanding achievements in this field are the national epic Kalevipoeg
Kalevipoeg
Kalevipoeg is an epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald held to be the Estonian national epic.- Origins : There existed an oral tradition within Ancient Estonia of legends explaining the origin of the world...
(Son of Kalev), written by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald was an Estonian writer, who is considered to be the father of the national literature for the country.-Life:Friedrich's parents were serfs at the Jõepere estate, Virumaa. His father worked as a granary keeper and his mother was a chambermaid...
(1803–1882); Gustav Suits
Gustav Suits
Gustav Suits is considered one of the greatest Estonian poets. He was also an early leader of the literary movement group Noor-Eesti .- Childhood and Education :...
's ballad Lapse sünd (Birth of a Child); Villem Grünthal-Ridala
Villem Grünthal-Ridala
Villem Grünthal-Ridala, born Grünthal-Wilhelm was an Estonian poet, translator, linguist and folklorist.-Life:...
's (1885–1942) poem Toomas ja Mai (Toomas and Mai) and three poems by August Annist (1899–1972). At a professional level, traditional folk song reached its new heyday during the last quarter of the 20th century, primarily thanks to the work of composer Veljo Tormis
Veljo Tormis
Veljo Tormis is an Estonian composer, regarded to be one of the greatest living choral composers and one of the most important composers of the 20th century in Estonia. Internationally, his fame arises chiefly from his extensive body of choral music, which exceeds 500 individual choral songs, most...
.
In modern times Jaan Kross
Jaan Kross
-Early life:Born in Tallinn, Estonia, studied Jacob Westholm´s Grammar school, Kross attended the University of Tartu and graduated from its School of Law...
and Jaan Kaplinski
Jaan Kaplinski
Jaan Kaplinski is an Estonian poet, philosopher, and culture critic. Kaplinski is known for his independent mind, focus on global issues and support for left-wing/liberal thinking...
remain to be Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
's best known and most translated writers.
History of Estonian literature
Folklore
As opposed to the recentness of written literature, the collections of Estonian folklore tell of the ancient pre Northern CrusadesNorthern Crusades
The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea...
period of independence. The first fragmentary records of Estonian folk poetry dating from the 13th century can be found in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
The Livonian Chronicle of Henry is a document describing historic events in Livonia and surrounding areas from 1180 to 1227. Apart from the few references in the Primary Chronicle compiled in Kievan Rus' in the twelfth century, it is the oldest known written document about the history of these...
; in the late 18th century Johann Gottfried von Herder published examples of Estonian folk songs in his anthology Volkslieder (1807). Jakob Hurt
Jakob Hurt
Jakob Hurt was a notable Estonian folklorist, theologist, and linguist. With respect to the latter, he is perhaps best known for his dissertation on "pure" -ne stem nouns...
(1839–1907) was the first to start systematically collecting Estonian folklore in the second half of the 19th century, planning a multi volume series on Estonian folklore, called Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae
Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae
The Monumenta Estoniae Antiquae is a corpus of Estonian folksongs which contains around 800,000 pages of manuscript, including 100,000 songs in the standard trochaic dimeter form. This corpus is one of the largest and most significant of its kind in the world....
. Hurt coined the phrase which to this day shapes the mentality of the nation of one million people: If we cannot be great in number, then we must be great in spirit.
Baltic Germans
Chronicles and theatrical performances by the Baltic GermanBaltic German
The Baltic Germans were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural élite in...
nobility, formed the basis for local Baltic German literature which, despite the barriers of status and language, had an impact on Estonian literature. The earliest example of Estonian language poetry dates back to 1637, a poem written by Reiner Brockmann (1609–1647), teacher of Greek at the Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
Gymnasium.
Otto Wilhelm Masing
Otto Wilhelm Masing
Otto Wilhelm Masing was an early Livonian Estophile and a major advocate of peasant rights, especially regarding education....
(1763–1832) was the first literate who had a thorough mastery of the Estonian language
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
.
Kristjan Jaak Peterson
Cannot the tongue of this landIn the fire of incantation
Rising up to the heavens
Seek for eternity?
-
-
- Kristjan Jaak Peterson
-
Those lines have been interpreted as a claim to reestablish the birthright of the Estonian language. Kristjan Jaak Peterson
Kristjan Jaak Peterson
Kristjan Jaak Peterson also known as Christian Jacob Petersohn, was an Estonian poet, commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and the founder of modern Estonian poetry. His literary career was cut short by the tuberculosis that killed him at the age of 21. His birthday on...
(1801–1822) is considered the founder of modern Estonian poetry. He gathered his Estonian poems into two small books but never saw them published this only occurred a hundred years after his death. Three German poems were published posthumously in 1823. One of Peterson's projects was fulfilled in his lifetime, the German version of Kristfrid Ganander's Mythologia Fennica, a dictionary of Finnish mythological words and names (the Swedish original was published in 1789) Peterson's translation of Ganander's dictionary found many readers in Estonia and abroad, becoming an important source of national ideology and inspiration for early Estonian literature. Its dominating influence extended through the first decades of the 20th century.
Kalevipoeg
Kalevipoeg
Kalevipoeg is an epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald held to be the Estonian national epic.- Origins : There existed an oral tradition within Ancient Estonia of legends explaining the origin of the world...
was compiled by doctors of Estonian origin: Friedrich Robert Faehlmann
Friedrich Robert Faehlmann
Friedrich Robert Faehlmann was an Estonian philologist and an Estophile active in Livonia, Russian Empire...
began the epic and it was finished by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald was an Estonian writer, who is considered to be the father of the national literature for the country.-Life:Friedrich's parents were serfs at the Jõepere estate, Virumaa. His father worked as a granary keeper and his mother was a chambermaid...
. The romantic ideology of the 19th century laid down the requirements for a national literature. The idea of an epic was the product of a humanist circle called the Learned Estonian Society
Learned Estonian Society
The Learned Estonian Society is Estonia's oldest scholarly organisation, and was formed at the University of Tartu in 1838. Its charter was to study Estonia's history and pre-history, its language, literature and folklore....
(Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft), where Faehlmann had presented his paper in 1839 on a mythical hero called Kalewipoeg (Son of Kalew). After Faehlmann's death in 1850 the society handed the manuscripts over to Kreutzwald. The first edition of "Kalevipoeg" (1857–61) was bilingual, the German text being presented side by side with the Estonian original. A popular Estonian edition in a single volume followed in 1862.
Lydia Koidula
Lydia Koidula
Lydia Emilie Florentine Jannsen, , known after her pen name Lydia Koidula was an Estonian poet. Her sobriquet means ‘Lydia of the Dawn’ in Estonian. It was given her by the writer Carl Robert Jakobson...
(1843–1886) was the initiator of a tradition of Estonian patriotic and women's poetry during the era.
Late 19th early 20th century
Juhan Liiv
Juhan Liiv is one of Estonia's most famous poets.-Childhood and education:...
(1864–1913). During the last decade of the 19th century, a contemporary of Liiv's, Eduard Vilde
Eduard Vilde
Eduard Vilde was an Estonian writer and a pioneer of critical realism in Estonian literature.-Works:* Musta mantliga mees...
(1865–1933), introduced a realistic direction into Estonian prose.
With the formation of the group Noor-Eesti (Young Estonia) in 1905, led by the poet Gustav Suits (1883–1956), the linguist and poet Villem Grünthal-Ridala and the reformer of the Estonian language Johannes Aavik
Johannes Aavik
Johannes Aavik was an Estonian philologist and Fennophile who played a significant role in the modernization and development of the Estonian language.-Education and career:...
(1880–1973), Estonian literature gained a new intellectual impetus. The most prominent prose writer of the time, still widely read today, was Oskar Luts
Oskar Luts
-Biography:Oskar Luts was born into a middle-class family in central Estonia, at that time in the government of Livonia . He attended Änkküla village school in 1894. He went to Palamuse Parish parish school in Jõgeva County, attending from 1895–1899. From 1899–1902 he studied at the Tartu...
(1887–1953). Another significant author was Jaan Oks (1884–1918).The poetry of Ernst Enno
Ernst Enno
Ernst Enno was an Estonian poet and writer.- Life :Ernst Enno was born the son of a farmer Prits Enno. He spent his childhood on Soosaar farm near Rõngu. At the age of eight, he attended the parish school of Lapetukme and then the prestigious Hugo Treffner Gymnasium and at the secondary school in...
(1875–1934) gained popularity much later.
The rationality of the Young Estonians was counterbalanced by the group of writers from the Siuru movement, established in 1917.The central poets of Siuru were Henrik Visnapuu
Henrik Visnapuu
Henrik Visnapuu was a well known Estonian poet and dramatist.-Life:Henrik Visnapuu first attended the village school in Reola and college in Sipe and the municipal school in Tartu...
(1890–1951) and Marie Under
Marie Under
Marie Under was one of the greatest Estonian poets.-Early life:...
(1883–1980).
The magazine Eesti Kirjandus (Estonian Literature) in 1906 and Eesti Kirjanduse Selts (Estonian Literary Society) were founded in 1907.
1918-1940
After the establishment of the Republic of Estonia, professionalism and diversity followed by the emergence of literary institutions. The Estonian Writers Union was founded in 1922; the literary monthly LoomingLooming (journal)
-Literary journal:Looming was founded in 1923 by the Estonian writer Friedebert Tuglas. Its purpose was the publication and popularization of Estonian contemporary literature...
(Creation) first appeared in 1923 and is still the main periodical of its sort in Estonia. The Cultural Endowment Fund started work in 1925 and is the major provider of grants in the arts in the present-day Republic of Estonia.
The prevailing tendency in prose writing between the two World Wars was realism. The most prominent writer of the era is Anton Hansen Tammsaare
Anton Hansen Tammsaare
Anton Hansen Tammsaare , born Anton Hansen, was an Estonian writer whose pentalogy Truth and Justice is considered one of the major works of Estonian literature and "The Estonian Novel"....
(1878–1940), the author of 5-volume epic novel Tõde ja Õigus (Truth and Justice, 1926–1933) is considered one of the major works of Estonian literature. Another prominent prose writers were August Mälk
August Mälk
-Life:August Mälk was born on October 4, 1900, in Lümanda Parish in the village of Koovi , located on the west coast of the island of Saaremaa, in modern-day Estonia ....
(1900–1987), Karl Ristikivi
Karl Ristikivi
Karl Ristikivi was an Estonian writer. He is among the best Estonian writers for his historical novels...
(1912–1977). August Gailit
August Gailit
August Gailit was an Estonian writer. -Life:Georg August Gailit was born in Sangaste Parish, Valgamaa, Estonia, the son of a carpenter and grew up on a farm in Laatre . From 1899 he attended schools in the parish and the town of Valga from 1905, then from 1907 a municipal school in Tartu...
, the incurable romantic appeared on the literary scene along with the Siuru
Siuru
The Siuru literary movement, named after a fire-bird in Finno-Ugrian mythology, was founded in 1917 in Estonia. It was an expressionistic and neo-romantic movement that ran counter to the Young Estonia formalist tradition.-Members:...
group.
The Arbujad
Arbujad
Arbujad was the collective name for a loose group of eight Estonian poets, which represented a new direction in Estonian poetry before the outbreak of World War II...
("Soothsayers") was a small, but influential group of poets who began collaborating in 1938 at the behest of poet and author Ants Oras
Ants Oras
Ants Oras was an Estonian translator and writer.Oras studied at Tartu University, graduating with a Master of Philosophy degree in 1923. He also obtained a Bachelor of Literature degree from Oxford University.From 1928 through 1934, he was a lecturer at both Tartu and Helsinki University...
and included: Betti Alver
Betti Alver
Betti Alver was the pseudonym of Elisabet Lepik-Talvik, one of Estonia's most notable poets. She was among the first generation to be educated in schools of an independent Estonia. She went to grammar school in Tartu.- Writing :She began as a prose writer...
(1906–1989), Uku Masing
Uku Masing
Uku Masing was an Estonian philosopher, translator, theologist and folklorist. He developed Estonian analytical philosophy. Masing also wrote poetry, mostly on religious issues...
(1909–1985), Mart Raud
Mart Raud
Mart Raud was an Estonian poet, playwright and writer.-History:Mart Raud attended the village school in Heimtali and the parish schools in Paistu and Viljandi. Later he attended the University of Tartu studying literature. In the 1920s, Raud joined the literary movement Arbujad...
(1903–1980), Kersti Merilaas
Kersti Merilaas
Kersti Merilaas was an Estonian poet and translator. In addition, she wrote poems and prose for children and plays.-Life and work:...
(1913–1986), Bernard Kangro
Bernard Kangro
Bernard Kangro was an Estonian writer and poet.-Education:...
(1910–1994), Heiti Talvik
Heiti Talvik
Heiti Talvik was an Estonian poet.- Life and literary career :...
(1904–1947), August Sang
August Sang
August Sang was an Estonian poet and literary translator.- Life and work :August Sang graduated from high school in Pärnu in 1932. After his military service he studied from 1934 to 1942 at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Tartu...
(1914–1969) and Paul Viiding
Paul Viiding
Paul Viiding was an Estonian poet, author and literary critic.Born in Valga, Estonia, he graduated with a degree in mathematics in Tartu before pursuing a career as an author and poet. He was a member of the influential group of Estonian poets brought together in 1938 by literary scholar Ants Oras...
(1904–1962). While group's poetic works tended to be eclectic, there was a common desire among members to reach a deeper intellectual and emotional plane. The Arbujad poets were for the freedom and independence of the people while being against ideological coercion and totalitarian concepts.
Post World War II
After the Second World WarEstonia in World War II
The ground for the fate of Estonia in World War II was laid by the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, particularly its Secret Additional Protocol of August 1939....
Estonian literature was split in two for almost half a century. A number of prominent writers who spent the war years in Estonia, fled to Germany in 1944 (Visnapuu) or to Sweden, either directly or via Finland (Suits, Under, Gailit, Kangro, Mälk, Ristikivi).Many of those who remained behind and did not follow the ideology of the Soviet occupying power suffered either death in Siberia (Talvik and playwright Hugo Raudsepp) or a combination of repression, a ban on publication and interior exile (Tuglas, Alver, Masing). Despite the modest circumstances of the war and post-war years, creative activity and publishing started almost immediately, both in the temporary stopovers in Finland, and in the refugee camps in Sweden and Germany.
In Exile
In 1945 the Estonian Writers Union in Exile was founded in StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. In 1950 Bernard Kangro
Bernard Kangro
Bernard Kangro was an Estonian writer and poet.-Education:...
began publishing the cultural magazine Tulimuld in Lund (published until 1993). Eesti Kirjanike Kooperatiiv, the largest Estonian-language publishing house in exile was set up and its method of book distribution secured the continuity of literary life on an institutional level and on a global scale, except in Soviet controlled homeland. Estonians abroad also did their best to introduce Estonian literature to the world: in the USA, Ivar Ivask
Ivar Ivask
Ivar Vidrik Ivask was Estonian poet and literary scholar.He escaped in 1944 from Estonia to Germany and lived from 1949 onwards in the USA and from 1991 in Ireland....
(1927–1992) edited the World Literature Today
World Literature Today
World Literature Today is an American magazine, published bimonthly at the University of Oklahoma. It was founded in 1927 by Roy Temple House as Books Abroad. In January 1977, the journal became World Literature Today...
in which he published numerous articles and reviews about Estonian literature.
The poetry collection by surrealist Ilmar Laaban
Ilmar Laaban
Ilmar Laaban, was an Estonian poet and publicist.-Biography:Laaban attended the first Tallinn Boys' Gymnasium from 1934 to 1940. In 1939-1940 and 1941-1942 he studied composition and piano at the Tallinn Conservatory. In 1940-1943 Laaban studied Romance languages at Tartu University's faculty of...
(1921–2000) was at first the only modernist work, until 1953 when Karl Ristikivi
Karl Ristikivi
Karl Ristikivi was an Estonian writer. He is among the best Estonian writers for his historical novels...
, essentially a conservative writer, published his novel The Night of the Souls. Arved Viirlaid
Arved Viirlaid
Arved Viirlaid is an Estonian-Canadian writer.Arved Viirlaid fought in the Estonian regiment in Finland during the Second World War, returning to Estonia in 1944....
's (1922) novel Seitse kohtupäeva (Seven Days of Trial, 1957) was a detour into modernism. Ilmar Jaks (1923) became a more consistent cultivator of the technique of the modern novel. The subject matter of literary output was greatly enriched by descriptions of the countries where various writers had settled, like Karl Rumor (1886–1971) in Brazil, or Gert Helbemäe (1913–1974) in England. In the second half of the 1950s Kalju Lepik (1920–1999) was a poet in exile who rose to prominence alongside Bernard Kangro. Kalju Lepik's first visit to his homeland in 1990 and the publication of his last collections of poetry there, symbolises the end of the split.
Behind the Iron Curtain
In Estonia a relaxation of the strictures of the Soviet regime after the death of Stalin opened the way for various Estonian writers: Jaan KrossJaan Kross
-Early life:Born in Tallinn, Estonia, studied Jacob Westholm´s Grammar school, Kross attended the University of Tartu and graduated from its School of Law...
(1920-2007) Artur Alliksaar
Artur Alliksaar
- Biography :Alliksaar attended an elementary school in Tartu in 1931. In 1937 he was accepted to Hugo Treffner Gymnasium, after which he worked at railways like his father for a short period of time in 1942. In that same year he started to study law in the University of Tartu.1943–1944 he served...
(1923–1966), Ain Kaalep (born 1921), Kersti Merilaas
Kersti Merilaas
Kersti Merilaas was an Estonian poet and translator. In addition, she wrote poems and prose for children and plays.-Life and work:...
(1916–1986) and Ellen Niit (born 1928). Against that background a new "Cassette Generation" emerged in 1962-1967 (so-called because of the small poetry chap-books first appearing grouped together in small cardboard boxes termed kassett in Estonian). Jaan Kaplinski
Jaan Kaplinski
Jaan Kaplinski is an Estonian poet, philosopher, and culture critic. Kaplinski is known for his independent mind, focus on global issues and support for left-wing/liberal thinking...
(born 1941) greatly inspired by Oriental religion and nature; Hando Runnel (born 1938), Viivi Luik (born 1946), Mats Traat
Mats Traat
Mats Traat is a prolific Estonian poet and author.-Literature:Traat is frequently compared to Jaan Kross. However, unlike Kross, who writes about individuals influenced from beyond Estonian culture, Traat writes about the indigenous Estonian population...
(born 1936), Andres Ehin (born 1940) and Ilmar Laaban
Ilmar Laaban
Ilmar Laaban, was an Estonian poet and publicist.-Biography:Laaban attended the first Tallinn Boys' Gymnasium from 1934 to 1940. In 1939-1940 and 1941-1942 he studied composition and piano at the Tallinn Conservatory. In 1940-1943 Laaban studied Romance languages at Tartu University's faculty of...
.
From the late 1960s due to the political stagnation that followed the crushing of the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
in 1968, was reflected in Paul-Eerik Rummo
Paul-Eerik Rummo
Paul-Eerik Rummo is an Estonian poet and politician and a former Estonian Minister of Culture and Education, a former Estonian Minister of Population Affairs....
's initially banned minimalist collection. The collection did not appear in its entirety until 1989. So-called alternative literature was disseminated in manuscript form, the most significant authors in this field were the dissident poet Johnny B. Isotamm (born 1939) and the prose writer Toomas Vint (born 1944). The most remarkable poet of the 1960s and -70s was Juhan Viiding
Juhan Viiding
Juhan Viiding , also known under the pseudonym of Jüri Üdi was an Estonian poet and actor.-Childhood, education, and family:Juhan Viiding was born June 1, 1948 in Tallinn to Linda and Paul Viiding...
(pseudonym Jüri Üdi, 1948–1995, son of former Arbujad member, poet Paul Viiding) whose first collection Nerve Print appeared in 1971. Despite all attempts to ban it, the popular and song-like nature of Hando Runnel's patriotic verse secured its huge circulation. His collection The Purple of the Red Evenings, 1982 was allowed into print but the publication of any reviews in the press remained forbidden.
1991-2001
The collapse of the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
led to the restoration of Republic of Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
's independence. The two Estonian Writers Unions were merged together in 2000.
In a way, Emil Tode’s (pen name of Tõnu Õnnepalu
Tõnu Õnnepalu
Tõnu Õnnepalu , also known by the pen names Emil Tode and Anton Nigov, is an Estonian poet and author.Õnnepalu was born in Tallinn and studied biology at the University of Tartu from 1980 to 1985. He began his writing career as a poet in 1985 and has published three collections of his works...
, 1962) "Piiririik" ("Border State") marked the beginning of a new era in 1993. The novel claimed its place beside the internationally recognised and translated works by Kross or Kaplinski. "Border State" also raised the topic of "Euro-literature" where one of the central issues is the wanderings of Estonians abroad, their search for an identity in a world with open borders.
Jaan Undusk (born 1958), Mati Unt
Mati Unt
Mati Unt was an Estonian writer, essayist and theatre director....
and Viivi Luik and Hasso Krull (born 1964) intertextual poetry prepared the ground for a bold new Estonian literature. The most remarkable prose writer of the younger generation of recent years are Andrus Kivirähk
Andrus Kivirähk
Andrus Kivirähk is an Estonian writer.By 2004, 25,000 copies of his book Rehepapp ehk November had been sold, making him the most popular 21st century Estonian writer...
(born 1970), Karl-Martin Sinijärv (born 1971), Mehis Heinsaar (born 1973), Peeter Sauter
Peeter Sauter
Peeter Sauter is an Estonian author and actor.-Literature:Sauter made his literary debut in 1988 in the Estonian magazine Vikerkaar . He sent in a brief prose piece for one-time publication...
(born 1962) or Jüri Ehlvest (1967–2006), who deepend the sujets and topics opened up by Õnnepalu in a comical and yet cryptic way.
Jaan Kross
Jaan Kross
-Early life:Born in Tallinn, Estonia, studied Jacob Westholm´s Grammar school, Kross attended the University of Tartu and graduated from its School of Law...
and Jaan Kaplinski
Jaan Kaplinski
Jaan Kaplinski is an Estonian poet, philosopher, and culture critic. Kaplinski is known for his independent mind, focus on global issues and support for left-wing/liberal thinking...
remain Estonia's best known and most-translated writers, although in recent years the short stories of Eeva Park and the novels of Tõnu Õnnepalu and Ervin Õunapuu have also been enjoying moderate success in Germany and Scandinavia.
Jaan Kross has been tipped for the Nobel Prize for Literature on several occasions. On his return from the labour camps and internal exile in Russia where he spent nine long years (1946-1954) as a political prisoner, Kross breathed new life into Estonian poetry. Kross began writing prose in the latter half of the 1960s. Jaan Kaplinski has become the central and most productive Modernist in Estonian poetry. Kaplinski has written essays, plays and has translated. He has lectured in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
and Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
and Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
and Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
and Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. He has been Writer-in-Residence at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth University is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding Member Institution of the former federal University of Wales. As of late 2006, the university had over 12,000 students spread across seventeen academic departments.The university was founded in 1872 as...
.
The new century
The beginning of the 21st century has been fertile and fruitful for Estonian literature. Blossoming out of the waning nineties; a new, vibrant generation of poets had appeared. Jürgen Rooste (1979), Ivar Sild (1977), Wimberg (pen name of Jaak Urmet, 1979) and Kristiina Ehin (1977) have all very distinctive voices combined with a profound knowledge of both Estonian and world-literature.Rooste is definitely the most socially-involved and "beat-like" of them all. Sild proclaims his gay outlook, Wimberg creates absurd landscapes through the use of childlike language and style and Ehin maintains the tradition of the "great female poet" of Estonia.
But prose also flourishes. Besides Kaur Kender
Kaur Kender
Kaur Kender, is an Estonian author and entrepreneur.An advertising executive by profession, Kender entered the Estonian literary scene in 1998 with his debut novel "Independence Day"...
(1971), whose finest hour was in 1998 with the debut novel "Iseseisvuspäev" ("Independence Day"), a younger generation is appearing. Sass Henno
Sass Henno
Sass Henno is an Estonian writer.He attended Miina Härma Secondary Grammar School in Tartu between 1989-2001. 2001-2003 he studied computer graphics and advertising in Tartu Art College, then film and video directing in the Tallinn University between 2003-2005...
(1982) stays in the Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck Palahniuk
Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk is an American transgressional fiction novelist and freelance journalist. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter...
-influenced tradition of Kaur Kender. Chaneldior wrote a quintessential novel in the manner of Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis is an American novelist and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 different languages. He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney...
called "Kontrolli alt väljas" ("Out of Control") in 2008 and Peeter Helme's (1978) second novel "September" (2009) received critical acclaim for its realistic description of life in Tallinn's work-place office environments as existed at the dawn of this new millennium.