Saatuse tahtel

The article analyses language usage in biographies of Estonian women published in Eesti Elulood. Naised kõnelevad ("Estonian Biographies. Women Speaking"; Tartu 1997); Eesti rahva elulood I-II ("Biographies of the Estonian Nation I-II"; Tallinn 2000) and Kured läinud, kurjad ilmad ("The Cranes Are Gone, Rough Weather"; Tartu 1997). For comparison, biographies of Finnish women are used. The article is based on the assumption that language is a part of a society's semiotic system. Analysis is applied to texts where the whole life or certain events are explained with the actions of some external force. In a wider sense, this is a mythical metaphor, the characteristic feature of which is the existence of the main metaphors in two forms: verbal as well as symbolic. Personified forces shaping the course of their life are war, life, events and time periods, fate, god. The forces acting on their life course are verbally expressed in passive voice and metaphors of the independent mover are used. The biographies concern little what the women could have done to change the course of their life. Although these stories are more tragic than the Finnish biographies, the word `happiness' and its derivatives are fairly much used. Estonian women born in the 1920s and 1930s speak of their life course as determined by some force. Most important are the dramatic events related to World War 2 that they had no way of avoiding. Under Soviet rule there was little they could do to influence their life. In their biographies, fate is personified, resembling the Christian concept of god. Finnish women contemplate more about why life turned out this way or that and believe more in the possibility of changing the course of one's life. Biographies of Estonians living abroad and younger Estonians differ little from those of Finnish women