Christian Felix Weiße’s Poetry in Latvian and Estonian Literature

The article analyzes the translations of Christian Felix Weiße’s poems in Latvian and Estonian within the context of cultural transfer during the age of Enlightenment. Translations of Weiße’s poems were of great significance because they paved the way for the emergence of secular poetry in both languages. First translations appeared in the 1770s, and others followed in the next decades. While the first Latvian translations were connected to the popular enlightenment efforts of Baltic German pastor Gotthard Friedrich Stender and addressed to the peasant readers, the first Estonian translations were written in the context of experiments with the language and addressed to the Baltic German intellectual elite. First translations that were addressed to Estonian peasants appeared in the early 19th century. The frame of reference of the poems was transformed when they were addressed to peasant reading public: they acquired didactic meaning. At the same time, these translations demonstrated the poetic possibilities of Estonian and Latvian languages. The analysis as a case study reveals the multifaceted influence of German poetry on Estonian and Latvian literary cultures

Traditsioon ja avangard kirjanduses

Eessõna / Prefac

Laps(epõlv) 19. sajandi teise poole Eestis omaelulooliste tekstide näitel. Child(hood) in 19th Century Estonia: a Study of Autobiographical Texts

In this article I discuss autobiographical texts which focus on children and childhood in late 19th century Estonia. Childhood memories as well as other autobiographical material became popular in Estonia in the 1920s-1930s, when most of the studied works--the memoirs by Anna Haava, Mait Metsanurk, Jaan Lattik, Jaan Vahtra, Friedebert Tuglas, August Kitzberg and Marta Sillaots--were written. Some texts come from the 19th century (e.g. Lilli Suburg’s autobiographical works) or early 20th century (e.g. manuscripts by Hans Leoke, and Johannes Kõrv). Childhood as described in these autobiographical texts covers a period of circa 1850-1900, and the majority of the authors come from the families of South-Estonian peasants or manorial servants. In addition to being written in Estonian and having the same theme, they were all also written by authors of fiction for children or by people who had close contact with children, such as schoolteachers. The article offers a novel approach in the Estonian context by presenting a typology of childhood stories and looking at childhood recollections as an important part of childhood studies. The researchers of childhood investigate how society understands and values children and childhood, what children’s everyday life is like, what possibilities there are for development and if there exists a specific children’s culture in society (such as clothing, food, language, leisure activities, or independent creative work). Childhood studies as a separate discipline does not exist in Estonia, although some important works have been published by educational scholars and art historians. The autobiographical texts under discussion show that in the late 19th century, the majority of Estonian children lived in the countryside in patriarchal families, and childhood was short because children had to help their parents with farmwork quite early, at the age of six. The boundary of childhood was around the age of 10-11, when children started school and often left their childhood homes as the schools were usually far away. Childhood in the city is described by one author (Sillaots) and this is only natural as urbanisation in Estonia gained momentum in the early 20th century. Although childhood in Estonia in the late 19th century had scarcely any specific elements of children’s culture (children in the cities had more toys, children-style clothes, leisure, etc.), this period in the authors’ lives is remembered as a carefree and happy time. We should emphasise that in early Estonian childhood memories, the child is described as emotionally vulnerable (i.e. feels strongly about punishment), with intellectual interests and creativity; these are features that are not usually associated with agrarian society. These characteristics, however, may be connected with the fact that memories were written by creative people and construed as stories about the growth of a creative person. Another important aspect of childhood stories is that as confessional texts they are stories of individualisation and socialisation. In the second part of the article, I analyse the self-images of the authors, which are closely connected with the motivation and purpose of writing that may be worded explicitly (in the title or in the preface) or hidden between the lines. Several texts are construed as stories that focus on the development of the writer and the growth of the self (e.g. Metsanurk, Tuglas, and Vahtra); even if the text is a family history or a social history, it is a story of the awakening of the creative power (e.g. Haava, Kitzberg, Sillaots). The analysis of the self-image in childhood stories led me to the conclusion that female protagonists define themselves through familial or social communication networks (such as representatives of an ethnic group), and male protagonists are described as relatively independent individuals. In the last part of the article the narrative and rhetoric techniques are discussed by using literary terminology. Although all the late 19th century Estonian childhood stories share similar techniques (such as the perspective of the first-person or personal narrative, the split of the storyteller into the first-person child and the first-person adult), story elements (such as the first memory of a room flooded by golden sunlight), and recurrent motifs (such as child’s loneliness and close relation to nature, educational strivings), each story is written in a different way. The works written by professional writers are characterised by lively dialogue, individualised descriptions of the scenery, symbols, metaphors and other stylistic devices, whereas the texts written by the so-called ordinary intellectuals are not as rich in imagery and style. It is quite natural that the childhood memories written by professional writers have better withstood the test of time. The present study is the first to have a more comprehensive view of childhood as reflected in autobiographical writing in Estonia in the 19th century and therefore is somewhat fragmented; I attempt to make a list of possible research ideas and offer some methods for analysis that may be productive in the future. The broadening of the research perspective in the temporary, linguistic and spatial sense may offer more scope; a large number of childhood stories have been published in the 20th and the 21st century in Estonia and the comparison of stories telling us about Estonian children’s childhoods with those recounting German or Russian children’s experiences may offer new insights, as these ethnic groups have occupied one and the same geographical space, although there are significant differences. Another topic for research would be the study of autobiographical texts against the background of the authors’ fictional works

Tõlkepärl eesti ilukirjanduse algusaegadest – esimene eestikeelne robinsonaad / A Translation Gem from the Beginnings of Estonian Literature - the First Robinsonade

Teesid: Artiklis uuritakse Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumis asuvat mahukat, ligi 800 lk tõlkekäsikirja „Norem Robinson“, mida võib pidada esimeseks eesti kirjanduse täiemahuliseks robinsonaadiks. Selle valmistas Pärnu koolmeister Heinrich Gottlieb Lorenzsonn saksa pedagoogi ja koolikirjaniku Joachim Heinrich Campe menukast noorsooromaanist „Robinson der Jüngere“ (1779–1780). Tõlge valmis 1822.–1823. aastal, kuid jõudis trükki alles 1842. aastal tugevasti kärbitud ja mugandatud kujul. Toetudes deskriptiivse tõlkeuurimuse analüüsikategooriatele, vaadeldakse artiklis, millised tegurid tõlkeprotsessi suunasid ja milline oli kultuuriruum, kuhu tõlge omal ajal paigutus.SU M M A R YThis article discusses a voluminous manuscript translation of almost 800 pages entitled Norem Robinson (Engl. Robinson the Younger), from the collections of the Estonian Literary Museum. This manuscript can be considered as the first complete Robinsonade in Estonian literature. Its author is a schoolteacher from Pärnu, Heinrich Gottlieb Lorenzsonn (1803–1847), who translated it from the youth novel Robinson der Jüngere(1779–1780, Engl. Robinson the Younger), a bestseller by the educator, writer and a major representative of German Enlightenment, Heinrich Joachim Campe. Lorenzsonn’s translation was completed in 1822–1823, but not printed until 1842 in a strongly adapted version titled Norema Robinsoni ello ja juhtumised ühhe tühja sare peäl (Engl. The Life and Adventures of Robinson the Younger on a deserted island). The print version of the Robinsonade lacks a pedagogical frame story, where the father tells children about the adventures of Robinson and takes the opportunity to discuss and imitate with children all the actions taken by Robinson the Younger. Due to this and other extirpated parts, the possible target audience was enlarged – besides children and youth, the text was now addressed to adults as well.In accordance with the Descriptive Translation Studies, this article focused on the one hand on the Lorenzsonn's Campe-translation, and on the other hand, on the context of the target culture, arriving at conclusions concerning the factors influencing the translation process. The article uses Gideon Toury’s treatment of translation norms to discuss ideosyncrasies of the participants of the translation process (translator, mentor, censor), as well as the relevance of other norms. First preliminary norms regarding translation policy are analysed. Secondly, initial norms determine whether the translation is oriented to the source text and culture (the goal is adequacy) or to the target text and culture (the goal is acceptance). Thirdly, operational norms direct particular translation decisions. Operational translation norms can be divided further into matricial norms that concern the fullness of the translated text and textual-linguistic norms that concern the questions of grammar, syntax, style etc.The article focuses on the presumed decisions of Heinrich Gottlieb Lorenzsonn and his teacher and mentor, well-known Baltic German Estophile Johann Heinrich Rosenplänter, in the translation process. In addition, the article discusses the educational circumstances in primary schools for peasants in Estonia in the first half of the 19th century and the reading skills of potential Estonian-speaking readers at that time. Clearly, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Estonian-speaking audience was too small and not yet ready for such voluminous, demanding aesthetic and scientific reading materials. The comparative analysis of the translation manuscript and the printed text focuses on the lexical, semantic and grammatical levels, concluding that the manuscript aspires to adequacy with respect to Campe’s Robinsonade, but the printed version appeals to the Estonian-speaking reader and the Estonian cultural context. This can be explained by the fact that the aim of the manuscript was language study, while with the printed book Lorenzsonn wanted to bring the huge translation work from his early years to the literary market.Although both texts are linguistically clumsy, and the printed text has lost value because of the extirpations, it is still a translation gem dating from the very beginnings of Estonian literature, one that has not received sufficient recognition in Estonian literary history. The translation work of Heinrich Gottlieb Lorenzsonn, carried out at a time when the Estonian language was not yet fully developed is also a fact that has not been acknowledged as it well deserves to be. Further, this article undertakes to rectify two misunderstandings of Estonian literary history. First, Lorenzsonn’s Campe-translation is not a chapbook, although Estonian literary history has always defined it as such. It is demanding reading material which aims to enlarge the horizon of the Estonian-speaking reader in fields such as exotic flora and fauna, morals and ethics, and different methods of work, while simultaneously entertaining the reader and offering aesthetic pleasure. The second misunderstanding concerns the fact that the first Robinsonade of Estonian literature is considered to be Weikisi Hanso luggu tühja sare peal, (1839, Engl. A Story of the Little Hans on an deserted island) an adaptation by Johann Thomasson from Gottfried der Einsiedler (1829, Engl. Gottfried, the hermit), a youth story by German Pietist and children’s and youth writer Christoph von Schmid. Even though Thomasson’s Robinsonade, which can without hesitation be defined as a chapbook, was printed a few years earlier than Lorenzsonn’s Campe adaptation, Lorenzsonn accomplished his translation twenty years earlier. Also, in terms of artistic quality and translation techniques, Lorenzsonn’s huge work is on a much higher level than Thomasson’s adaptation

Laps(epõlv) 19. sajandi teise poole Eestis omaelulooliste tekstide näitel. Child(hood) in 19th Century Estonia: a Study of Autobiographical Texts

In this article I discuss autobiographical texts which focus on children and childhood in late 19th century Estonia. Childhood memories as well as other autobiographical material became popular in Estonia in the 1920s-1930s, when most of the studied works--the memoirs by Anna Haava, Mait Metsanurk, Jaan Lattik, Jaan Vahtra, Friedebert Tuglas, August Kitzberg and Marta Sillaots--were written. Some texts come from the 19th century (e.g. Lilli Suburg’s autobiographical works) or early 20th century (e.g. manuscripts by Hans Leoke, and Johannes Kõrv). Childhood as described in these autobiographical texts covers a period of circa 1850-1900, and the majority of the authors come from the families of South-Estonian peasants or manorial servants. In addition to being written in Estonian and having the same theme, they were all also written by authors of fiction for children or by people who had close contact with children, such as schoolteachers. The article offers a novel approach in the Estonian context by presenting a typology of childhood stories and looking at childhood recollections as an important part of childhood studies. The researchers of childhood investigate how society understands and values children and childhood, what children’s everyday life is like, what possibilities there are for development and if there exists a specific children’s culture in society (such as clothing, food, language, leisure activities, or independent creative work). Childhood studies as a separate discipline does not exist in Estonia, although some important works have been published by educational scholars and art historians. The autobiographical texts under discussion show that in the late 19th century, the majority of Estonian children lived in the countryside in patriarchal families, and childhood was short because children had to help their parents with farmwork quite early, at the age of six. The boundary of childhood was around the age of 10-11, when children started school and often left their childhood homes as the schools were usually far away. Childhood in the city is described by one author (Sillaots) and this is only natural as urbanisation in Estonia gained momentum in the early 20th century. Although childhood in Estonia in the late 19th century had scarcely any specific elements of children’s culture (children in the cities had more toys, children-style clothes, leisure, etc.), this period in the authors’ lives is remembered as a carefree and happy time. We should emphasise that in early Estonian childhood memories, the child is described as emotionally vulnerable (i.e. feels strongly about punishment), with intellectual interests and creativity; these are features that are not usually associated with agrarian society. These characteristics, however, may be connected with the fact that memories were written by creative people and construed as stories about the growth of a creative person. Another important aspect of childhood stories is that as confessional texts they are stories of individualisation and socialisation. In the second part of the article, I analyse the self-images of the authors, which are closely connected with the motivation and purpose of writing that may be worded explicitly (in the title or in the preface) or hidden between the lines. Several texts are construed as stories that focus on the development of the writer and the growth of the self (e.g. Metsanurk, Tuglas, and Vahtra); even if the text is a family history or a social history, it is a story of the awakening of the creative power (e.g. Haava, Kitzberg, Sillaots). The analysis of the self-image in childhood stories led me to the conclusion that female protagonists define themselves through familial or social communication networks (such as representatives of an ethnic group), and male protagonists are described as relatively independent individuals. In the last part of the article the narrative and rhetoric techniques are discussed by using literary terminology. Although all the late 19th century Estonian childhood stories share similar techniques (such as the perspective of the first-person or personal narrative, the split of the storyteller into the first-person child and the first-person adult), story elements (such as the first memory of a room flooded by golden sunlight), and recurrent motifs (such as child’s loneliness and close relation to nature, educational strivings), each story is written in a different way. The works written by professional writers are characterised by lively dialogue, individualised descriptions of the scenery, symbols, metaphors and other stylistic devices, whereas the texts written by the so-called ordinary intellectuals are not as rich in imagery and style. It is quite natural that the childhood memories written by professional writers have better withstood the test of time. The present study is the first to have a more comprehensive view of childhood as reflected in autobiographical writing in Estonia in the 19th century and therefore is somewhat fragmented; I attempt to make a list of possible research ideas and offer some methods for analysis that may be productive in the future. The broadening of the research perspective in the temporary, linguistic and spatial sense may offer more scope; a large number of childhood stories have been published in the 20th and the 21st century in Estonia and the comparison of stories telling us about Estonian children’s childhoods with those recounting German or Russian children’s experiences may offer new insights, as these ethnic groups have occupied one and the same geographical space, although there are significant differences. Another topic for research would be the study of autobiographical texts against the background of the authors’ fictional works

Sõda eesti laste- ja noortekirjanduses / War in Estonian children’s and youth literature

Teesid: Tõukudes juba kolmandat aastat käivast sõjast Ukrainas, millele eesti autorid on reageerinud kiiresti ja erksa meelega, võtab artikkel vaatluse alla sõjateema kajastuse eesti algupärases laste- ja noortekirjanduses läbi aegade. Alates kõige varasematest juturaamatutest 18./19. sajandi vahetusel, mis sisaldavad tekste sõjaväeteenistusse saadetud noormeestest, kuni kõige uuemate sõjast rääkivate pildiraamatuteni 2023. aastast annab artikkel kronoloogilise ülevaate lastele ja noortele suunatud teostest, mis kujutavad sõda, okupatsioone, revolutsioone või mõnd muud militaarse iseloomuga sündmust ning nendega seotud aspekte. Artikkel keskendub valdavalt eraldi kaante vahel ilmunud teostele, mis moodustavad vaid ühe osa mahukast tekstikorpusest, toob välja algupärases sõjateemalises laste- ja noortekirjanduses kõige enam kasutatud ainestikud ja motiivid ning loetleb sõjateema edasise uurimise võimalusi.   The article gives a historical overview of war-themed texts in Estonian children’s and youth literature. The choice of the research topic is motivated by Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which also changed the sense of security in our region. It has also prompted children’s and young adult writers to reflect on war and peace, resistance and cooperation, justice and injustice in a form that is appropriate and comprehensible to young readers. From the earliest storybooks at the turn of the 19th century, which include texts about young men conscripted into military service, to the most recent picture books about war from 2023, the article provides a chronological overview of works for children and young people depicting war, occupation, revolution or other events of a military nature and their related aspects. The article looks at works published mainly in book form, covering only part of a large corpus of texts. Texts published in journals, story collections, anthologies, school textbooks and elsewhere have been excluded for reasons of space. The theme of war in Estonian children’s and youth literature has become topical in connection with the turning points in Estonian history (revolutions, wars, occupations), and also bears the ideological signs of the time. However, as early as the 19th century, during the period of national awakening, national mythological and romantic material (the ancient struggle for freedom and the so-called Lembitu line; the so-called Jüriöö text) was introduced into literature, and has remained topical to the present day. The theme of war has been used more in periods when it was important to strengthen the nation’s sense of unity (the Republic of Estonia before the Second World War) or to justify regime change and new ideology (Soviet Estonia). Texts published in these periods stand out for their strong combative or combative-propagandist stance, strong and/or ideologised characters, sharp confrontations, realistic depictions of violence and death. The war texts that have appeared in free society in the last few decades are predominantly childhood memoirs of a long-ago war or occupation, although they are still generally told in an exclusionary, fragmented way through a narrative of silence. The trauma narrative has not been as topical in Estonian children’s and young people’s war literature as it has been in Western literature in recent decades. In Estonian children’s and young adult literature, most of the war stories are realistic, with human characters and real or possible situations, with only a few animal tales. To a large extent, the way a story is presented depends on the theme, genre and the age of the reader of the text. The majority of war stories are written by men, while women’s voices can be heard in memoirs, fairy tales and, to a lesser extent, folk mythological histories. Most of the works have an autobiographical background, i.e. the writers have themselves participated in the war and/or lived under occupation. This leads to a situation in which male characters are in the foreground and the events are characterised by adventures, intense confrontations and action. Girls came to Estonian children and young people’s war literature during the over-militarised Soviet era. Although writing about war is the most difficult and problematic for young children, both from an age and education point of view, there is literature for them (picture books, books about war games). War-themed texts in Estonian children’s and youth literature mainly pursue educational aims (stories of masculinisation, stories of cooperation, presentations of Estonian history in exile, reminiscences of tragic times in contemporary memoirs), but in certain periods political (the period of the Estonian Republic, exile) and ideological aims (Soviet Estonia) have been more prominent. The article outlines the most frequently used themes and motifs in Estonian children’s and young adult literature on war and lists possibilities for further research on war

Meenutades unustatud sõda [Remembering the forgotten war]

Kogumiku sissejuhatus.Introduction to the current issue of the journal