Under and Tuglas Literature Centre

Turn of the Century, Turns in Literature: Estonian and Latvian Literatures
in European Context at the Beginning of the 20th Century

October 12, 2006
Under and Tuglas Literature Centre of the Estonian Academy of Sciences
6 Roosikrantsi Street, Tallinn
Seminar room, 3rd floor

Seminar is supported by Estonian Science Foundation grant No 6816

Contact and information: Anneli Mihkelev
Phone: +372 3851476
Mobile: +372 56648679
e-mail: milenna(at)utkk.ee
milenna(at)hot.ee

We often sat and pondered together
In the years of youth, the twilight of action.
We came in wind and rain,
We left in storm and strain,
In haze blazing with solar systems –
We rovers, we rebels from attic chambers
In the years of youth.

We were fiery enough, we were windy enough,
Coming from attic dwellings,
Headed for the battlegrounds of life –
We had hatreds, debates, ideas, ideals,
Theories, theomachies, visions, division
In those brooding days of imminent fight…
(Gustav Suits, Hoary Youth)

This poem, written by Gustav Suits and published in his collection Tuulemaa (The Land of Winds) in 1913, is looking back to the revolution of 1905 and the stormy events of the early 20th century social and political life and literature. At the same time the poem is about the time when the processes started by these turbulent events were continuing, perhaps not very stormily, but the more deeply: all these ideas, ideals, visions had not disappeared but were in the minds of poets and writers, manifesting themselves in their literary works. Something had changed after the revolutionary period.

Conferences and seminars on the topic – the turn of the 19th/ 20th century – have been abundant and we are familiar with the Estonian events and literary texts in this context, and know something about the influences of West European or Russian origin, but we know too little about our closest neighbours. Therefore, the purpose of this seminar is to parallel texts from Latvian and Estonian literatures from the period mentioned above.

Together with our Latvian colleagues we have selected nine literary texts or four matches from the period. All of them represent different styles and ideas of the period, and all together they represent the diversity of that time. These texts would be the key texts for the discussions of the seminar, and the eight speakers who present papers on them would be the key speakers (four from Latvia and four from Estonia).

Programme:

9.15 Opening the Seminar

I. Realism and young Blaumanis and Vilde
Chair: Jaan Undusk

9.30 Inguna Daukste-Silasproģe (Latvian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art)

Money or Love. Some Crosspoints in Eduard Vilde’s (Paula’s Wedding) and Rūdolfs Blaumanis' (The Spring Frosts) Short Stories

10.10 Anneli Mihkelev (Under and Tuglas Literature Centre)

Eduard Vilde, Rūdolfs Blaumanis and European Realism at the Turn of the 19th/20th Centuries

10.50-11.10 Coffee

II. Rebellious and revolutionary ideas dominating at the beginning of the 20th century
Chair: Maija Burima

11.10 Eva Eglāja-Kristsone (Latvian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art)

Symbols as the Reflection of Rising Mood of Society in Jānis Rainis’ Ave sol! and Gustav Suits' Poetry

11.50 Aare Pilv (Under and Tuglas Literature Centre, Tallinn)

The Idea of Homeland in the Poetry of Gustav Suits (and Jānis Rainis)

12.30-14.00 Lunch

III. The turns in drama
Chair: Piret Kruuspere

14.00 Luule Epner (Tartu University)

Ethnic Heritage and Modernity in the Turn-Of-The-Century Drama: The Werewolf and Blow, Wind!

14.40 Benedikts Kalnačs (Latvian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art)

The Native and the Foreign: Rainis’ Blow, Wind! and Kitzberg’s The Werewolf

15.20-15.40 Coffee

IV. Modernism
Chair: Benedikts Kalnačs

15.40 Maija Burima (Daugavpils University)

The Semantics of Circle Architectonics in Jānis Akuraters’ Burning Island and Friedebert Tuglas’ The Golden Hoop

16.20 Jaan Undusk (Under and Tuglas Literature Centre, Tallinn)

The most ”Kafkaesque” short story of Friedebert Tuglas (The Golden Hoop)

17.10-18.00 Discussions

Presentation length: 20 minutes + 20 discussion.

The key texts will be following:

Rūdolfs Blaumanis Salna pavasarī (The Spring Frosts; Kevadised hallad, 1898);
Eduard Vilde Kippari unerohi /Paula pulm (The Skipper’s Sleeping-drug, 1893; Paula’s Wedding);

Jānis Rainis Ave sol (1910);
Gustav Suits Elu tuli (The Fire of Life, 1905)

Jānis Rainis Pūt, vējiņi! (Blow, Wind! Puhu, tuul!, 1913);
August Kitzberg Libahunt (The Werewolf, 1911)

Jānis Akuraters Degoša sala (Burning Island; Põlev saar, 1911)
Friedebert Tuglas Kuldne rõngas (The Golden Hoop, 1916)

Presentation length: 20 minutes + 20 minutes for discussion.
Working language: English

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