The more-than-human world. Literature and art in a multi-species world

The literary career of Friedebert Tuglas began at the beginning of the 20th century with the stories “The Hedgehog“ (children’s magazine Lasteleht 1901) and “The Wolf“ (Linda 1903), written as a schoolboy – texts that focus on the relationship of human characters with characters who are not human beings but who still influence people’s lives and activities. Jaan Eilart, who often visited the Tuglas’ family in their garden in Rahumäe in the former home of Marie Under and Artur Adson, has said that for Tuglas, all the inhabitants of this garden were important – whether they were animals, birds or plants. Elo Tuglas used to apply the principle of “The Little Prince“ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in the garden: you are always responsible for everything that you have tamed. In the late 20th century, in 1996, the American ecologist and philosopher David Abram introduced the term „the more-than-human world“, which encompasses the relationship between humans and the non-human life forms that surround them – be they animals, plants, fungi or bacteria. Such relationships are inevitable and have a fundamental impact on the human condition. In addition to non-human species, the more-than- human-world includes such influences as geographical and climatic conditions and elements of ecosystems – an area that comprises humanity and its culture but is much broader than that. In the context of the current Estonian science, this concept can be linked, for example, with studies of animal history or Umwelt.

At the traditional garden seminar held on 15 June 2023 in the museum garden of the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre (Väikese Illimari 12), we looked at approaches to literature and art based on the concept of the more-than-human-world. Walking in the footsteps of Tuglas, special attention was paid to observations of contact and interaction between humans and other species, approaches to mutual communication, influence and perception, mapping both human and other perspectives.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 872557.