Publication of a collection of articles on Madis Kõiv

Today we are pleased to announce the appearance of the collection of articles Jalutuskäigud ja kohvijoomised. Kõnelusi Madis Kõivust (Walks and Chats over Coffee. Conversations on Madis Kõiv), published by the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre.

The fact that Madis Kõivʼs literary and philosophical oeuvre continues to stimulate the thinking of many intellectuals attests to his special place in Estonian culture. The current collection, Walks and Chats over Coffee is the third such collection on Madis Kõiv, and it has appeared after a lull of more than fifteen years. It strives to provide a synergistic picture of Madis Kõivʼs original mental and spiritual world.

The Madis Kõiv phenomenon has brought together literary and theatre people and philosophers from different schools around topics such as võro [South Estonian] cultural history, Kõivʼs philosophical works, the special attributes of Kõivʼs prose, problems in theatre criticism, questions of memory and time, the meaning of Kõivʼs terms such as “ometi” – ʻand yetʼ, “the metaphysical afternoon”, etc. A separate nucleus consists of approaches to interpreting Kõivʼs play Lõputu kohvijoomine (Endless Coffee-Drinking), directed by Priit Pedajas. There is also the transcript of a longer conversation with Madis Kõiv from 1998, and a bibliography of his works from 2004, the year of publication of the previous volume in the series.

The compiler and editor of the collection is Aare Pilv; authors of articles besides Pilv are Tiia Allas, Jaan Kangilaski, Jaan Kaplinski, Jan Kaus, Madis Kolk, Piret Kruuspere, Jüri Lipping, Leo Luks, Indrek Ojam, Anti Saar, Henrik Sova ja Rein Veidemann. The book was designed by Tiiu Pirsko, and the language editor is Tiina Hallik.