When the rain stops. Weather in literature

2020 was the warmest year in Estonian history. You can clearly see the effects of climate change in nature. Weather in general has changed a lot in the recent years. In December 2020, Tallinn University hosted a conference Every Breeze Has a Mood – Storms and Storminess. Climate Extremities and Their Social Effects on the Example of Estonia. There, historians, geographers and social scientists looked at the effects of extreme weather.

On 21 May 2021, we ask literary scholars how writers in Estonia and elsewhere have written about weather: what weather and climate literature looks like, whether literature depicting the effects of climate change belongs only to the science fiction genre, how weather is reflected in books. The framework is quite broad: is the weather in a literary work a metaphor, a precondition or a trigger, a daily experience, an event, background or a character. Will the event kickstart from climate change? What are the predictive weather signs for this? How much or how are historical weather phenomena depicted in fiction? How, for example, has the weather affected travel literature?

The seminar celebrates the 10th birthday of the Estonian Centre for Environmental History KAJAK. It will most likely take place as a webinar.

Please submit the preliminary introductions (title and a few descriptive sentences) of the presentations by 16 April.

Organisers
Ene-Reet Soovik, University of Tartu, ene-reet.soovik@ut.ee
Elle-Mari Talivee, Under and Tuglas Literature Centre/Tallinn University, ellemari@utkk.ee

Further reading
Kadi Raal, Mida on kliimamuutused Eesti looduses korda saatnud ja milline on tulevik? – Postimees, 4 March, 2018
Kadri Tüür, Kui külm oli sel ööl, kui Mäeküla piimamees suri? – Ööülikool