DOCSLIB.ORG

Feminismos 4

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Feminismos 4 CLAIMING AND DISCLAIMING THE BODY IN THE EARLY DIARIES OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, ANAÏS NIN AND AINO KALLAS LEENA KURVET-KÄOSAAR University of Tartu (Estonia) Autobiographical practices, as realized and conceptualized in the 20th century have, to a great extent, ignored the issues pertaining to the body. Shirley Neumann sees as one of the main reasons for this «the Platonic tradition that opposes the spiritual to the corporeal, and then identifies ‘self’ with the spiritual»1. In later considerations of autobiography that have been influenced by the postmodernist paradigm, the rationalist ‘self’ is replaced by the notion of the subject that views linguistic constructions of the self, or, in other words, textual markers of the subject as part of historic, social and cultural factors. According to Sidonie Smith, «subjectivity is not an out-of-body experience»2; rather it can be viewed as «the elaborate residue of the border politics of the body since bodies locate us topographically, temporally, socio-culturally as well as linguistically in a series of transcodings along multiple axes of meanings»3. By declaring that «the body has been made so problematic for women that it has often seemed easier to shrug it off and travel as a disembodied spirit»4, Adrienne Rich voices an experience familiar to women belonging to various cultures, classes, ages and racial/ethnic backgrounds. The Cartesian mind/body split placing women on the latter side of the divide has historically resulted in a textual neutralization or writing off the body in women’s autobiographical texts. Several feminist autobiography scholars have argued that despite its problematic nature, the body is not 1. NEUMAN, Shirley: «’An appearance walking in a forest the sexes burn’: Autobiography and the Construction of the Feminine Body», in Kathleen Ashley, Leigh Gilmore and Gerald Peters (eds.): Autobiography & Postmodernism, Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1994, p. 293. 2. SMITH, Sidonie: «Identity’s Body», in Kathleen Ashley, Leigh Gilmore and Gerald Peters (eds.), Autobiography & Postmodernism, Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1994, p. 266. 3. SMITH, Sidonie: Op. cit., p. 267. 4. RICH, Adrienne: Of Women Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, New York, W.W. Norton, 1976, p. 40. Feminismo/s, 4, diciembre 2004, pp. 69-84 69 Leena Kurvet-Käosaar entirely absent from women’s autobiographical writings. As Smith further argues, «the women autobiographer always remained self-consciously in her body even as she erased the body from her text»5. The word ‘erasure’ here does not denote a mere absence but rather a presence that has been removed, or even more importantly, a presence that is continuously in the process of coming into being and being removed. Even with no visible readable presence, «(in autobiography) the body of the text, the body of the narrator, the body of the narrated I, the cultural body and the body politic must all merge in skins and skeins of meaning»6. Keeping a diary, especially for women, has been a practice of considerable continuity in the Western Culture. In an insightful attempt to conceptualize the diary, Felicity Nussbaum claims; «it is possible that women began the idea of private and later public, articulation of quotidian experience»7. The diary, looked upon as a textual practice both formally and thematically corresponding to women’s pattern of life and way of thinking, has frequently been considered to be the ‘feminine mode of writing’ by feminist critics of autobiography8. While an exposure of the ways in which diaristic writings have been feminized and rejected in the classical theoretical and critical works on autobiography, it can certainly be considered a noteworthy contribution to autobiography criticism, the construction of the textual space of the diary as a safe secluded haven for the female pen runs, at some point, the risk of furthering the feminization and marginalization of the diary rather than expanding the autobiographical canon. An understanding of the diary format as a mode of writing that has been accessible and gratifying for women across centuries9, however, makes it possible to view women’s diaries as important sources providing access to the representation of the development of female subjectivity. In many cases, women’s diaries start with adolescence or girlhood. A renowned French scholar of autobiography, Philippe Lejeune, who has studied the diaries of French girls from the 17th century onwards, sees as the most difficult task in reading young girls diaries «in learning how to decipher the code or thematic framework within which the diary articulates itself»10. Lejeune mentions as one of the characteristic features of girlhood diaries the high degree of self-censorship,11 everything pertaining to the body falling into the category 5. SMITH, Sidonie: Op. cit., p. 272. 6. Ibid., p. 267. 7. NUSSBAUM, Felicity: «Toward Conceptualizing the Diary», in James Olney (ed.): Studies in Autobiography, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 134. 8. See, for example, MOFFAT, Mary Jane, and PAINTER, Charlotte: Revelations: Diaries of Women, New York, Vintage, 1974, p. 5. HOGAN, Rebecca: «Diarists on Diaries», a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 2.2 (1986), p. 100. 9. BLODGETT, Harriet: Centuries of Female Days. Englishwomen’s Private Diaries, New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1988, p. 5. 10. LEJEUNE, Philippe: «The ‘Journal de Jeune Fille’ in Nineteenth-Century France», in Bunkers, Suzanne L. and Cynthia A. Huff, Inscribing the Daily. Critical Essays on Women’s Diaries, Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1996, p. 111. 11. LEJEUNE, Philippe: Op. cit., p. 111. 70 Claiming and Disclaiming the Body in the Early Diaries of Virginia Woolf.... of topics to be left out of the diary. «A girl could keep a diary», claims Lejeune, «without any interruption, between the ages of eight and seventeen, without mentioning at all any transformations brought about by puberty»12. The diaries of girlhood, adolescence and young womanhood offer extremely valuable insights into the textual negotiational practices through which women have attempted to locate themselves in their surroundings and contexts as well as their bodies. Nussbaum identifies the need for keeping a diary with the point when «the subject begins to believe that it cannot be intelligible to itself without written representation and articulation»13. Considering both the intellectual and ideological ways of male-dominated Western culture that submits women to multiple objectifying practices from quite an early age, it is not difficult to see why a written articulation and representation of experience has been of such crucial value for young women across various cultural contexts and time frames. According to Bunkers and Huff, «women’s daily experience» that has been articulated in the diary, «has been denigrated by mainstream Western epistemology in favor of universality is commonly related to the bodily and separated from the universality [of the mind in favor of the latter]»14. The binary opposition of mind and body, although commonly associated with Descartes, can be traced back to Plato, who views the body as a «tomb, or as a grave or a prison for the soul»15. Claiming that women live more through their bodies than men, Plato views the body as an enormous obstacle in seeing beauty, achieving knowledge and the highest forms of love16. Women’s lives are seen as more related to the body than those of men and the diary has been viewed as a textual practice that, more than any other autobiographical discourse, as if bears trace of the operation of binary thought. On the one hand, the diary is positioned in the canon of autobiography as a textual practice pertaining more to the body (characterized by qualities such as immanence, the daily, and being of local relevance) than to the mind (characterized by qualities such as universality and transcendence). On the other hand, as a rather loosely conceptualized and flexible genre the diary offers more varied and richer possibilities for writing the body. Diaries can be also viewed as having a positive relation to the body, as offering a home to the textual & textured body of the author’s subjectivity. When keeping a diary, she calls into being a text that continually expands in time and space, the author 12. Ibid., p. 111. 13. NUSSBAUM, Felicity: Op. cit., p. 132. 14. BUNKERS, Suzanne and HUFF, Cynthia: «Issues in Studying Women’s Diaries: A Theoretical and Critical Introduction», in Suzanne Bunkers and Cynthia Huff (eds.): Inscribing the Daily; Critical Essays on Women’s Diaries, Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1996, p. 5. 15. SPELMAN, Elizabeth V.: «Woman as Body: Ancient and Contemporary Views», Feminist Studies, 8-1 (spring 1982), p. 136. 16. SPELMAN, Elizabeth V.: Op. cit., pp. 36, 37. 71 Leena Kurvet-Käosaar gradually claims a textual body, she possesses a text and is simultaneously contained by it. As the diary is «experienced as writing without an end» 17, it lacks a pressure for closure, the need to declare itself finished, it acquires over time a more intimate and more immediate, or one may say more bodily, relation with its author. This is a feature that is characteristic of all diary texts that cover long periods of their authors’ lives. It is clear for the reader that the diary is for its author a familiar and reliable writing situation or context, to which she is related via the dynamic patterns of previous entries. This, however, does not imply an obligation of the author to continue reproducing the style, length, mode and referential framework of previous entries. On the contrary, the familiarity of the context can be traced in the freedom of the author to vary and modify format and structure of the diary according to his/her needs. Virginia Woolf, Anaïs Nin and Aino Kallas kept a diary more or less regularly for long periods of their lives.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Aino Kallas Syrjässä
    Lopen Joulu 2009 Aino Kallas Syrjässä Kirjailija Aino Kallas os. Krohn, tunnetun fennomaaniperheen tytär, vietti lapsuuden- ja nuoruudenkesänsä Lopen Sajaniemen Järventaustan Syrjässä. Kesällä 2009 Syrjässä järjestetyissä tapahtumissa oli esillä pieni tätä ajanjaksoa kuvaava näyttely, jossa esiteltyyn aineistoon tämä kirjoitus perustuu. Aikaisemmin on Aino Kallaksen vaiheista Lopella kertonut mm. Hele-Anneli Vähäkylä Lopen joulussa 1997. Godenhjelmit ja Syrjä Helsinkiläisellä lehtori B. F. Godenhjelmilla ja hänen Ida-vaimollaan oli 1870-luvulla kesänviettopaikkaa valitessaan monia vaihtoehtoja. Matkustaako kotimaassa vai ulkomailla, ostaako huvila vai majoittuako vuokrahuoneisiin tai hotelliin? Kaupunkiin jääminen ei heitä liene houkutellut, kuuluihan kesänvietto maaseudulla tai kylpylässä säädynmukaiseen elämään, eikä kaupungissa oleskelua kesäisin pidetty terveellisenäkään. Aiemmin Godenhjelmit olivat matkustaneet joka vuosi Haapsaluun, mutta tästä eteenpäin kesäpaikaksi vakiintui Loppi. Valintaan vaikutti varmaankin hyvä ystävä Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen, joka oli ostanut Leppälahden tilan Loppijärven rannalta muutamaa vuotta aikaisemmin. Godenhjelmit eivät kuitenkaan pitäneet oman kesäpaikan ostamista tarpeellisena, vaan vuokrasivat Syrjän tilan pihapiiristä ensin pari huonetta, myöhempinä kesinä vieraita varten rakennetun erillisen huvilan. Syrjän tila oli aiemmin ollut Sajaniemen kylän Jalkusen rusthollin torppa. Kantatila Jalkunen oli jaettu kahtia 1700-luvulla. Toinen puoli oli jaettu vielä uudelleen, jolloin Loppijärven länsipuolisesta
    [Show full text]
  • Kun Tunsin Kuuluvani – Toiseus Ja Kuuluminen Uudessa Kulttuurissa Suomalaisesta Näkökulmasta
    TAMPEREEN YLIOPISTO Henna Kostilainen Kun tunsin kuuluvani – Toiseus ja kuuluminen uudessa kulttuurissa suomalaisesta näkökulmasta Yhteiskunta- ja kulttuuritieteiden yksikkö Historian pro gradu -tutkielma Tampere 2018 Tampereen yliopisto Yhteiskunta- ja kulttuuritieteiden yksikkö KOSTILAINEN, HENNA: Kun tunsin kuuluvani – Toiseus ja kuuluminen uudessa kulttuurissa suomalaisesta näkökulmasta Pro gradu -tutkielma, 91 s. Historia Kesäkuu 2018 Matkakirjallisuus on tärkeä matkojen taltioinnin ja jäsentelyn väline. Matkakirjallisuudessa kirjoitta- jat ovat usein nostaneet esille itselleen tärkeitä teemoja, kuten kohtaamisia ja käsityksiä uudesta kult- tuurista. Matkustamiselle oli usein syynsä, kuten vaikkapa työ, opinnot tai silkka mielenkiinto uutta kulttuuria kohtaan. Matkustamisen aikana ihmisille kertyi erilaisia kokemuksia uudesta kulttuurista, ja pidempiä aikoja ulkomailla viettäneet usein integroituivat paikalliseen yhteiskuntaan. Integroitu- misprosessiin kuului erilaisia toiseuden ja kuulumisen kokemuksia. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastelen toiseuden ja kuulumisen kokemuksia ja tunteita osana sopeutumis- prosessia erilaisiin yhteisöihin. Tutkin kolmen suomalaisen naisen, Aino Kallaksen, Elsa Enäjärven ja Helmi Krohnin, kokemuksia toiseudesta ja kuulumisesta kielen ja kielikulttuurin, käytös- ja käyt- täytymiskulttuurin sekä luokkajaon näkökulmista. Kallas, Enäjärvi ja Krohn oleskelivat Britanniassa 1900-luvun alkuvuosikymmeninä eripituisia aikoja. Oleskelunsa aikana he kaikki sopeutuivat erilai- siin ryhmittymiin ja yhteisöihin, sekä
    [Show full text]
  • Finnish Literature Society
    Folklore Fellows’ NETWORK No. 1 | 2018 www.folklorefellows.fi • www.folklorefellows.fi • www.folklorefellows.fi Folklore Fellows’ NETWORK No. 1 | 2018 FF Network is a newsletter, published twice a year, related to Contents FF Communications. It provides information on new FFC volumes and on articles related to cultural studies by internationally recognised authors. The Two Faces of Nationalism 3 Pekka Hakamies Publisher Fin nish Academy of Science An Update to the Folklore Fellows’ Network and Letters, Helsinki Bulletin 4 Petja Kauppi Editor Pekka Hakamies [email protected] National Identity and Folklore: the Case of Ireland 5 Mícheál Briody Editorial secretary Petja Kauppi [email protected] Folk and Nation in Estonian Folkloristics 15 Liina Saarlo Linguistic editor Clive Tolley Finnish Literature Society (SKS) Archives 26 Editorial office Risto Blomster, Outi Hupaniittu, Marja-Leena Jalava, Katri Kalevala Institute, University of Turku Kivilaakso, Juha Nirkko, Maiju Putkonen & Jukka Saarinen Address Kalevala Institute, University of Turku Latest FFC Publications 31 20014 Turku, Finland FFC 313: Latvian Folkloristics in the Interwar Period. Ed. Dace Bula. FFC 314: Matthias Egeler, Atlantic Outlooks on Being at Home. Folklore Fellows on the internet www.folklorefellows.fi ISSN-L 0789-0249 ISSN 0789-0249 (Print) ISSN 1798-3029 (Online) Subscriptions Cover: Student of Estonian philology, Anita Riis (1927−1995) is standing at the supposed-to-be www.folklorefellows.fi Kalevipoeg’s boulder in Porkuni, northern Estonia in 1951. (Photo by Ülo Tedre. EKM KKI, Foto 1045) Editorial The Two Faces of Nationalism Pekka Hakamies his year many European nations celebrate their centenaries; this is not mere chance. The First World War destroyed, on top of everything else, many old regimes where peoples that had T lived as minorities had for some time been striving for the right to national self-determina- tion.
    [Show full text]
  • On Estonian Folk Culture: Pro Et Contra
    doi:10.7592/FEJF2014.58.ounapuu ON ESTONIAN FOLK CULTURE: PRO ET CONTRA Piret Õunapuu Abstract: The year 2013 was designated the year of heritage in Estonia, with any kind of intangible and tangible heritage enjoying pride of place. Heritage was written and spoken about and revived in all kinds of ways and manners. The motto of the year was: There is no heritage without heir. Cultural heritage is a comprehensive concept. This article focuses, above all, on indigenous cultural heritage and, more precisely, its tangible (so-called object) part. Was the Estonian peasant, 120 years back, with his gradually increasing self-confidence, proud or ashamed of his archaic household items? Rustic folk culture was highly viable at that time. In many places people still wore folk costumes – if not daily, then at least the older generation used to wear them to church. A great part of Estonians still lived as if in a museum. Actually, this reminded of the old times that people tried to put behind them, and sons were sent to school in town for a better and more civilised future. In the context of this article, the most important agency is peasants’ attitude towards tangible heritage – folk culture in the widest sense of the word. The appendix, Pro et contra, at the end of the article exemplifies this on the basis of different sources. Keywords: creation of national identity, cultural heritage, Estonian National Museum, Estonian Students’ Society, folk costumes, folk culture, Learned Es- tonian Society, material heritage, modernisation, nationalism, social changes HISTORICAL BACKGROUND By the end of the 19th century, the Russification period, several cultural spaces had evolved in the Baltic countries: indigenous, German and Russian.
    [Show full text]
  • Artistic Alliances and Revolutionary Rivalries in the Baltic Art World, 1890–1914
    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR HISTORY, CULTURE AND MODERNITY www.history-culture-modernity.org Published by: Uopen Journals Copyright: © The Author(s). Content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence eISSN: 2213-0624 Artistic Alliances and Revolutionary Rivalries in the Baltic Art World, 1890–1914 Bart Pushaw HCM 4 (1): 42–72 DOI: 10.18352/hcm.503 Abstract In the areas now known as Estonia and Latvia, art remained a field for the Baltic German minority throughout the nineteenth century. When ethnic Estonian and Latvian artists gained prominence in the late 1890s, their presence threatened Baltic German hegemony over the region’s culture. In 1905, revolution in the Russian Empire spilled over into the Baltic Provinces, sparking widespread anti-German violence. The revolution also galvanized Latvian and Estonian artists towards greater cultural autonomy and independence from Baltic German artistic insti- tutions. This article argues that the situation for artists before and after the 1905 revolution was not simply divisive along ethnic lines, as some nationalist historians have suggested. Instead, this paper examines how Baltic German, Estonian and Latvian artists oscillated between com- mon interests, inspiring rivalries, and politicized conflicts, question- ing the legitimacy of art as a universalizing language in multicultural societies. Keywords: Baltic art, Estonia, Latvia, multiculturalism, nationalism Introduction In the 1860s a visitor of the port towns of Riga or Tallinn would have surmised that these cities were primarily German-speaking areas of Imperial Russia. By 1900, however, one could hear not only German, but Latvian, Estonian, Russian, as well as Yiddish on the streets of Riga 42 HCM 2016, VOL.
    [Show full text]
  • „The Happiest Women, Like the Happiest Nations, Have No History“: a Woman’S Body As A
    „The Happiest Women, Like the Happiest Nations, Have No History“: A Woman’s Body as a Metaphor For The Nation Finnish authors Aino Kallas and Sofi Oksanen have both written about Estonia, its people and history, often provocatively for their time. Both Kallas’ and Oksanen’s ties with Estonia1 have allowed them to see behind the facade that Estonians put up; they write as both insiders and outsiders, treating issues that create contrasting reactions and feelings amongst their Estonian readers. Focusing on Kallas’ The Wolf’s Bride and Oksanen’s Purge, the former published during the „first independence“ (1928) and the latter during the re- independence (2008) of Estonia, I will ask what the role and purpose of the violence against women in Kallas and Oksanen is, and argue that they have used gender-based violence to depict other conflicts. Estonian literary scholar Sirje Olesk has drawn parallels between Oksanen’s and Kallas’ lives and works, seeing the style of both writers as realistic, but also sharing a mythological dimension, with characters that are often symbolic.2 Kallas writes about a woman’s search for her sexuality and independence in a time when women’s roles were changing. The story takes place in the 17th century, but addresses the questions of the beginning of 20th century. According to Mia Spangenberg women’s sexuality was part of those questions and it is a part of Kallas’s work.3 Oksanen writes mainly through the eyes of female characters and the tragedy of love, betrayal and redemption of the wounds of contemporary Estonian history.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Translation in Britain and Selective Xenophobia
    CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 Purdue University Press ©Purdue University Volume 4 (2002) Issue 1 Article 1 Literary Translation in Britain and Selective Xenophobia Eric Dickens Blaricum, The Netherlands Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <[email protected]> Recommended Citation Dickens, Eric. "Literary Translation in Britain and Selective Xenophobia." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 4.1 (2002): <https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1140> This text has been double-blind peer reviewed by 2+1 experts in the field. The above text, published by Purdue University Press ©Purdue University, has been downloaded 1570 times as of 11/ 07/19.
    [Show full text]
  • Dissertationes Folkloristicae Universitatis Tartuensis 18
    DISSERTATIONES FOLKLORISTICAE UNIVERSITATIS TARTUENSIS 18 DISSERTATIONES FOLKLORISTICAE UNIVERSITATIS TARTUENSIS 18 ANDREAS KALKUN Seto laul eesti folkloristika ajaloos. Lisandusi representatsiooniloole Väitekiri on lubatud kaitsmisele fi losoofi adoktori kraadi taotlemiseks (folkloris- tikas) Tartu Ülikooli kultuuriteaduste ja kunstide instituudi nõukogu otsusega 30. juunil 2011. a. Juhendaja: professor Kristin Kuutma (Tartu Ülikool) Oponendid: professor Tiina Ann Kirss (Tallinna Ülikool) professor Th omas A. DuBois (Wisconsin-Madisoni Ülikool) Kaitsmise koht: Ülikooli 16–102 Kaitsmise aeg: 30. august 2011 Väitekiri valmis sihtfi nantseeritava teema “Folkloor ja folkloorikogud kultuurimuu- tuste mõjuväljas: ideoloogiad, kohanemine, kasutuskontekst” (SF0030180s08) ning Eesti Teadusfondi grandi “Teadmiste produktsioon rahvusteadusliku uuringu kon- tekstis” (ETF 7795) toetusel. ISSN 1406–7366 ISBN 978–9949–19–840–5 (trükis) ISBN 978–9949–19–841–2 (PDF) Autoriõigus Andreas Kalkun, 2011 Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus www.tyk.ee Tellimus nr. 489 Eessõna Võimalik, et minu väitekirja valmimise protsess on tundunud kõrvalvaataja jaoks pikk, ebaloogiline ja ebajärjekindel ning täis katkestusi ja kõrvalepõikeid. Minu jaoks on see kaos olnud ometi üks pigem napp kui pikk rännak seto laulupärimuse representeeri- mislukku, mida on toetanud kõik mind inspireerinud usundit puudutavad, soo-uuri- muslikud ja muud “kõrvalteemad”, aga ka mu välitööd, reisid, laulmised ja õpingud. On võimatu nimeliselt tänada kõiki, kes mind sellel teel on õpetanud, julgustanud, inspireerinud ja suunanud. Aitäh mu emale ja sõpradele, aitäh kõigile setodele, kes mind on seto laulu ja muu pärimuse juurde toonud ja toetanud. Aitäh kõigile laulukaas- lastele ja välitöödel kohatud inimestele, kellelt olen nii mõndagi õppinud. Suur tänu Paul Hagule, kellega koos laulmine on juhatanud mind ülikooli esimestest aastatest seto laulukultuuri saladustesse, ning kes juhendas mu bakalaureuse- ja magistritööd.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spiritual Folksongs of Cyrillus Kreek Laney Mcclain Armstrong A
    “Now sing from the mouth and from the heart”: The Spiritual Folksongs of Cyrillus Kreek Laney McClain Armstrong A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Geoffrey Boers, Chair Giselle Wyers Áine Heneghan Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Music – Choral Conducting ©Copyright 2013 Laney McClain Armstrong 1 Introduction Estonia is a country with a rich history full of music, singing, and ancient traditions. As a country that has been occupied and heavily influenced by a variety of different governments and cultures throughout Europe, Estonia’s rich and ancient history is infused with traditions from a variety of cultures. German, Swedish, Russian, and other Baltic traditions permeate Estonian music, language, and religious practice. During a national cultural awakening in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, musical scholars began to collect and document a variety of different folk traditions as part of the process of creating a national identity for Estonia. This process is parallel to the movements pioneered by Zoltan Kolday, Bela Bartok, and other nationalists who used the folk songs and folk traditions of their people to help create a national identity and integrate it into the modern music of their own cultures. The particular role that folksong collection played in the establishment of an Estonian cultural identity and the fight for independence is profound. Among them was the young student Cyrillus Kreek. With his initial education in the folksongs of Estonia as a young student, Kreek went on to champion a particular form of Estonian singing: the spiritual folksong.
    [Show full text]
  • Kirjailijan Kuva 1900-Luvun Kirjeenvaihdossa Aino Kallaksen Ja Friedebert Tuglasin Kirjeiden Tarkastelua
    Kirjailijan kuva 1900-luvun kirjeenvaihdossa Aino Kallaksen ja Friedebert Tuglasin kirjeiden tarkastelua Liivika Virtanen Pro gradu -tutkielma Kevät 2016 Suomen kieli ja kulttuuri Suomen kielen, suomalais-ugrilaisten ja pohjoismaisten kielten ja kirjallisuuksien laitos Humanistinen tiedekunta Helsingin yliopisto Tiedekunta/Osasto – Fakultet/Sektion – Faculty Laitos – Institution – Department Humanistinen tiedekunta Suomen kielen, suomalais-ugrilaisten ja pohjoismaisten kielten ja kirjallisuuksien laitos Tekijä – Författare – Author Liivika Virtanen Työn nimi – Arbetets titel – Title Kirjailijan kuva 1900-luvun kirjeenvaihdossa. Aino Kallaksen ja Friedebert Tuglasin kirjeiden tarkastelua Oppiaine – Läroämne – Subject Suomen kieli ja kulttuuri Työn laji – Arbetets art – Level Aika – Datum – Month and Sivumäärä– Sidoantal – Number of pages Pro gradu -tutkielma year Kesäkuu 2016 56 Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract Tämä työ edustaa kirjeiden tutkimusta. Tutkimuksen kohteena on kaksi kirjailijaa ja kääntäjää. Työssä tarkastellaan Aino Kallaksen ja Friedebert Tuglasin kirjeenvaihtoa ja selvitetään millaista oli kirjailijan työ 1900-luvulla. Pääasiallisena tutkimusaineistona käytetään Kallaksen ja Tuglasin kirjeitä, jotka ovat peräisin Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran arkistosta. Kirjeet on kirjoitettu vuosina 1909–1942. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään hermeneuttista lähestymistapaa, ja sen avulla pyritään ymmärtämään Kallaksen tuotannon syntymiseen liittyviä kysymyksiä. Kallaksen kirjailijakuvan selventämiseksi käytetään kirjeiden lisäksi hänen
    [Show full text]
  • On Contextualization of the Estonian Child-Lore Collections
    ISTORINIO KONTEKSTO ĮTAKA DAINŲ SKLAIDAI The Dog Goes to Tend the Herd… On Contextualization of the Estonian Child-Lore Collections LIINA SAARLO Estonian Folklore Archives, Estonian Literary Museum (Tartu) ABSTRACT. The paper contextualizes the large and “thick” corpus of children’s songs at the Estonian Folklore Archives, presenting circumstances and prerequisites of its formation. The showcase is the child-lore corpus of Laiuse parish and Priidu Tammepuu, the key figure in its formation. The paper discusses the motives of an amateur folklore collector, conflicts between the contributor and the archival institution. Also, problems of collection by pupils are brought forward, revealing the reasons of marginalisation and dismission of some of the corpus’s content by folklorists, researchers and publishers. Finally, perspectives and possibilities for use of such archival materials are discussed. KEYWORDS: Estonian Folklore Archives, folklore collection campaigns, child-lore, contributor, literary influences on oral traditions. INTRODUCTION In Estonia, folklore has been a cornerstone of the construction of the Estonian national identity, and thereby countrywide folklore collection campaigns played an important role in the national movement since the 1880s. In the 1920s and 1930s, after gaining the national independence and institutionalization of the folkloristics, the focus of fieldwork and studies of the Estonian folklore shifted from classical genres to the peripheries of oral tradition. Theretofore considered unattractive and trivial, some genres – like child-lore – found themselves as objects of massive collection campaigns. Professor Walter Anderson organized the collection of children songs all over Estonia with the help of the published questionnaire. The campaign succeeded because it was targeted at school teachers and pupils and – thanks to the precedent collection campaigns – the idea of documentation of oral folk traditions was commonly recognized.
    [Show full text]
  • Ta Ja Valtasyistä. Samoihin Aikoihin
    ta ja valtasyistä. Samoihin aikoihin Vapauden tuulet alkoivat vähentyä merkittäväs- homous kriminalisoitiin myös Neu- 1960-luvun lopulla syytteet ja tuo- ti sen jälkeen kun homous lakkasi vostoliitossa, mutta se ei liene vai- miot sitten vähenivät. Ilmeisesti olemasta rikos ja asenteet homoja kuttanut Suomessa tuolloin. alettiin voimassa olleesta laista ja kohtaan ovat parantuneet. ”Simeon” on kertomus säälittä- muista sen kaltaisista riippumatta västä reppanasta. ”Timo” taas on vähitellen käsittää, että homouden VELI HYVÄRINEN surullinen tarina sotilasrakkaudes- tuomitseminen rikokseksi, sairau- Psyke ry:n puheenjohtaja 1970-luvulla. ta toisessa maailmansodassa. deksi ja synniksi ei ollut päte- Sodanaikaisista miesten väli- viä perusteita. Asetettiin komitea, sistä suhteista esiintyy ristiriitaisia joka alkoi Inkeri Anttilan johdolla kuvauksia. Touko Laaksonen (Tom sommitella lainmuutosta. of Finland), on kertonut minullekin, Seitsemän kumman veljeksen että pommikoneiden harhauttami- viimeinen on ”Eero”. Hän on ai- seksi pimennetyssä Helsingissä noa, jonka henkilöllisyys kerrotaan kontaktien solmiminen sotilai- kirjassa. Hän oli Holger von Glan, den ja muiden miesten kesken oli homoaktivisti, Psyke ry:n ensim- helppoa, raitiotiepysäkeillä ja puis- mäisiä puheenjohtajia. toissa. Samoilta ajoilta on toisaal- Hagman on perehtynyt aihee- ta kuvauksia, joissa jopa itsetyy- seensa kiitettävästi. Hän kirjoittaa dytystä on paheksuttu rintamalla. selvää ja helposti ymmärrettävää Runkkari oli yhtä kuin homo. suomea. Homouden tuomitsemi- Homotuomioitten huippu ke- sen absurdius selviää kirjasta hy- hittyi Hagmanin julkaisemien tilas- vin, vaikka tutkija ei kantaansa tojen mukaan Suomessa toisen suoraan sanokaan. Koditon maailmansodan aikana ja jälkeen, Joitain asioita on kirjoittajalta maailmankansalainen ensiksi siis luultavasti Saksan vai- jäänyt tarkistamatta. Niinpä Psy- kutuksesta, sitten myös 1950-lu- ke ry on perustettu vuoden 1968 Silja Vuorikuru: Aino Kallas. vulla Yhdysvalloista rantautu- lopussa, ei vuoden 1969 lopus- Maailman sydämessä.
    [Show full text]