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Mart Velsker. Reflection of the Poetry of the 1930s in the Literary Theory and Criticism of the 1960s on the Example of Keel ja Kirjandus and Looming |
2007, nr. 6 |
The article analyses how the Estonian poetry
of the 1930s was discussed in the magazines Looming and
Keel ja Kirjandus in the 1960s. Most of the material consists
of anniversary articles, memoirs and critical reviews, of which
the most productive authors were Karl Muru, Paul Rummo etc.
The liberalization of the 1960s was used to arouse fresh interest
in some long disfavoured authors (Henrik Visnapuu, Betti Alver,
Heiti Talvik etc.). The political approach forced on the
critics by precensorship is largely responsible for gainsay and
keeping silent being used as favourite interpretational devices.
Any points possibly differing from "good" poetry are
gainsaid, while problematic ones are kept silent about. Abnegation
of fascism is emphasized. Discussion is preferably confined to
individual authors, not literary groupings or conceptions. The
anthology "Arbujad", for example, containing poems by
several young authors of the 1930s, is seldom mentioned. Now and
then an author or critic of the 1930s is made a scapegoat in order
to save the rest from being attacked. Most of the "scapegoats"
were selected from exiles to the West, like e.g. Ants Oras, the
compiler of the "Arbujad" anthology. Paradoxically,
it can be argued that this way the poetic canon of the "magicians
of the word" was upheld in the 1960s.
Keywords: literary criticism, review,
reception of literary texts, history of Estonian poetry.
Mart Velsker (b. 1966), MA, lecturer, Department
of Literature and Folklore, University of Tartu
mart.velsker@ut.ee
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