Historical Novel as Medium of Cultural Memory

The idea that Estonian historical fiction has played a pivotal role in the formation of the Estonian cultural memory by prefiguring its central tropes and narratives is easily accepted but to a great extent unexplored thesis in the Estonian literary and cultural studies. In inquiring into the idea the research project has two aims. Firstly, it seeks to write the history of the genre of the historical novel in Estonian literature by considering it as a medium of cultural memory. Therefore the historical fiction from different periods of Estonian literature (historical novelette at the end of the 19th century, Vilde, Aitsam, historical novels of the 1930s, Kross, Ristikivi, and Kangro) will be explored, with particular attention to the nexus of the historical novel, historiography and cultural memory. Secondly, the project studies the specificity of the poetics of literature, in particular the historical novel, in the role of a medium of cultural memory. Therefore it concentrates on the creation of tropes and narrative patterns in literature, whereby historical consciousness of a group is developed, transmitted and transformed. Methodologically the project seeks to bring together the recent research on literature as cultural memory (Assmann, Erll, Rigney) with the venerable tradition of studying the historical novel as a literary genre (Luk?cs, Hutcheon, Aust, Nünning, Maxwell).

 

Principal investigator

• Eneken Laanes

 

Senior research staff

• Maarja Hollo
• Linda Kaljundi
• Tiina Kirss
• Aare Pilv
• Piret Peiker
• Jaan Undusk

 

Seminar Novels, Histories, and Novel Nations: Finnish and Estonian Historical Fiction II, 11-12 October 2012, Tallinn

Seminar Novels, Histories, and Novel Nations: Finnish and Estonian Historical Fiction and Historiography, 8-9 December 2011, Helsinki