In memory of Ilmar Jaks, two-time winner of the Tuglas short story award
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Ilmar Jaks (1923–2019) was one of the most remarkable Estonian prose writers of the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps he is the least well-known great prose innovator from the beat and hippie movement era. Stylistically he is a brilliant short story writer, though his central work constellated in the form of a novel, one of the most powerful achievements among literary texts in the Estonian language, No-Man`s Land. Notes on Siimon (1963).
To find one`s way into Jaks` works, a key word might be anarchism, a term which signals protest against the subjection of human existence to symbol systems; stigmatisation according to language, ideology, state and legal practices; labelling according to markers of race, nationality and social status; degrees, employment rankings, officially bestowed honours and awards, wedding rings and noserings.