Last week, the nominees for the Women's Literature Prize were announced. The winner will receive €15,000, making it the most lucrative literary award in Estonia. For some time now, there has been talk of a wave of women's writing in the country. According to Sirje Olesk, this is partly coincidental — several engaging, compelling and well-written works by women authors have appeared in succession.

"That's how Mudlum came, then Lilli Luuk, then Kairi Look and in between Carolina Pihelgas. I'm not even talking about poets — there are a great many of them. The most recent to attract such major attention is Aliis Aalmann, winner of the Tuglas Short Story Award," Olesk said. She emphasized that this is not the first time women's literature has become a topic of discussion in Estonia.

"As I recall, in the 1990s a very interesting and inspiring literary scholar, Tiina Kirss, arrived from the United States. She had worked on women's studies and spoke about how, in the West — in European literature that we also want to understand — the canon was being reshaped because it lacked women writers. A proper national literary canon should include women writers as well. That's when we began doing the same here. I would say that the wave rose then and later receded," Olesk said.

According to the literary scholar, when discussing women's literature, it is important to distinguish between theorists and practitioners.

"There was a period of theorists — Tiina Kirss, Eve Annuk, Mirjam Hinrikus and Johanna Ross. And now we have practitioners. There were practitioners before as well, but fewer. There was Maimu Berg, who wrote about women's rights; there was Kärt Hellerma; then came Maarja Kangro. They are authors like any others, but there is also the separate question of whether women authors can, may or perhaps must write specifically about women's experiences — something only a woman can write. For example, in Maarja Kangro's short story '48 tundi' (48 Hours) the focus is on a woman who is no longer very young and desperately wants a child. She knows this is only possible during a certain time each month and that she does not have many such months left. It is a very tense story about her search for an opportunity she ultimately cannot attain," Olesk explained.

According to Olesk, women's literature is, on the one hand, ideological, but above all it is literature. She pointed out that in every national literature, there were initially very few women authors.

"I suspect they were pushed aside. I suspect they were not able to express themselves freely, but things have gradually improved. About ten years ago, Finland saw a powerful emergence of younger women writers and I believe it is partly coincidental that so many talented individuals have appeared. What matters is that the author is talented and bold — and that there are many such authors," the literary scholar said.

Koidula as the mother of Estonian women's literature

The first successful female author in Estonian literature was Lydia Koidula.

"I don't know about everyone else, but I tend to think that when we talk about literature, we focus on prose, but Estonia is really a promised land of poets! In his extensive 'History of Estonian Literature,' written for a German audience, Cornelius Hasselblatt says that no other national literature has as many poets as Estonian literature. On the one hand, this creates opportunities; on the other, it can be misleading. No matter how we look at it, from the very beginning there has been Koidula. /---/ Koidula is an author, a writer whose poems have been included in school textbooks since 1867, when Carl Robert Jakobson published his school reader, and whose songs have always been performed at the Song Festival," Olesk said.

At the time, no literary output was expected from women and according to Olesk, very little was expected from Estonians in general, as the focus was more on folklore — primarily women's songs.

"Koidula had exceptional talent, but it might never have left the homestead if she had not had a father who, at one point, was the most important figure in the Estonian national movement, Johann Voldemar Jannsen, and who had a widely circulated newspaper. Koidula worked with him like a journalist and was able to publish her stories and poems," the literary scholar explained.

Koidula's first poetry collection, "Vainulilled," was published 160 years ago. It was a small book, printed on thin, low-quality paper, but still in an edition of 1,000 copies. When "Vainulilled" appeared in 1866, it was followed a year later, in 1867, by her second collection, "Emajõe ööbik."

"In 'Vainulilled,' the poems were still largely beginner works, many of them adaptations of German-language poetry rather than direct translations. But in "Emajõe ööbik," we already see classic national poetry, including 'Mu isamaa on minu arm' and others. Koidula is fascinating in that, from a literary standpoint, it is not particularly important that she was a woman. There was later love poetry, of course, but what matters is the national pathos she brought with her — and that sense of fervor," Olesk said.

In Baltic German culture at the time, it was not customary for women to appear publicly, yet Koidula conversed with many notable figures who visited the Jannsen household.

"When the Song Festival was organized, guests arrived from Finland and stayed at the Jannsens' home. Both before and after that, Finnish senators visited — Julius Krohn came, Koskinen came. Koidula was the one who engaged in salon conversations, in French and German," Olesk said.

At that time, the Song Festival featured only male choirs, conducted by her father Jannsen, while the speech was delivered by Jakob Hurt. "Koidula was, of course, present there and the following summer she staged her play, which marked the birth of Estonian theater, but she did not appear publicly," Olesk noted.

Koidula's schoolmate Lilli Suburg became a much more prominent advocate for women's rights, although her recognition as a writer remained modest.

"I don't want to be too harsh, but in truth, "Liina," written at the end of the 19th century — I believe it has been published once during the Estonian Republic — is a fairly ordinary and somewhat clumsy story — apologies to Suburg scholars — about an Estonian girl in a German school who is bullied because of her background. Suburg is not particularly significant as a writer; she lacks Koidula's talent and compelling force. However, she is important for two reasons. She founded the first women's magazine, called Linda. She did not edit it for long; men took it away from her and that was that. But she also established a school for girls, which is very important," Olesk noted.

A year after Koidula, in 1844, Minna Canth was born — the first major female author in Finland whose birthday is now celebrated there as Equality Day.

"Minna Canth was a remarkable woman. She attended a teacher training seminar, married, had six or seven children and was then widowed. She returned home to Kuopio where her father owned a textile shop. She ran the shop, raised her children and continuously wrote plays and novels. She made her breakthrough through drama. She was very realistic. If Koidula was marked by a kind of romantic pathos, then Canth was even socially critical. But she was significant — she produced many works, they were accepted, her plays were performed and her novels were widely read," the literary scholar said.

Development of women's literature

Male writers at the time were not particularly enthusiastic about women authors. "Gustav Suits may have said a few kind things about Koidula, but Friedebert Tuglas did not think much of poetry, having written just one unsuccessful review of Ernst Enno. But that reflects the mindset of the era," Olesk noted.

In 1914, Tuglas wrote to Aleksander Tassa about the rise of women's literature, mentioning, for example, Marta Sillaots and Hella Wuolijoki.

"They both knew Hella, because she first lived in Tartu and she achieved what Suits had initially dreamed of — Hella went to Helsinki to study folklore and earned a master's degree in it. But her Estonian-language works, especially her early attempts at poetry, were rather weak. All right, "Udutaguste Leeni Tartus" [poems] were something at the time, but for Tuglas, whose aesthetic standards were high, they did not quite measure up."

"In another letter, Tuglas essentially translated the entire body of work by Aino Kallas while she was still in Estonia. Later, in exile, this was done by Johannes Aavik. Quite early on, Tuglas wrote in a letter that, overall, Aino Kallas was our best writer, but even she was not quite right. I like to bring up this example — it really struck me. I have studied the history of the Estonian Writers' Union and there is a photograph from 1932 when the union, founded in 1922, celebrated its tenth anniversary. Three rows of men and only one woman in the picture. That woman is Marie Under," Olesk said.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe — including Germany and Scandinavia — was also discussing the "new woman" and women's emancipation.

"Henrik Ibsen writes 'Nora,' and women rebel against domestic servitude. In Russia, I am not very familiar with women writers, though surely there were some. But in Estonia, an interesting wave emerged — women active in revolution. There was a woman named Alma Ostra-Oinas. Her husband, Aleksander Oinas, was the brother of Elo Tuglas. Alma was primarily a politician, an excellent public speaker at rallies. She remained a politician until she was deported to Siberia in 1941. She wrote newspaper articles, but also a novel, 'Aino,' published in 1923, if I'm not mistaken — I have not read it myself. What is striking is that in the novel, a male student rapes a young woman, likely also a student, and this leads her to commit suicide," Olesk said, describing how boldly women addressed shocking themes at the time.

The reason we are unfamiliar with many of our women writers lies in the Estonian literary canon.

"This is what Tiina Kirss once spoke about — how English-language literature reexamined its canon and managed to include authors like Jane Austen. In our case, things are somewhat simpler, as our canon more or less begins with Koidula. Still, for me, Tuglas is a very interesting prose writer, a master of the short story. He has somewhat fallen out of focus today because he does not provoke as much thought as A. H. Tammsaare, but "Popi and Huhuu" is excellent. Suits is an outstanding poet and a literary professor worthy of study. Aino Kallas holds a special place — she came from a more culturally developed society, she was talented and persistent. That persistence matters for a writer, as in any profession — whether a person believes in what they do. Of course, one must also be talented."

"We have always had poets. But if you ask about strong Estonian women prose writers from the prewar period, I fall silent. Marta Sillaots — though she wrote children's books and later memoirs. Leida Kibuvits and "Soomustüdruk" is something we could discuss today. She was deported to Siberia. The circumstances were contradictory," the literary scholar said.

In Scandinavia at the time, women were already producing major prose worthy of the Nobel Prize, such as Selma Lagerlöf in Sweden and Sigrid Undset. Olesk noted that Estonia simply had too small a population to sustain such large-scale literary production.

"Another issue was women's education. At least initially, Estonian women were not educated in Estonian. If I recall correctly, women were admitted to university in 1915 and only in 1919 did an Estonian-language university emerge. And then there is [what's suggested in] Virginia Woolf's classic "A Room of One's Own." Writing prose requires time and certain opportunities," she said.

The picture is different in Estonian poetry where there are many more women. According to Olesk, poetry requires less time. "A poem is shorter. In poetry, talent comes first. At the time, one also needed the ability to rhyme, to work with rhythm and to perceive figurative language," she said.

In fact, Estonia already had a strong body of feminist thought in the 1990s, but this did not produce a clear wave. There were good women authors, but they appeared one by one.

"Now I'll put it bluntly — perhaps the 'Uncle Heinos' (derogatory term for a stereotypical, usually middle-aged man considered inappropriate or even toxic – ed.) were still reading books back then. On the one hand, society was undergoing major upheaval, but there was also, in some sense, a kind of restitution. The Soviet period had ostensibly allowed women everything — they could be tractor drivers or Heroes of Socialist Labor and so on — and some women themselves wanted to stay home and raise children. The broader social attitude was not particularly supportive. Another issue was the lack of a strong united front. These women were on their own," Olesk said, noting that today this collective front is stronger because there are more women authors.

"On the one hand, literature has become more of a niche, unfortunately. On the other hand, when I look at how many writers and poets we have — poetry slams are very popular, around 100 novels are published each year, 60 short story collections, 150 poetry collections. The only problem is that about half of them are not very good," she added.

Made Luiga recently pointed out in Looming magazine that women's literature alone does not guarantee quality. Olesk agrees that what matters is whether works resonate and that good fiction does not need to be replaced by ideology. She emphasized that today's educated young readers are different.

"In my view, those 'Uncle Heinos' are no longer present in literary circles. First of all, they hardly read anymore and, secondly, they have realized that it is not their place to come and voice opinions," she said.

According to Olesk, Estonia is currently experiencing a strong wave of good literature, featuring both younger women writers and older and younger men who continue to write and sustain this front.

"In my opinion, the bigger issue is ensuring that Estonian readers discover them. That is why we need to talk about them and showcase their work. Then everyone benefits," Olesk said.

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