Merlin Kirikal on Women’s Visibility, Their Contributions, and the Alma Ostra-Oinas Sculpture

On 28 May, the Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) published an article by Merlin Kirikal, Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Literature at the Literary Institute, entitled „With Skirts Billowing, or In Defence of Alma Ostra-Oinas“.

Reflecting on the public debate sparked by Flo Kasearu’s artwork „Monumentaalne hüljatus“, Kirikal highlights the contribution of Alma Ostra-Oinas (1886–1960) and her contemporaries to Estonian cultural history. You can read the full article on the ERR portal.

Kirikal has previously examined Alma Ostra-Oinas’s work in the article „Decadent Writing as Feminist Practice: Alma Ostra’s Short Story „Aino”” and explored its connections with selected prose works by Marta Lepp (pen name Sophia Vardi) and Friedebert Tuglas in „The Woman Question and Patterns of Decadence in Sophia Vardi’s Novella „First Winds” (1914) and Alma Ostra’s Short Story „Aino” (1923).” Both articles are available in the Literary Institute’s digital text archive.