LI: Non-human becomings in Estonian and Swedish literature

The research project “Nonhuman Becomings in Estonian and Swedish Literature” at the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre of the Estonian Academy of Sciences examines, through the work of Ene Mihkelson and contemporary Estonian and Swedish literature, how posthumanist nonhuman becomings shape literary conceptions of the self, language, and poetics.

 

Principal investigator

Kristiine Gidén, Researcher at the Under and Tuglas Literary Institute of the Estonian Academy of Sciences

 

Project Description

Novelist and poet Ene Mihkelson (1944–2017) explores the historical memory, trauma, and ethical self-definition of the Estonian people in her works. Viewing writing as a method of seeking uncompromising truth, Mihkelson employs a distinctive fragmented and dense style that demands deep engagement from the reader. One of the inspirational sources for Mihkelson’s linguistic rigor and serious attitude toward the writer’s role in society was Friedebert Tuglas (1886–1971) whose work and legacy she researched before dedicating herself entirely to writing literary fiction and poetry.

The primary objective of this project is to examine the nonhuman becomings in Ene Mihkelson’s works. Her fragmented poetic style molded by a deliberate avoidance of depicting clearly defined individualities is facilitated by the “I-less I” (Mihkelson 1985), an impersonal self that is capable of merging into other selves, whether human or non-human. The study’s theoretical framework is grounded in critical posthumanism, drawing primarily on Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of becomings (Deleuze and Guattari 2014) and Rosi Braidotti’s affective affirmative ethics as a practice of dis-identification (Braidotti 2013).

The second objective is to focus on non-human becomings in contemporary Estonian and Swedish literature from the posthumanist perspective, concentrating on authors (Kärt Hellerma, Hasso Krull, Ann Jäderlund, Johannes Heldén) who are comparable to Mihkelson not so much thematically, but rather in terms of linguistic deconstruction and crypticism, intellectual complexity, and the fragmented sense of the self and body. Based on the results of the analysis of Mihkelson’s work, the study investigates the function of such becomings within the poetry of these authors.