“We” versus “others” in Estonian fiction: the question of national identity in the works of contemporary women writers

ABSTRACT

This article uses a postcolonial approach and the concept of Orientalization to uncover hierarchies in Estonian national identity construction. We examine the change in the articulation of the ‘other’ in the context of identity discourses of Estonians and Estonian Russian-speakers using literature by women authors in Estonia. We show how the interest of Estonian writers in the Russian community changed over time and then practically disappeared. We also demonstrate how, reflecting on their new post-imperial status, Estonian Russian-language literature eventually came to see Russians from Russia, rather than Estonians, as the key significant ‘other.’

KEYWORDS:

• Estonia
• national identity
• Russian-speaking community
• postcolonial approach
• otherness
• Orientalization
• literature

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The issue concerns predominantly Estonia and Latvia, where the Russian-speaking minorities make up about 25% of the overall population.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Estonian Research Council, Grant No. PRG 1052.

Notes on contributors

Elena Pavlova

Elena Pavlova obtained her PhD degree from St. Petersburg State University in 2000 and MA in International Relations from the University Complutense, Madrid, Spain. Currently, she works as a Research Fellow at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Science, University of Tartu, Estonia. Her research interests include theories of international relations, cultural studies, and postcolonial approach.

Maili Vilson

Maili Vilson is a PhD researcher at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of the University of Tartu, Estonia. Her dissertation project focuses on the Europeanization of national foreign policy of EU member states, based on the example of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. She has served as an expert for several international think tanks, as well the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. Her previous publications have focused on the Eastern Partnership and on the Europeanization of national foreign policy.