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Maie Kalda. Debora Vaarandi's Homeland | 2007, nr. 8 |
The first works of Debora Vaarandi (1916–2007),a consistently leftist Estonian poetess, were written during WorldWar Two and could be characterized as lyrical poems with a national-romanticistflavour. There followed a Stalinist "big homeland" discourse,balanced by a simultaneous local patriotic poetization of theEstonian islands and coast dwellers. In her mature period (sincethe end of the 1950s) Debora Vaarandi's Estonian patriotism ismanifested implicitly without exception, being centered aroundthe common national values – the "simple things"as resumed by her major stylistic figure. The 1960s add a newkeyword "Nordic", which emphasizes detachment from thesocialist-chauvinist conceptions of literary policy emanatingfrom Moscow. The 1970s are stamped by the poetess' alarmed reactionsto the mental degeneration of the Estonian community during theBrezhnev Period of Stagnation. At the same time there remainsa constant concern for the Estonian islands as a delicate habitatseriously endangered.
The article contains some hitherto unpublished material recordedform oral interviews with Debora Vaarandi.
Keywords: Debora Vaarandi, patrioticpoetry, Stalinist rhetoric, Estonian poetry.
Maie Kalda (b. 1929), PhD, senior researcher,Estonian Literary Museum
maiekalda@eki.ee
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