The body and soul of a sportswoman as seen in Johannes Semper’s short story collection „Ellinor”

Keywords: Johannes Semper, body studies, sports, New Woman, homosexuality

The article explores the depiction of the body of a sporting woman, especially of one playing tennis or swimming, in Johannes Semper’s short story collection„Ellinor” (1927). There are three reasons why „Ellinor” has a radical meaning in the Estonian literature of the time. Firstly, the activities are consistently portrayed through the female point of view; secondly, the stories are permeated by an enthusiastic and luxuriant sense of life, which defies the book culture as remote from life; and thirdly, both a sporting „new woman” and homosexuality were certainly novel subjects in the Estonian culture of the time.

The article analyses the aims and aspirations of „Ellinor’s” female protagonist, her active and sporting lifestyle and its connections with the modern social and cultural vibes. Semper’s sporting „new woman” has to do with the scientific and philosophical trends of the time, such as energetism, Freudianism and Darwin-based eugenics, while the focus on bodily perceptions bears obvious traces of Nietzsche and Bergson, referring at the same time to certain changes going on in modernising societies (female emancipation, population politics in the interwar period).

Using the key concepts „body”, „sports” and „new woman”, the stories are considered in the cultural context of the time, where femininity would rather refer to the home-making role of a woman, although the importance of physical fitness was also emphasised both as a basis of ethnic survival and the beauty ideal. „Ellinor” is a vivid example of the ambiguous interpretation of  the „new femininity”, sexuality and corporeality in the early 20^th-century European culture. Despite Semper’s ambivalence and often scathing irony, especially towards the lesbian character of  Liibeon, his Ellinor stories are a remarkably bold manifesto of modern, free and fulfilling lifestyle and attitudes. There is hardly another text of fiction with such emphasis to be found in the early 20^th-century Estonian literature.

Merlin Kirikal (b. 1986), Tallinn University, doctoral student of Cultural Studies,  merlinkirikal@gmail.com