Den okända e(s)tniska sidan av svensk litteraturhistoria. Om den exilestniska litteraturen i Sverige

Abstract

At the dusk of the Second World War, when the Red Army was approaching Tallinn and the second Soviet occupation of Estonia could be foreseen, almost a tenth of the population left the Estonian coasts to seek refuge in the West. About 30 000 of those ended up in Sweden, among which were some of the most prominent Estonian novelists and poets. Sweden would become the literary center for the worldwide exile Estonian diaspora. However, the fact that a few dozens of Estonian authors published some 2 000 titles in Sweden, where most of the authors as well as the main publishing houses resided, was and has remained unknown to most Swedes as it has gone fairly unnoticed to the field of Swedish Literary Studies. From the perspective that the exile Estonian literature written in Sweden is actually part of our history of literature, this thesis aims to find out what factors have had impact, and how, on the authors’ opportunities to gain recognition by the Swedish literary establishment and eventually being included in the Swedish literary historical works. Presupposing that the recognition and reception was actually influenced by the publishers’ and readers’ knowledge of and views on the exile Estonians as a group, the study is performed from a biography critical point of view. By examining book reviews, interviews, literary historical works, anthologies and more, covering a period of roughly 50 years and including about 30 authors, the thesis is mainly a historiographical and reception theoretical study. It presents an initial and tentative overview of how the success of those authors in general was dependent on factors lying both in their own background and identity as well as on the historical and ideological views, prejudices and literary preferences predominating in the Swedish society and the literary field at that time.