Katarina Leppänen, Professor of Intellectual History at the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion at the University of Gothenburg, explores in her talk the Finnish-Estonian author Aino Kallas’s (1878–1956, nee Krohn) work in the early twentieth century, particularly her literary thematization of Estonian traditions and culture. The aim is to highlight instances where she uses vernacular tales as something more than expressions limited to the local. Kallas did not understand the vernacular as isolated from the cosmopolitan; instead, the vernacular for her was a blend of local and foreign elements. In my example, the term vernacular refers not only to language but also traditions, rites, practices and material culture, and literature, which were central means of creating local and vernacular belonging to, and affiliation with, a place. In accordance with this wider definition, the vernacular is seen as communicating a sense of commonly shared history and identity as well as familiarity with the local, which could be used to oppose to imperial and cosmopolitan masters.
The talk will start by foregrounding some aspects of theory in world literature in order to discuss the implicit methodological globalism that is evident in parts of the scholarly field. My subsequent analysis focuses on three of Kallas’s texts, particularly highlighting how power and conflicts are addressed in her narratives. The talk ends with a discussion on how this case study of Kallas’s work can contribute to a more complex and nuanced understanding of world literary relations from a historical and regional perspective.
