Spiritual Naturalism in A. H. Tammsaare’s Kõrboja peremees

Abstract

When A. H. Tammsaare (1878–1940)[i] completed Kõrboja peremees [The Master of Kõrboja] (1922), Estonia’s most canonized author was forty-four years old and had already enjoyed a literary career spanning nearly two decades. Frequently hailed as his first truly mature work, Kõrboja peremees is regarded as the novel in which Tammsaare discovered his authentic voice.[ii] Set in a distinctly Estonian rural landscape, the novel is often described as rooted in the realistic or naturalist tradition and saturated with (national) symbolism. Furthermore, this so-called authentic voice has also been described as lyrical, poetic, mystical, irrational, and decadent[iii] – qualities that challenge the conventions of the naturalist novel and its realistic representation.[iv]  

[i] A. H. Tammsaare was born as Anton Hansen. Around 1903, he began using the pseudonym “A. H. Tammsaare”, adopting the name of his family’s farm in central Estonia (Põhja-Tammsaare, or North Tammsaare). Thus, the initials “A. H.” refer not to the first names of the pseudonym, but to his birth name, Anton Hansen. For the sake of clarity and consistency, however, we refer to him simply as Tammsaare, following common practice in English-language scholarship.

[ii] See Tõnu Õnnepalu, ʻSaateksʼ, in A. H. Tammsaare, Kõrboja peremees (Tänapäev, 2018), pp. 177-223, (p. 177).

[iii] Epp Annus ʻKõrboja peremees – romaan väikese algustähegaʼ, A. H. Tammsaare, Kõrboja peremees (Avita, 2007), pp. 141-51; Toomas Haug, ʻA. H. T. lahkumine Koitjärvelt. Lapse sünd “Kõrboja peremehes”ʼ, Klassikute lahkumine. 25 kirjatööd (Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2010), pp 18-38; Mirjam Hinrikus, Dekadentlik modernsuskogemus A. H. Tammsaare ja nooreestlaste loomingus. Dissertationes litterarum et contemplationis comparativae Universitatis Tartuensis, 10 (Tartu ülikooli kirjastus, 2011); Maarja Vaino, Irratsionaalsuse poeetika A. H. Tammsaare loomingus, Tallinna ülikool. Humanitaarteaduste dissertatsioonid, 26 (Tallinna ülikooli kirjastus, 2011); Õnnepalu, ʻSaateksʼ, Aarne Merilai, ʻA. H. Tammsaare’s Epic Musicality’, Interlitteraria, 26.1 (2021), pp. 265-80.

[iv] The setting of the novel can be described as an agrarian family epic, which links it to a set of metaphors recurring in narratives of the nation across literary traditions, such as the relationship between the people and the land. See Patrick Colm Hogan, Understanding Nationalism: On Narrative, Cognitive Science, and Identity (Ohio State University Press, 2009), pp. 148-49. However, the fact that Tammsaare both mobilizes and challenges these metaphors in the spirit of decadence was already noted by his contemporary critics. In 1916, Tuglas argued that Tammsaare’s work published up to that point constituted a mixture of naturalism, neo-romanticism, and symbolism. See Friedebert Tuglas, ʻA. H. Tammsaareʼ, Kriitika III (Noor-Eesti, [1916] 1935), pp. 81-136. This assessment was later reiterated by several critics, including Gustav Suits, Eesti kirjanduslugu (Ilmamaa, [1936] 1999).