Arne Merilai
Literary studies
Arne Merilai (b. 27. IV 1961) is a poet, novelist and a professor of Estonian literature.
Merilai was born in Kohtla-Järve. He went to Kehra secondary school and studied Estonian philology at the Tartu State University from 1979-1984. Merilai became a candidate of philology with his thesis Eesti ballaad 1900–1940 (‘Estonian Ballad 1900–1940’) in 1990. From 1984–1985, he worked as a teacher of Estonian Language and Literature at the Tartu II Secondary School, later known as Miina Härma Gymnasium, and as a junior researcher at the Institute of Estonian Language and Literature at the Estonian Academy of Sciences in Tallinn from 1988–1992. From 1986–1991 and since 1995, he has held various positions at the Department of Estonian Literature at the University of Tartu, becoming Professor of Estonian Literature in 2011. Merilai served as Head of Department of Literature and Theatre Research from 2016–2024. From 2001–2002, he was a J. W. Fulbright visiting scholar at the Department of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley. He has also worked as a visiting lecturer at the universities of Vienna, Göttingen, Turku and Florence. He is a founding member of the party Parempoolsed (‘The Rightists’) since 2022.
His primary area of research is national literature in the context of world literature informed by a comparative poetics and unified field literary theory. He has developed an innovative approach called pragmapoetics, a philosophy of poetic language usage. His book Eesti ballaad 1900–1940 (‘Estonian ballad, 1900–1940′) was published in 1991, and Eesti pagulaskirjandus 1944–1992. Luule (‘Estonian literature in exile 1944–1992: Poetry’, with Õnne Kepp) in 1994. Eesti ballaad. Antoloogia. XVII–XX sajand (‘Estonian ballad: Anthology: 17th–20th Century’, compiled and commented by A. Merilai), Poeetika. Gümnaasiumiõpik (‘Poetics: Textbook for high school’, with Anneli Saro and Epp Annus), and monograph Pragmapoeetika. Kahe konteksti teooria (‘Pragmapoetics: The theory of two contexts’) were released in 2003. Besides editing the joint research volumes, particularly in the series Studia litteraria Estonica, he has published four books of his own selected articles in Estonian: Vokimeister. Kriitilisi konstruktsioone 1990–2011 (‘The spinning wheel maker: Critical constructs 1990–2011′, 2011), Õnne tähendus. Kriitilisi emotsioone 1990–2010 (‘The meaning of happiness: Critical emotions 1990–2010′, 2011) and Tõstan titsi taade. Tõlgendavaid kehtestusi 2012–2022 (‘Placing the Piece on the Board: Establishing interpretations 2012–2022’). His best articles and essays are published in a voluminous selection Eesti poeetika (‘Estonian poetics’, 2025) in the series of Eesti mõttelugu (‘History of Estonian thought’). With about 400 publications to his credit, Arne Merilai ranks among the most prolific scholars in Estonia.
A. Merilai’s collection of articles in English, Estonian Pragmapoetics, from Poetry and Fiction to Philsophy and Genetics (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023, paperback 2024), outlines his wide theoretical approach. The book posits that literary studies are as much a branch of linguistics as they are of the philosophy and considers the poetic self-referential function a profound feature of life and intentionality. As a structuralist thinker, the author is drawn towards graphical definitions. This monograph contains three sections: “General Poetics,” “Pragmapoetics,” and “Estonian and Comparative Poetics”.
A member of the Estonian Writers’ Union since 2001, Arne Merilai has penned two collections of poetry, Merlini aare (‘Merlin’s treasure’, 1998) and Tolmutort (‘Dust bunny’, 2001), a play Pala neljale jalale (‘A piece for four feet’, 2006), and two novels Türann Oidipus (‘Oedipus the Tyrant’, 2009) and Puuinimesed. Muinasjutt (‘Tree People: A Fairy Tale’, 2024). In Türann Oidipus the mummy of the King Oedipus is found which is somewhat alive and able to communicate as it has evolved into a symbiotic organism with mushrooms. A secret symposium was held in the Bertinoro castle in Italy, 1938, supervised by Mussolini, Blackshirts and the Pope, involving old Freud, Trotsky, and young de Beauvoir. The novel is rich in language games, puns, allusions and references and plays with several contemporary theories in the arts and humanities: psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism etc. Puuinimesed depicts physical and spiritual relations between humans, trees, mycorrhiza, possible gods and aliens as seen through the eyes of the two protagonists. Both are called Arne Merilai. One is a professor of literature, with his cherished dendropark, and the other is his future offspring, a female geneticist. The autobiographical narrative partly shifts into science fiction in the plot. Again, the novel is rich in figurative, humorous language and cultural allusions with love for nature and humanity as its profound subjects.
Arne Merilai has been given the Literature Endowment Annual Award for his afterword to the anthology Eesti ballaad in 2003 and the article on Viivi Luik in the journal Looming in 2018. For his novel Puuinimesed. Muinasjutt, the author received the Literature Endowment Annual Award for Prose in 2025.
A. M., S.V.
Books in Estonian
Poems
Merlini aare: luulemärss 1994-1998. Tartu: Ilmamaa, 1998, 111 lk.
Tolmutort. Tallinn: Tuum, 2001, 87 lk.
Novels
Puuinimesed. Tallinn: EKSA, 2024, 351 lk.
Türann Oidipus. Tallinn: Verb, 2009, 421 lk.
Non-fiction
Eesti ballaad 1900-1940. Tartu: Tartu Ülikool, 1991, 141 lk.
Õnne Kepp, Arne Merilai, Eesti pagulaskirjandus 1944–1992. Luule. Tallinn: Underi ja Tuglase Kirjanduskeskus, 1994, 255 lk.
Arne Merilai, Anneli Saro, Epp Annus, Poeetika. Gümnaasiumiõpik. Tartu: Tartu Ülikool, 2003, 208 lk. [Järgnevad trükid: 2007, 2011.]
Pragmapoeetika: kahe konteksti teooria. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2003, 238 lk.
Vokimeister: kriitilisi konstruktsioone 1990-2011. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2011, 615 lk.
Õnne tähendus: kriitilisi emotsioone 1990-2010. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2011, 349 lk.
Tõstan titsi taade: tõlgendavaid kehtestusi 2012–2022. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2022, 423 lk.
Eesti poeetika. Tartu, Ilmamaa, 2025. [Sari ‘Eesti mõttelugu’.]
