{"id":2093,"date":"2024-04-03T23:42:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T20:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/merilai\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T08:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T05:55:08","slug":"merilai","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/m\/merilai\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Merilai"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Literary studies<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n


Arne Merilai (b. 27. IV 1961) is a poet, novelist and a professor of Estonian literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merilai was born in Kohtla-J\u00e4rve. 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\u20131940<\/em> (\u2018Estonian Ballad 1900\u20131940\u2019) in 1990. From 1984\u20131985, he worked as a teacher of Estonian Language and Literature at the Tartu II Secondary School, later known as Miina H\u00e4rma Gymnasium, and as a junior researcher at the Institute of Estonian Language and Literature at the Estonian Academy of Sciences in Tallinn from 1988\u20131992. From 1986\u20131991 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\u20132024. From 2001\u20132002, he was a J. W. Fulbright\u00a0visiting scholar at the Department of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley. He has also worked as a visiting lecturer at the universities of Vienna, G\u00f6ttingen, Turku and Florence. He is a founding member of the party Parempoolsed (\u2018The Rightists\u2019) since 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a0Eesti ballaad 1900\u20131940<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Estonian ballad, 1900\u20131940\u2032) was published in 1991, and\u00a0Eesti pagulaskirjandus 1944\u20131992. Luule<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Estonian literature in exile 1944\u20131992: Poetry\u2019, with \u00d5nne Kepp) in 1994.\u00a0Eesti ballaad. Antoloogia. XVII\u2013XX sajand<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Estonian ballad: Anthology: 17th\u201320th Century\u2019, compiled and commented by A. Merilai),\u00a0Poeetika. G\u00fcmnaasiumi\u00f5pik<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Poetics: Textbook for high school\u2019, with Anneli Saro and Epp Annus), and\u00a0monograph Pragmapoeetika. Kahe konteksti teooria<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Pragmapoetics: The theory of two contexts\u2019) were released in 2003. Besides editing the joint research volumes, particularly in the series Studia litteraria Estonica<\/em>, he has published four books\u00a0of his own selected articles in Estonian: Vokimeister. Kriitilisi konstruktsioone 1990\u20132011<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018The spinning wheel maker: Critical constructs 1990\u20132011\u2032, 2011),\u00a0\u00d5nne t\u00e4hendus. Kriitilisi emotsioone 1990\u20132010<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018The meaning of happiness: Critical emotions 1990\u20132010\u2032, 2011) and\u00a0T\u00f5stan titsi taade. T\u00f5lgendavaid kehtestusi 2012\u20132022<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Placing the Piece on the Board: Establishing interpretations 2012\u20132022\u2019).\u00a0His best articles and essays are published in a voluminous selection Eesti poeetika<\/em> (\u2018Estonian poetics\u2019, 2025) in the series of Eesti m\u00f5ttelugu<\/em> (\u2018History of Estonian thought\u2019). With about 400 publications to his credit, Arne Merilai ranks among the most prolific scholars in Estonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. Merilai\u2019s 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: \u201cGeneral Poetics,\u201d \u201cPragmapoetics,\u201d and \u201cEstonian and Comparative Poetics\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A member of the Estonian Writers\u2019 Union since 2001, Arne Merilai has penned two collections of poetry,\u00a0Merlini aare<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Merlin\u2019s treasure\u2019, 1998) and\u00a0Tolmutort<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Dust bunny\u2019, 2001), a play\u00a0Pala neljale jalale<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018A piece for four feet\u2019, 2006), and two novels\u00a0T\u00fcrann Oidipus<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Oedipus the Tyrant\u2019, 2009) and\u00a0Puuinimesed. Muinasjutt<\/em>\u00a0(\u2018Tree People: A Fairy Tale\u2019, 2024).\u00a0In\u00a0T\u00fcrann Oidipus<\/em>\u00a0the 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.\u00a0Puuinimesed<\/em>\u00a0depicts 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arne Merilai has been given the Literature Endowment Annual Award for his afterword to the anthology Eesti ballaad<\/em> in 2003 and the article on Viivi Luik in the journal Looming<\/em> in 2018. For his novel Puuinimesed. Muinasjutt<\/em>, the author received the Literature Endowment Annual Award for Prose in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. M., S.V.<\/em>
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Facebook<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Books in Estonian<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poems<\/em><\/strong>
Merlini aare: luulem\u00e4rss 1994-1998<\/strong>. Tartu: Ilmamaa, 1998, 111 lk.
Tolmutort<\/strong>. Tallinn: Tuum, 2001, 87 lk.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Novels<\/em><\/strong>
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Puuinimesed<\/strong>. Tallinn: EKSA, 2024, 351 lk.
T\u00fcrann Oidipus<\/strong>. Tallinn: Verb, 2009, 421 lk.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-fiction<\/em><\/strong>
Eesti ballaad 1900-1940<\/strong>. Tartu: Tartu \u00dclikool, 1991, 141 lk.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\u00d5nne Kepp, Arne Merilai, Eesti pagulaskirjandus 1944\u20131992. Luule<\/strong>. Tallinn: Underi ja Tuglase Kirjanduskeskus, 1994, 255 lk.
Arne Merilai, Anneli Saro, Epp Annus, Poeetika. G\u00fcmnaasiumi\u00f5pik<\/strong>. Tartu: Tartu \u00dclikool, 2003, 208 lk. [J\u00e4rgnevad tr\u00fckid: 2007, 2011.]
Pragmapoeetika: kahe konteksti teooria<\/strong>. Tartu: Tartu \u00dclikooli Kirjastus, 2003, 238 lk.
Vokimeister: kriitilisi konstruktsioone 1990-2011<\/strong>. Tartu: Tartu \u00dclikooli Kirjastus, 2011, 615 lk.
\u00d5nne t\u00e4hendus: kriitilisi emotsioone 1990-2010<\/strong>. Tartu: Tartu \u00dclikooli Kirjastus, 2011, 349 lk.<\/span><\/span>
T\u00f5stan titsi taade: t\u00f5lgendavaid kehtestusi 2012\u20132022<\/strong>. Tartu: Tartu \u00dclikooli Kirjastus, 2022, 423 lk.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
Eesti poeetika. <\/strong>Tartu, Ilmamaa, 2025. [Sari \u2018Eesti m\u00f5ttelugu\u2019.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Literary studies Arne Merilai (b. 27. IV 1961) is a poet, novelist and a professor of Estonian literature. Merilai was born in Kohtla-J\u00e4rve. He went to Kehra secondary school and studied Estonian philology at the Tartu State University from 1979-1984. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":642,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2093","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2093"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7086,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2093\/revisions\/7086"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/ewod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}