Fictionalizing the Past in Estonia: Cultural Memory in Women’s Literature

Abstract

This article analyzes the way in which traumatic memories of the Soviet past are communicated in Estonian- and Russian-language women’s literature published in Estonia. The representation of the past in these works does not support the claim that the collective memories of Russian and Estonian communities are antagonistic and incapable of “agreeing to disagree.” Focusing on women’s prose written in independent Estonia after 1991, this article examines narrative elements that expose agonistic, rather than antagonistic, interpretations of the cultural memory of these two communities. These interpretations rely on a multiplicity of perspectives, dealing with issues of personal and collective responsibility and agency.