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Valev Uibopuu (1913-1997) | |
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Estonian journalist, scholar, and novelist, who experimented discreetly with new techniques. Uibopuu was perhaps the best-known exile writer of his country during the decades after World War II, when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. Uibopuu published his first short stories before the war. In his novels Uibopuu has described with deep psychological understanding people, who have become isolated from their surroundings. Often he has dealt with some moral problem whose significance - perhaps bitterly tragicomic - emerges as the plot unfolds. "Hirmus on surm, kui kaod ja lähed mulla alla, ilma et sinust midagi järele jääks. Mõni seina tõstetud palk, mõni istutatud puu, mõni kaevatud kraav, mõni veeretatud kivi ei ole siiski midagi. Need kõik kuivavad, lähevad umbe ja mädanevad, nagu sa isegi. Elav veretilk, mis igavesti jätkub, on rohkem väärt ja ainus, mis su elu lunastab. Mis tähendavad siin kõik inimeste seadmised? Ja mis see, kui mõni riivatud pullike kuski möirgama ja maad kaapima hakkab ning su soolikaid oma sarvede otsas nähä tahaks? Vana mehena mõtlen: mis on õieti ilus tegu ja mis hea tegu ning mis inetu tegu ja mis halb tegu?" (from 'Hämäriku eel' in Igavene küla, 1954) Valev Uibopuu was born in 1913 in Võrumaa, Vana-Anstla, as the son of a forest officer. After graduating from the coeducational school of Otepää, he worked as a journalist in Valga and in Tallinn, among others for the magazines Perekonnaleht and Eesti Sõna. As a writer Uibopuu started in the 1930s publishing short stories in the literary magazine Looming. His first book, VÄRAVATE ALL, appeared in 1936. Four year later followed VILJATU PUU, also a collection of short stories. His early stories were written in dispassionate style about the harsh realities of life. During the era of Soviet annexation (1940) and Naxi occupation (1941) literature suffered from the war. In 1943, before the Red Army occupied Estonia, he escaped to Finland, where he worked at libraries. After the Continuation War (1941-44) Finland returned to the Soviet Union Soviet prisoners of war, but also Estonian and Ingrian refugees. Uibopuu moved to Sweden, where worked first as a journalist at the magazine Välis-Eesti and later with Bernard Kangro for the publishing company Eesti Kirjanike Kooperativ. It is often said that the quality and quantity of literary production in exile surpassed that in Estonia. Most established writers, such as Marie Under, Visnapuu, Artur Adson, Karl Ristikivi and Bernard Kangro, chose emigration over Socialist realism. Uibopuu continued writing short stories and novels, of which several was published by Orto, a publishing company founded by Andres Laur. Uibopuu's novel production included VÕÕRAS KODU (1945), KEEGI EI KUULE MEID (1948), NELI TULD (1951), a novel about the voyages and shipwreck of a vessel manned by Estonian refugees. The episodic novel crystallized the mood of and the different attitudes of expatriated Estonians. In JANU (1957) Uibopuu followed in detail the life of a young girl from spring to autumns - she never fulfills her dreams of life after recovering from tuberculosis. MARKUSE MUUTTUMISED (1961) examined the loss of idealism and the reality of welfare society. '"You'll never become a real shopkeeper, said the director finally. - What is wrong with that sentence, that the one who doesn't have a fountain pen is not a cultural person?"' (from Maskuse muutumised, 1961) The protagonist is a naive young man, who gets involved in increasingly awkward situations. LADEMED (1970), was a story about a lonely woman and her difficulties of communing with other. In the scrutiny of the identity problems Uibopuu interweaved observations of the expatriate life. In 1954 Uibopuu moved to Finland and entered the University of Helsinki. After studying theoretical philosophy and psychology, he returned to Sweden. In 1958 Uibopuu received his M.A. from the University of Lund and in 1970 he published his doctoral thesis on Finno-Ugric philology. Uibopuu was appointed in 1971 professor of the University of Lund. He retired in 1980. Among Uibopuu's several awards are Award of Dr. Arthur Puksov Foundation (Canada) in 1985 and Immigrant institute's prize 1993/94. He was a member of the Swedish PEN club and Immigrant Institution and a correspondence member of Finno-Ugrian Society and Finnish Literature Society. The atmosphere of Uibopuu's short stories and novels is meditative. His characters reveal more and more about themselves within the story, layer by layer, but there is always something hidden and unexplained. In Janu the protagonist and the narrator is a young woman, who had suffered from tuberculosis in her youth. The story covers the crucial period of her illness, from spring to autumn, when she finally recovered. In the first pages of the novel the lonely narrator reveals that it was the most beautiful time in her life. "What does it mean to be lonely and forgotten? I was lonely already in my childhood." The first snow comes, and she sees her future as white and pure. But she never leaves her home, comparing her life to that of a plant chained on the soil. For further reading: Keskusteluja Valev Uibopuun kanssa / Vestlusi Valev Uibopuuga by Pertti Virtaranta (1991); Estonian Literature by Ender Nirk (1987); Estonian Literature in Exile by A. Oras and Bernard Kangro (1967) - For further information: Uibopuu, Valev (invandrarförfattare in Sverige) Selected bibliography:
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