Ilmar Talve, Emigré Ethnologist from Estonia

Bibliographic Data

ID6013727
AuthorsMarleen Metslaid (Estonian National Museum, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume50
Issue2
Pages103-132
Publication date2023-12-20
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnologia Fennica (BOOK_SERIES)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0355-1776 • E-ISSN: 2489-4982
PublisherEthnologia Fennica (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.23991/ef.v50i2.128677
OpenAlexW4391366801
LanguageFR
References cited10

The article focuses on Ilmar Talve (1919–2007) and his exile in Sweden, 1945–1959. The complex nature of an émigré position in a scholarly field is analysed from several angles. I explore how Talve adapted to the Swedish academic field while he was working at the Institute of Folklife Research, led by Sigurd Erixon. I am also interested in how his understanding of ethnology evolved in Esonia as a student of the WWII era and in Sweden after the war. Talve’s efforts to pursue and develop Estonian ethnology while in exile are then examined in more detail. On the one hand, it shows the influence of the contemporary national discourse on research. In some sense, it was an unrewarding dead end, but even as such, it describes the political and societal conditionality of pursuing science at the time. On the other hand, it raises the question of the influence of Erixon’s theoretical views on Talve, and therefore, on Finnish ethnology. Talve implemented his plans in Finland as a professor at the University of Turku. The article also explores the important role played by Finnish scholars for both exile ethnologists in Sweden and Estonian ethnographers in the Soviet Union, and it reflects on Talve’s place in this relationship

Art · European Linguistics and Anthropology · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Historical and Archaeological Studies

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