The Khanty Mother of God and the Finnish woman with deep blue eyes

• Published in: Études finno-ougriennes
• Main Author: Talivee, Elle-Mari
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: INALCO 2016
• Subjects: émigration; guerre du Kazym; nature; vision du monde; Kazym war; Comparative Literature; Emigration; end of the 20th century; beginning of the 21st century; Estonian; Finnish; Hungarian; Khanty; Russian; Estonians; Agan; Canada; England; Finland; Siberia; Sweden; Varyogan; khanty; nenets
• Online Access: http://efo.revues.org/3298

This paper will analyse the similarities between two novels, the Estonian Arved Viirlaid’s Marked, (Märgitud, 1980) and Yeremei Aipin’s The Mother of God in Bloody Snow (2002), both of which reflect deeply painful experiences of small nations. The special interrelationship proceeds from different dimensions: in the first place, from similar periods of the past, involving events that can be compared. Aipin’s novel deals with the armed uprising of the Khanty and Nenets people, known as the Kazym War (1933–1934). This pain is also what is common and familiar in both novels. Both books are largely narrated from the viewpoint of women, a Khanty wife and the Finnish wife Irja. Although the events of the past do not offer mercy, there is a tiny piece of bright future at the end of both novels: the Khanty boy is taken to the Khanty village by the sledge dog Poitek, and the half-Estonian, half-Finnish boy and girl leave with their mother for Sweden on board a ship. Two very important and very complicated parallels between these two novels are the cognition of nature and the characters’ perception of the world. This paper tries to answer the question of how common experiences are reflected in these two novels, and how this creates a common sphere of understanding. Les romans Marqué (1980) d’Arved Viirlaid, un écrivain estonien de l’émigration, et La mère de Dieu dans les neiges de sang (2002) uisent leur inspiration l’un comme l’autre dans l’histoire. Ils racontent deux itinéraires : celui de l’artiste estonien Eigo Arget, qui a combattu dans la guerre de continuation, et de son épouse finnoise Irja, qui ont pu passer dans le monde libre d’une part, et celui de la Mère des Enfants, une femme khantye, allant jusqu’à un village khanty pendant la guerre du Kazym. En chemin, l’un comme l’autre perdent tout ce qu’ils ont, tout ce en quoi ils croyaient. Pourtant, un rayon de soleil apparaît à la fin des romans : même pour les petits peuples pris en tenaille dans les rouages de l’histoire, l’espoir est permis. Cet article ...