| title: | Herrnhut (Moravian) autobiographies in Estonia and Livonia as a pietist narrative tradition |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF6211 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| status: | accepted |
| institution: | University of Tartu |
| head of project: | Jürgen Beyer |
| duration: | 01.01.2005 - 31.12.2008 |
| description: | From Estonia and Livonia about 120 Herrnhut (Moravian) autobiographies are preserved. Most of them relate lives lived by Herrnhut brethren and sisters in the period 1750 to 1850. The project aims at understanding Herrnhut autobiograpical writing from a folkloristic perspective. Every group has its own narrative traditions, and so did pietist groups like the Moravian Brethren. Comparable to more intensely studied folklore genres as fairy-tales or legends, the texts in the pietist narrative tradition appear in many variants. We should therefore abandon the folkloristic commonplace that in areas of high Herrnhut activity no folklore was circulating anymore. Instead we should accept that these people spread another kind of folklore which also is worth scholarly attention. These autobigraphies should not be analysed without considering their context: Which foreign models existed, how did they reach Estonia and Livonia, how were they transmitted to the peasant population, how do they relate to the alphabetisation process, which persons played key rôles, under which social and economic conditions did the writers live, and which changes over time did occur? Which themes and motifs appear frequently in the texts, and which functions do they have for the narratives? In conjunction with their research and as a necessary precondition for this, the members of the group will jointly produce a scholarly edition of all Herrnhut autobiographies from Estonia and Livonia. |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Jürgen Beyer | University of Tartu | professor | |
| 2. | Marten Seppel | University of Tartu | Ph. D. student | |
| 3. | Ave Tupits | University of Tartu | Ph.D. Candidate | |