Aimée Beekman

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Aimée Beekman (born April 20, 1933 in Tallinn ) is an Estonian writer .

Life

Aimée Beekman graduated from the All Union Institute for Cinematography in 1956 . From 1956 to 1960 she was employed by the Soviet film company Tallinnfilm . She has been working as a freelance writer since 1956.

After she had published a few short stories and a travel book, Aimée Beekman achieved her literary breakthrough with her first novel Väikesed inimesed (in German “Little People”). In it she describes childhood memories that take place in a working-class district of Tallinn in the 1930s. In the 1970s she dealt with feminist- inspired topics, a novelty in the former Soviet Union.

Aimée Beekman was the wife of the Estonian writer and literary translator Vladimir Beekman (1929–2009).

Novels (selection)

  • Väikesed inimesed (1964)
  • Kaevu cone (1966)
  • Valgete vareste parv (1967)
  • Kartulikuljused (1968; German 1973, see below)
  • Väntorel (1970)
  • Vanad lapsed (1972)
  • Kuradilill (1974)
  • Viinakuu (1975)
  • Sugupuu (1977)
  • Valikuvõimalus (1978, German 1983, see below)
  • Tihnik (1980)
  • Vabajooks (1982)
  • Proovielu (2008)

Translations into German

Two novels by Aimée Beekman have been published in German in the GDR, after an excerpt from a German translation had previously been published in the magazine Sowjetliteratur (8/1972).

  • The novel Potato Shellfish (original title Kartulikuljused ) deals with the end of World War II in Estonia, when a large stream of refugees moves west. On the other hand, there are also many people who deliberately do not want to leave their homeland, and so different political views collide on a farm in West Estonia, where the refugees passed on their way to the coast. The novel describes the turbulent events during a few days and also contains grotesque or comic elements. It was received quite positively and discussed in over a dozen reviews in the GDR.
  • The second novel Partnerwahl (original title Valikuvõimalus ) not only appeared, like the first, in parallel in a book club edition, but also in advance in the Roman newspaper (No. 402, 9/1983). The author describes an approximately 30-year-old woman who receives an inheritance, which is, however, tied to one condition: She has to start a family. She then fulfills this condition by marrying a drunk who was the only freely available person in the village. However, as fathers for her children, she gets other, healthy men. Because of these cautious feminist traits, the book was probably not received quite as positively. Even so, it has been reviewed over ten times.

literature

  • Angela Burmeister : Estonian literature in Germany and the German Democratic Republic from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of the eighties. [Unprinted] Dissertation A for obtaining the academic degree of doctor in a branch of science (doctor philosophiae) submitted to the Scientific Council of the Wilhelm-Pieck-Universität Rostock. February 1990, pp. 122-124.
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt: History of Estonian Literature. From the beginning to the present. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 2006, pp. 608–609.
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011, pp. 183-185.
  • Peter Kirchner : “Aimée Beekman: potato pancakes or the last days of marriage of Benita and Joss.” In: Weimarer contributions 7/1974, pp. 129–135.
  • Ülo Tonts : "Hoiatuskirjanik Aimée Beekman - realismi ja modernismi vahel." In: Looming 4/2003, pp. 586-593.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Aimée Beekman: Potato puffs or The last days of marriage of Benita and Joss. Novel. Translated from Estonian by Helga Viira . With an afterword by Villem Gross . Berlin [East]: Verlag Volk und Welt 1973. 319 pp.
  2. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : Estonian Literature in the German Language 1784-2003. Bibliography of primary and secondary literature. Bremen: Hempen Verlag 2004, p. 31.
  3. ^ Aimée Beekman: Choice of partner. Translated from Estonian by Alexander Baer . Berlin [East]: Verlag Volk und Welt 1983. 285 pp.
  4. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011, p. 184.
  5. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : Estonian Literature in the German Language 1784-2003. Bibliography of primary and secondary literature. Bremen: Hempen Verlag 2004, pp. 31–32.
personal data
SURNAME Beekman, Aimée
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Tallinn