Ivar Ivask

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ivar Ivask (born December 17, 1927 in Riga , † September 23, 1992 in Fountainstown near Cork / Ireland ) was an Estonian poet and literary scholar .

Early years

Ivar Ivask was born in Riga to an Estonian father and a Latvian mother. In 1944, he fled the Soviet occupation of Latvia into exile in Germany . Ivask passed his Abitur at the Estonian grammar school in Wiesbaden . He first studied German at the University of Marburg and from 1949 in Minnesota in the USA .

Literary scholar

In 1950 Ivask defended his master's thesis on Gottfried Benn and in 1953 his doctoral thesis on Hugo von Hofmannsthal . Ivar Ivask was then Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Oklahoma and Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious World Literature Today . The previous magazine Books Abroad was co-founded by him in 1970. The renowned Neustadt International Prize for Literature also goes back to his initiative .

From 1991 until his death he lived as a literary scholar in Ireland. Today he is buried in the cemetery of Rõngu , his father's home in southern Estonia.

Private life

Ivar Ivask was married to the Latvian poet and romanist Astrīde Ivaska , née Hartmane (* 1926; † 2015) since 1949 . Both had met in a refugee camp in Germany. He was also a long-time, close friend of the Austrian writer Heimito von Doderer . In 1996 Doderer's letters to him were published in book form.

poetry

Ivar Ivask is one of the most international Estonian poets of the 20th century thanks to his biography and his talent for languages, without having forgotten his Baltic homeland. He wrote his poetry in Estonian , German and English .

Poetry collections

  • Tähtede tähendus (1964)
  • Päev astub kukesammul (1967)
  • Mirrored Earth (1967)
  • Ajaloo aiad: Kolmas Kogu Luuletusi (1970)
  • October Oklahoma (1973)
  • Verikivi (1976, with illustrations by the author)
  • Elukogu (1978)
  • Verandaraamat ja teisi luuletusi (1981)
  • Baltic elegies (1987)

more publishments

  • In addition, Ivar Ivask has published numerous literary works, for example:

literature

Personal bibliography: Tarvas, Mari. Ivar Ivaski personaalbibliograafia. Tallinn: Keel ja Kirjandus 2006.

Mari Tarvas: Ivar Ivask and Austrian literature . Vaasa 2002 (= Saxa: Series A, German Research on Literary Text, Volume 25)

Tarvas, Mari. Ivar Ivask as a mediator between cultures. Using the example of his examination of Austrian literature: Dissertation to obtain a doctorate in philosophy submitted to the humanities faculty of the University of Vienna. Vienna: 1997.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ivask, Ivar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian poet and literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga , Latvia
DATE OF DEATH September 23, 1992
Place of death Fountainstown , Ireland