Madis Kõiv

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Madis Kõiv (born December 5, 1929 in Tartu , † September 24, 2014 in Tallinn ) was an Estonian writer , physicist and philosopher .

Life

Madis Kõiv went to school in various places in southern Estonia and graduated from high school in Tartu in 1948. From 1948 to 1953 he studied physics at the University of Tartu . He then worked from 1953 to 1961 as a lecturer at the Tallinn University of Technology. From 1961 to 1991 he worked as a scientist at the Physical Institute of the Estonian Academy of Sciences , the last five years of which in a managerial position.

From 1992 he held philosophical courses at the Tartu University. He led a. a. a working group that translated Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus logico-philosophicus into Estonian. In the academic year 1994/95 he held the visiting professorship in the fine arts in Tartu .

Stage work

Madis Kõiv published next to nothing literary during the Soviet era, but this was less due to direct hindrances from the censorship than to his own lack of interest. He wanted to keep his independence as a philosopher and physicist and not get involved in the system. His first literary attempts can be dated to the 1960s, but the first publications were very sporadic until 1978 and 1984. These were plays that he had written together with other authors such as Aivo Lõhmus , Hando Runnel or Vaino Vahing . In 1982 a play was staged by him for the first time, Faehlmann , which he had written together with Vaino Vahing. It was premiered on the 350th anniversary of the University of Tartu. This was also the only piece by Kõiv that was performed in Soviet times, if one does not include the pieces staged in early 1991. Estonia was formally part of the Soviet Union until August 1991 , but by then it had largely broken away from the Soviet Union in the wake of the Singing Revolution .

After Estonia regained independence, his plays were staged more and more. In the 1990s, Kõiv's dramas dominated the Estonian stages, with a total of thirteen premieres of his texts in that decade. His dramas are considered “anti-theatrical” and unplayable because the author does not care about the technical possibilities of the stages and “writes down absolutely crazy scenes that cannot be transferred directly to the stage.”

The special value of his texts lies in the philosophical depth, which is combined with a very lively language. Kõiv often uses his native South Estonian dialect, in which he has also written entire pieces. Many pieces deal with historical personalities from home and abroad. For example, in Filosoofipäev ('Der Tag des Philosophen') Immanuel Kant , Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz appear, as well as Kant's servant Martin Lampe, who quotes Martin Heidegger . Others deal with Estonian writers such as Ernst Enno (in Las olla pääle / 'Lass sein') or Friedrich Robert Faehlmann. It is not uncommon for his pieces to be based on the work of other authors, such as Võlumägi ('The Magic Mountain', based on the novel by Thomas Mann ), Kuradieliksiir ('The Elixir of the Devil', after E. Th. A. Hoffmann ) or Tali (' Winter ', based on the novel by Oskar Luts ).

The international references were also recognized in purely Estonian pieces. The criticism of Küüni tetmine ('The Filling of the Barn', together with Hando Runnel) often pointed to parallels to the theater of the absurd, in particular to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot . According to the Estonian theater connoisseur Jaak Rähesoo , Madis Kõiv's work is "an extraordinarily massive figure in Estonian drama in terms of both scope and significance."

Reception in Germany

Besides Jaanätte , Madis Kõiv is the second Estonian playwright who has achieved a certain level of awareness in Germany. However, his plays have not yet been staged by German theaters, but have only been received in the context of guest performances. In 1993, at the Hammoniale Kõivs festival in Hamburg, The Homecoming to Father was shown in a production from Estonia. In 1998 the Estonian Drama Theater from Tallinn was a guest at the Bonn Biennale with a production of Kõiv's night performance of Vagabonds . She was impressed by the spectacle: “… a difficult piece; a philosophical dance of death. In addition to the story told, which is born out of chaos, it is above all a dazzling ballet of language and poetry. […] Nevertheless, the director Priit Pedajas managed to create a small masterpiece with the production […]. ”“ This production is constantly seething. There are hardly any moments of calm or even reflection. The tension resembles a spiral that is incessantly tapering, but also constantly moving around its own axis. ”A third Kõiv piece was planned in Germany, but the plans came to nothing at the time.

Honors and prizes

  • 1983: (together with Vaino Vahing) Juhan Smuul Award for Acting
  • 1991, 1993, 2005 and 2014: Friedebert Tuglas Novella Prize
  • 1991: Bernard Kangro Literature Prize
  • 1994: Culture Prize of the Republic of Estonia
  • 1995: Juhan Smuul Prize for Acting
  • 1997: Estonian Rebirth Award
  • 1994: Culture Prize of the Republic of Estonia
  • 1998: Annual Prize of the Tartu Cultural Capital
  • 1999: Estonian Cultural Capital Prize for Drama
  • 1999: Order of the State Coat of Arms , IV class
  • 2002: Eesti Rahvuskultuurifondi aastapreemia
  • 2006: Estonian Cultural Capital Prize for Essay Writing
  • 2008: Estonian Cultural Capital Prize for Lifetime Achievement
  • 2010: Honorary Citizen of Tartu City

Catalog raisonné

Scientific work

Madis Kõiv has approximately 50 scientific publications in the fields of nuclear physics and philosophy, including the following:

  • Harish-Chandra matrics for arbitrary spin, in: TA Toimetised 19 (1970), No. 1.
  • (Co-author) Hodograph transformations and hodograph invariant differential equations, in: TA toimetised 28 (1979), No. 4.
  • (with J. Lõhmus) Generalized deformations of nonassociative algebras, in: Hadronic Journal. 3 (1979), No. 1.
  • (with RK Loide) On the conditions for definiteness of energy and charge, in: Journal of Physics A 16 (1983).
  • (with V. Rosenhaus) Two-dimensional equations with field-space-time symmetry: conservation laws and invariance groups, in: Algebras, Groups and Geometrics 3 (1986).
  • (with R. Saar, I. Ots, RK Loide) A second look at the Rarita-Schwinger theory, in: Journal of Mathematical Physics 34 (1993).
  • (with P. Kuusk) Measurement of time in nonrelativistic quantum and classical physics, in: TA Toimetised Füüsika, Matemaatika 50 (2001).
  • What is the Estonian philosophy. Metafilosoofiline mõtisklus, in: Akadeemia 11/1999, pp. 2449–2480; 12/1999, pp. 2674-2704; 1/2000, pp. 193-222; 2/2000, pp. 417-446; 3/2000, pp. 639-670; 4/2000, pp. 901-926.

Memoirs, novels, essays

  • Rännuaastad. Studia memoriae I ('Years of Wandering'). Tallinn: Õllu 1994.
  • Kähri kerko man Pekril. Studia Memoria II ('At the Church of Kähri in Pekri'). Võru: Võru Instituut 1999.
  • Kolm tamme. Studia memoriae III ('Three Oaks'). Tallinn: Õllu 1995.
  • Aken ('The Window'). Tallinn: Õllu 1996.
  • Kalad yes raamatud . Studia memoriae IV ('Fish and Books'). Tallinn: Õllu 1998.
  • Attika apooria, Elea tragöödia. ('Attika's Aporia, Elea's Tragedy'). Tartu: EYS Veljesto Kirjastus 2000.
  • Keemiline pulm: Autobiographia cryptika ('Chemical wedding. Autobiographia cryptika'). Tartu: Acre 2002.
  • Päev. ('The day'). Tartu: Acre 2004.
  • Luhta-minek ('failure'). Tartu: Ilmamaa 2005.
  • Uudisjutte tegelikust ja võimalikest maailmadest; Nägemused ja uned ('News from the real and from the possible worlds, visions and dreams'). Tallinn: Loomingu Raamatukogu 1-3 / 2013.
  • Koolipoisid ja füüsikud ('school boys and physicists'). Tartu: Ilmamaa 2014.

Spectacles

The two dozen plays by Madis Kõiv, which premiered between 1982 and 2008, originally appeared scattered (or not at all). Between 2006 and 2010 they were published in four volumes under the title Näidendid I-IV ('Schauspiele I-IV'):

  • Näidendid I . Tartu: Acre 2006. 504 pp .; contains: Castrozza ; Turba Philosophorum ; Kammertükk ('Kammerspiel'); Las olla pääle. Stseenid Ernst Enno elust ('Let it be. Scenes from the life of Ernst Enno'); Faehlmann (together with Vaino Vahing); Võlumägi ('The Magic Mountain', based on the novel by Thomas Mann).
  • Näidendid II . Tartu: Acre 2007. 470S; contains: hammer piano sonata ; Tagasitulek isa juurde ('Returning to the Father'); Peiarite õhtumängud ('Vagabonds Evening Show '); Tali ('Winter', based on the novel by Oskar Luts); Omavahelisi jutuajamisi tädi Elliga ('Private Conversations with Aunt Elli'); Põud ja vihm Põlva kihelkonnan nelätõistkümnendämä aasta suvõl ('Drought and rain in the Põlva parish in the summer of 1914', together with Aivo Lõhmus).
  • Näidendid III . Tartu: Acre 2009. 448 pp .; contains: Filosoofipäev ('The day of the philosopher'); Kolmekesi toas ('Three people in the room'); Stseene saja-aastasest sõjast ('Scenes from the Hundred Years War'); Lõputu kohvijoomine ('Endless Coffee Drinking ', together with Leo Metsar ); Küüni taitmine ('Filling the Barn', together with Hando Runnel); Võlujõgi ('The Magic River ').
  • Näidendid IV . Tartu: Akkon, Tartu 2010. 544 pp .; contains: Nero ; Kokkusaamine ('The Meeting'); Finis nihili ; Lahkumissoolo ('Farewell Solo '); Kui me Moondsundi Vasseliga kreeka pähkleid kauplesime, siis ükski ei tahtnud osta ('When Moondsundi Vassel and I were selling walnuts, nobody wanted them'); Kuradieliksiir ('The Elixir of the Devil', after E. Th. A. Hoffmann).

Secondary literature

  • Madis Kõivu mõttelistes maailmades. Tartus 4. XII 1999 toimunud Madis Kõivu 70. sünnipäeva tähistanud konverentsi põhjal koostatud artiklikogumik. Toim. Maris Balbat, Piret Kruuspere. s. l .: Eesti Teatriuurijate Ühendus 2003.
  • Püsimatu metaphysicus . Madis Kõiv 75. Koostajad: Jaan Kangilaski, Bruno Mölder, Veiko Palge. Tartu: EYS Veljesto Kirjastus 2004.
  • Anneli Saro: Madis Kõivunaidendite teatriretseptsioon. Dissertationes litterarum et contemplationis comparativae Universitatis Tartuensis 2. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus 2004.
  • Jaak Rähesoo: Madi Kõivu Näidenditest, in: Looming 12/1999, pp. 1861–1874; 9/2000, pp. 1363-1382.
  • Aare Pilv: Madis Kõiv. Writer to an Ideal Reader, in: Estonian Literary Magazine 19 (2004), pp. 10-15.
  • Indrek Ojam: Madis Kõivu dramaatiline filosoofia kui dialoog vägivalla olemusega. Üks tõlgenduskatse, in: Looming 12/2014, pp. 1759–1770.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : History of Estonian Literature. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter 2006, p. 727.
  2. ↑ Anneli Saro: Madis Kõivu Näidendite teatriretseptsioon. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus 2004, p. 75.
  3. ↑ Anneli Saro: Madis Kõivu Näidendite teatriretseptsioon. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus 2004, p. 37.
  4. ^ Epp Annus et al .: Eesti kirjanduslugu. Tallinn: Koolibri 2001, p. 672.
  5. ↑ Anneli Saro: Madis Kõivu Näidendite teatriretseptsioon. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus 2004, p. 136.
  6. ↑ Madis Koivu mõttelistes maailmades. s. l. 2003, p. 27.
  7. ↑ Ulrike Schödel: A ballet from language and poetry, in: Bonner Rundschau from June 29, 1998.
  8. ^ Claudia Wallendorf: Estonian Midsummer Night's Dream in minor. Halle Beuel: Eesti Draamateater from Tallinn shows “Night performance of the vagabonds” by Madis Koiv, in: General-Anzeiger of June 27, 1998.
  9. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011, pp. 420–421.
personal data
SURNAME Kõiv, Madis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian writer, physicist and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Tartu
DATE OF DEATH September 24, 2014
Place of death Tallinn