Estonian researcher Johanna Rosa has begun her postdoctoral project at UL ILFA

This year, Estonian researcher Johanna Rosa has begun her postdoctoral project “Gender Patterns in Late Soviet Estonian Girls’ Novellas” (01.01.2024–31.12.2024, PUTJD1207). The project is being carried out at Tallinn University and the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia (UL ILFA), with Eva Eglāja-Kristsone serving as the scientific adviser.

Johanna’s research work in Latvia is planned to intensify during the second half of the year, when she will also present her study in the “Poetics of Research” seminar series.

Johanna writes about herself:

“My research interests include women’s writing, Soviet literature, the history of Estonian literature, and the history of literary criticism. In 2018, I defended my doctoral dissertation on the Soviet Estonian women’s Bildungsroman and its modes of reading. My current postdoctoral project focuses on Soviet Baltic girls’ literature. In the 1960s–1970s, a distinct trend of ‘girls’ fiction’ emerged in Estonian youth literature, centering on female protagonists, their inner lives, and personal relationships. Its often sentimental and dreamy poetics stood out against the earlier, male-dominated, adventurous Soviet children’s literature. My goal is to characterize this trend in a contemporary context and to explore parallels with Latvian youth literature of the time.

I am also the editor-in-chief of the journal Keel ja Kirjandus (Language and Literature).”