„Aga mis Vana rahvas sest räägib ei jõua keel rääkida Ega käsi kirja panna...” Mõis ja vägivald XIX sajandi lõpu rahvaluulekogujate tekstides

Abstract

"Manor and violence in the folklore collections of the late 19th century". The folklore collected during the collection campaigns of the last decades of the 19th century contains a significant amount of material concerning the relationship between peasants and those connected to manors. In this article, I focus on one particular aspect of these texts: the depiction of violence directed from the manor towards the peasants. I examine the topic from two perspectives. Firstly, I apply the framework proposed by Gyanendra Pandey (2014), who distinguishes between three kinds of violence: (1) violence intended to maintain societal order; (2) wild, uncontrollable violence associated with marginalized groups; and (3) trivial or overlooked violence. I explore how these three types of violence manifest in my material and how they interconnect. Secondly, I analyze these texts, which originate from oral sources and were written down by individuals with limited formal education, within the context of contemporary public discourse (such as newspapers, history writing, literature, etc.) on manor-related violence. I investigate the parallels and discrepancies between these public writings and archival texts. Regarding the first perspective, it can be said that the writers often depict the violence executed by landlords as wild, while the right to enact violence for maintaining order is attributed to the Tsar. Additionally, the writers employ various rhetorical techniques to stress that trivial violence was also present. As for the connection to public writings, it is evident that the authors of these texts are familiar with them but sometimes alter or reinterpret them.

Keywords

• folkloristics
• folklore collection
• violence
• corvée