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An Ecosemiotic Look at Estonian Nature Writing

The article discusses the tradition of Estonian nature writing with the focus on two representative examples, depicting a coastal environment (Vilsandi islet) and a remote forest area (Alutaguse). The study proceeds from an ecosemiotic understanding of communication-based relations between humans and their environment. Nature writing serves as a modelling tool for inter-species’ relations and the humans’ relations with their environment. It is also suitable material for the study of the semiotic mechanisms of meaning making. The chapter demonstrates that texts of nature writing are locally situated; that in order to analyse them it is necessary to take into account the specific Umwelts of the represented species; and that texts of nature writing form an intertextual ecosystem. Structural similarities can be detected in texts written about the same place by different authors. We argue that nature writing works as a model of the specific environmental relationships of the particular culture and era, as well as of the biotope as a whole. Keywords: nature writing, ecocriticism, ecosemiotics, Umwelt theory, structure of text, Estonia