Decadent, transgressive, colonial, queer \u2013 these are just some of the adjectives one could use to describe late nineteenth century Baltic-German literature. <\/span>Vikerkaar<\/span><\/i>\u2019s latest issue on queer histories appears simultaneously with an exhibit of Baltic-German queer art at Tallinn\u2019s KUMU Art Museum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Eric Stenbock was one such artist. Described by W.B. Yeats as a \u2018scholar, connoisseur, drunkard, poet, pervert, most charming of men\u2019, his short stories featuring vampires, travellers, gorgeous men and dying children were as colourful as his personal life, which was financed by the profits of his family\u2019s extensive land holdings in Estonia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Vikerkaar<\/span><\/i> publishes stories by Stenbock about woman simultaneously in two marriages, a couple in a platonic but fulfilling marriage, and other combinations that defy heteronormative expectations of love and sexuality. His writing, as Andreas Kalkun argues, fundamentally reshape queerness in Estonian literature, while raising complicated questions about the colonial relations that enabled nineteenth century decadent literature.<\/span><\/p>\n If Stenbock\u2019s queerness could be glimpsed through allusions and references, then it was central to Elisar von Kuppfer\u2019s identity. Kuppfer sought to revitalize masculinity through art, literature, and what Foucault would later come to call \u2018practices of the self\u2019. His works depict androgynous characters that celebrate the \u2018harmony of health, youth and beauty\u2019, and his writing deals with explicitly homosexual love. The story published in <\/span>Vikerkaar<\/span><\/i> follows a man engaged to a beautiful, yet boring woman, who finds himself in love with her brother instead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Other essays in this issue consider intersectional questions in contemporary queer culture. Sara Arumetsa argues for retiring the term \u2018cis-gendered\u2019, which has become a contested, even offensive term in spaces inhabited by the likes of Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Cis-genderedness\u2019, Arumetsa argues, \u2018is best described as a political regime or social and institutional norm, and transgressing it leads to disbelief, confusion, ridicule, lack of medical care, administrative and physical violence, and sometimes death \u2026 If we release people from the obligation of being cis-gendered, we would also release those who transgress against this obligation, from the secondary obligation of being transgendered.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Pauliina Lukinmaa looks at Russian-speaking LGBT+ activism in Estonia after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is a mixed crowd, encompassing Russians born and raised in Estonia, as well as activists who fled St Petersburg for Tallinn in 2022. The picture Lukinmaa paints is of a diverse but frustrated community, where exiles are both impressed by the integration of the local community into state institutions and angered by their apathy and lack of solidarity with communities abroad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the words of a queer comedian, Sasha Kapadia, Estonia\u2019s LGBT+ community is the victim of its privilege: \u2018[The Russian authorities] gave me false advertising! They told me how European gays wear golden leather pants and have crazy sex parties. Here in Estonia, people watch TV behind closed curtains. I\u2019m going to where Putin\u2019s propaganda is actually true. At least they like leather pants in Berlin!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Struggle has been at the centre of the history of trans rights in Spain, according to Ana Mattioli. \u2018From the end of Franco\u2019s dictatorship to the present day,\u2019 Mattioli writes, \u2018all trans narratives have been shot through with and reflective of class struggle. Even today, expressing a gender identity that departs from the norm brings about a risk for discrimination and social vulnerability. In other words, transitioning to a different gender generally also means transitioning to a lower-class position.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/vikerkaar324-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nContemporary intersectionality<\/h2>\n