Bibliophile Peeter Tulviste - Jokes and humour

Peeter Tulviste was a colourful speaker, whose thinking was sharp and whose laughter always deeper than just amused. His library contains a culturally and linguistically diverse selection of humour literature. He was intrigued by what people joke about and why, but he also appreciated a good joke from a purely practical perspective, and always had a joke appropriate to the context up his sleeve. I first met Tulviste in the late 1990s when I was writing my thesis in psychology on ethnic humour. As a student, when talking to my then supervisors and mentors, Peeter Tulviste and Arvo Krikmann, I often witnessed their linguistically and culturally versatile sense of humour, and took the role of a grateful audience. I recall a joking comment, made during my master’s thesis defence, that only academy members were allowed to ask questions about the work. A widely circulated saying from the time when Tulviste was often late to lectures due to his duties as a rector was, “Sorry I’m late, but to make up for it, I’ll leave early.” Although this display focuses primarily on his work as a collector of jokes, Tulviste also had a keen interest in the theory of humour and was involved in the first research projects in Estonia dedicated to humour in the 2000s, led by Arvo Krikmann and me.

In Estonia, humour publishing started in the late 19th century, when joke tales (usually long humorous folktales) were included in folklore collections. The collecting of humorous folktales was led by clergyman and folklorist Matthias Johann Eisen, who personally collected about 1,500 of them. 80% or more of them poked fun at regional ethnic groups: people from Hiiumaa, Saaremaa, Mulgimaa, Setomaa, coastal areas and others. The editions of Eisen’s Rahva nali can also be found in Peeter Tulviste’s collection.

The exhibition clearly reflects the period of silence in joke publishing from the 1930s to the restoration of independence in Estonia. However, Tulviste’s collection includes books by expatriate Estonians, who were unaffected by Soviet censorship. After the restoration of independence, the popularity of joke books surged explosively, but by the beginning of the new century, the momentum had subsided as humour had moved online.

Peeter Tulviste knew and actively used the means of folklore and linguistic expression in both spoken and written language. His interests ranged from Estonian folk jokes to popular expressions and sayings. The keyword is internationality: Tulviste’s shelves included books with humour from Russian, English, German, Jewish, Chinese and many other cultural areas.

Peeter Tulviste himself compiled seven collections of jokes, including books focusing on university, medical, traffic, legal and military jokes.

Liisi Laineste

Find out more about the exhibition here.