Texts from a carnivalesque time of change: four poems in Estonian Half-German

ABSTRACT This article focuses on four poems written in Half-German by three Baltic German authors: ‘Die Oberpahlsche Freundschaft’ (1818/1857) by Jakob Johann Malm, ‘Karluscha Tattelbaum’ (1903) and ‘Benjamin Paul Püttisepp’ (1909) by Arthur Usthal, and ‘Reise ins Ausland’ (1954) by Walter von Wistinghausen. Literature written in Half-German emerged in a particular socio-historical and linguistic context, which is outlined in the first part of the article. The focus of this article is on the nineteenth century – the heyday of this literary tradition. All four poems will be discussed in the context of carnival culture according to Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of popular culture.