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Rupturing Otherness: Becoming Estonian in the Context of Contemporary Britain

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Abstract

While identity construction continues to be a widely discussed and researched area in contemporary social sciences, the existing theories have overlooked the importance of understanding why and how identities as semiotic constructions emerge in individuals’ consciousness in the flow of their everyday functioning. This article seeks to address this limitation in the theorizing by proposing an alternative conceptualization of identity, according to which identity construction is triggered by rupturing life-experience, which surfaces another perspective and makes the person aware of a possibility to be otherwise or of the reality of being different. Theoretical claims put forward in the paper are drawn from data gathered in a recent study, which explored lived-through experiences of young Estonians, who made study-visits to the United Kingdom. The discussed data will also highlight some interesting aspects in Estonians’ self-definition as it is constructed in relation to Eastern-European identity in the context of contemporary Britain.

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Notes

  1. Here reference is made to the famous slogan used by Gustav Suits (1883-1956): “Let us be Estonians, but let us become Europeans!”. Suits was a leading figure of Noor Eesti (Young Estonia), a literary movement group that played an important role in forming Estonian national consciousness in the years leading to the WWI.

  2. Setos are an indigenous ethnic and linguistic minority in south-eastern Estonia and north-western Russia.

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Acknowledgements

I am thankful to Harry Daniels for his helpful comments on the earlier version of this paper, and to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive critique.

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  1. Department of Education, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK

    Mariann Märtsin

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Correspondence to Mariann Märtsin.

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Märtsin, M. Rupturing Otherness: Becoming Estonian in the Context of Contemporary Britain. Integr. psych. behav. 44, 65–81 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-009-9109-8

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