Piret Viires (b. 1963) is a literary scholar and professor of Estonian literature and literary theory at Tallinn University. She has defended her Master’s degree (2000) and PhD (2006) in Estonian literature at the University of Tartu. Her main areas of research are Estonian literature of transition period in the 1990s as well as contemporary Estonian literature, postmodernism and post-postmodernism, the relationship between literature and technology, and digital literature. She has published books on Estonian literature and postmodernism, such as “Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture” (2012). In addition, she has published numerous scientific articles, compiled and edited scientific collections and special issues of journals, and organized conferences. She teaches various courses related to Estonian literature, Estonian culture and literary theory at Tallinn University. She is a member of several research organizations and editorial boards, has taught and conducted research at foreign universities (University of Helsinki, Eötvös Loránd University, Ohio State University, etc.). Piret Viires is a member of the Estonian Writers’ Union and has also published fiction.
Main publications
Monographs
Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture. Frankfurt am Main etc: Peter Lang Verlag, 2012, 152 pp.
Eesti kirjandus ja postmodernism. Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2008, 112 pp. [‘Estonian Literature and Postmodernism’.]
Postmodernism eesti kirjanduskultuuris. Dissertationes litterarum et contemplationis comparativae Universitatis Tartuensis, no 5. Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 2006, 258 pp. [‘Postmodernism in Estonian Literary Culture’.]
Books, special editions of journals (in English and Russian)
Pille Runnel, Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Piret Viires, Marin Laak (eds), The Digital Turn. User’s Practices and Cultural Transformations. Frankurt-am-Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 2013, 298 pp.
Articles (in English, German and Latvian)
Marin Laak, Piret Viires, Digital Culture as Part of Estonian Cultural Space in 2004-2014: Current State and Forecasts. – Raivo Vetik (ed), Estonian Human Developement Report 2014/2015: Escaping the traps?. Tallinn: Estonian Cooperation Assembly, 2015, pp 226-235.
Virve Sarapik, Piret Viires, Solitude in Cyberspace. – Pille Runnel, Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Piret Viires, Marin Laak (eds), The Digital Turn. User’s Practices and Cultural Transformations. Frankurt-am-Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 2013, pp 237-249.
End of Irony? Estonian Literature after Postmodernism. – Interlitteraria, vol 16, no 2, 2011, pp 451-463.
Marin Laak, Piret Viires, Das estnische Epos „Kalevipoeg“ und seine Rezeption in Kultur und Literatur. – Humaniora Germanistica, no 5, 2011, pp 295-318.
Marin Laak, Piret Viires, Representing canonical texts in the digital age: the case of the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg. – Revista Texto Digital, vol 6, no 2, 2010, pp 156-167.
The New Elite: from Digital Literature to a Printed Book. – Interlitteraria, vol 14, no 1, 2009, pp 247-255.
Emil Tode “Border State” and Nora Ikstena “The Celebration of Life”: The Possibilities of Postmodernism in Estonian and Latvian Literatures. – Anneli Mihkelev (ed), Turns of the Centuries, Turns in Literature: Estonian and Latvian Literatures in the European Context at the Turns of the 19th/20th and 20th/21st Centuries. Tallinn: Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia Underi ja Tuglase Kirjanduskeskus, 2009, pp 131-141.
Estonian contemporary literature in the globalised world: autonomy or dependence?. – Cornelius Hasselblatt (ed), The End of Autonomy? Studies in Estonian Culture. Maastricht: Shaker Verlag, 2008, pp 97–103.
Estonian Literature and a Brave New World: a Postmodern Turn?. – Cornelius Hasselblatt (ed), Different inputs – same output? Autonomy and dependence of the arts under different social-economic conditions: the Estonian example. Maastricht: Shaker Verlag, 2006, pp 145-153.
Literature and Cyberpace. – Folklore, vol 29, 2005, pp 153-174.
Traces of Postmodern World in the 21st Century Estonian Novel. – Interlitteraria, vol 9, 2004, pp 130-139.
Mustamäe Metamorphoses. – Virve Sarapik, Kadri Tüür (eds), Koht ja paik. Place And Location, vol 3. Tallinn: Eesti Kunstiakadeemia, 2003, pp 395-403.
No etnofuturisma lidz kiberliteraturai. – Karogs, no 5, 2001, pp 194-214.