Aimée Beekmani Valikuv imalus“: ühe oman olise romaani vastuv tu dünaamikast. Option to Choose by Aimée Beekman: On the dynamics of the reception of an unconventional novel

Valikuv imalus (Option to Choose) is a 1978 novel by the prolific Estonian writer Aimée Beekman. The novel tells the story of Regina, a schoolteacher approaching her thirtieth birthday who feels the need to start a family. Not able to find a suitable husband, she marries the village drunkard but, to ensure her children will be healthy, she decides to procreate with other men, alpha-males with clean medical records. This article tries to map the tumultuous dynamics of the reception of the novel and to explain it in terms of the rhetorical ethics developed by James Phelan. The first part of the article, “A story of a freakish unwoman”, describes the first wave of reception. Reviewers were almost unanimously hostile and the novel was declared a failure. This can be explained by the unavoidable intertwining of the ethical and aesthetic aspects of any given literary work. Largely due to the social conventions in Estonia in the 1970s, the scheming protagonist was considered cold and almost inhuman. Thus the outraged reviewers were more inclined to judge the entire book negatively. This is contrasted by the more open-minded German reception (the translation was published in 1983), where Regina was often described as a pleasant and adventurous young woman. The second part of the article, “A model novel full of spirit”, describes a change in the reception. At the end of the decade, a boom in “everyday novels” emerged in Estonia. Due to thematic similarities, Option to Choose was often compared to them: many of these books featured young women who faced problems with weak, uneducated men, often alcoholics, and tried different strategies to deal with the situation. However, the everyday novels were generally considered simplistic and vulgar. Against that background, the model-like, conceptual nature of Option to Choose became evident and appreciated. Using Phelan’s terms, the novel was now rightly perceived as a didactic rather than mimetic piece of work; the contrast highlighted the different – and strong – ethical implications. The new basis of comparison worked in favour of the book. The third part, “A feminist manifesto (?)”, describes how Beekman's novel has lately been included in textbooks and literary histories. In a way, the understanding of the book has now been turned upside down: the feminist or emancipatory aspect is highlighted and glorified. However, this is a problematic notion since it is doubtful whether Regina is either an emancipated woman or a positive character. The novel’s relation to the emancipation discourse is complicated and ambivalent;