VIETOS DVASIA MARTYNO LIUDVIKO RĖZOS KŪRYBOJE
The Genius Lociin the Martynas Liudvikas Rėza’s Works

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes how the landscape of the Curonian Spit was understood in Rėza’s poetry book “Prutena”, in the collection of Lithuanian “Dainos” and other literary and linguistic works, what was the most important to the writer. Rėza described the place which was for him homeland. The Curonian Spit has very big significance for this author comparing with other Lithuanian origin writers from Germany. The focus is made on the literary description of the Curonian Spit in the different texts, which were published firstly in the 19th century. The writer tried to express individual emotional and intellectual experience, and to revive the cultural memory of this place. His works were very significant stimulus for other Lithuanian authors who wrote about Curonian Spit later. This article explores the literary and linguistic texts of the 19th century which were written in the East Prussia by Martynas Liudvikas Rėza (1776–1840). He was a professor of Theology, Director of Lithuanian Seminary and the author of “Prutena” (1809, 1825). His native place was Karvaičiai, the very small village in the Curonian Spit. The writer always remembered the time when the place was covered with quicksand and disappeared without signs. There was no other text devoted to the memory of his homeland. The metaphoric term “genius loci” is applied to describe the specifics of the perception of place.

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