Dienoraštinė refleksija - autentiško atvirumo imitacija
Reflections on the Diary as an Imitation of Authentic Openness

Summary/Abstract: The reflections presented in this article regard a diary as a form of openness in everyday life. The hermeneutic works by H. G. Gadamer and P. Ricoeur provide the basis for this analysis; whereas, the empirical examples are taken from the diaries of A. Nyka-Niliûnas, S. Nëris, W. Gombrowicz, and A. Bobkowski. The article explores and describes reflections regarding the degree of sincerity in diaries according to the criterion of authenticity. A diary represents the maximally sincere state of its writer, usually in the sphere of everyday understanding. During the analysis, it becomes clear that diary writing is a simulated relationship with the other or the modified self. Thus, the “sincerity” of a diary, as a genre of intimacy, is merely a theoretical praxis of self-recognition. It is not only the two-way movement between the “self” and the “other”, which is of importance to the hermeneutic explanation of a diary. It is the ability of the persons involved in a discourse to engage in a direct conversation by which the affinity of the “I–other” interaction is always experienced. A diary appears to be only a substitutional genre, which imitates openness. Since the diarist produces a text as a secondary sort of reality, it precludes the possibility of experiencing a direct relationship. The diary is actually a convenient medium for disclosing a cynical reality or describing a seemingly sincere self-analysis, which depends on the structure and nature of theoretical reflection. A diarist solidifies the self-identity and makes it thematic, as a method for creating a solipsistic “I” image in the eyes of diary readers. Due to its narcissistic view, a reflection on the diary encourages a subjective discourse. Theoretics, cynicism, and the closure of consciousness towards an authentic relationship are the foundations for such a subjective discourse.

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