UTOPIJOS APVERTIMAS IRONIŠKOJI LIETUVIŲ POEZIJA SOVIETMEČIU
OVERTURNING UTOPIAS: IRONIC LITHUANIAN POETRY DURING THE SOVIET ERA

Summary/Abstract: The article constructs one of the versions of the decline and fall of the soviet empire: first, there emerged an ironic, sarcastic poetry deconstructing the compulsory ideology; second, this kind of poetry gained wide acceptance; finally, it conquered. Thinking of the empire as a utopian project, we trace and discuss the trajectory of antiutopian thought in the poetry of Vladas Šimkus, Marcelijus Martinaitis, and Stasys Jonauskas. An analysis of their ironic poetry merging into sarcasm and grotesquerie shows how totalitarian rule weakened, how in soviet society fear or faith in soviet ideals was replaced, first, by registering disappointment with them, then by criticizing them, and lastly by making fun of them in a burlesque fashion. Ironic poetry not only sought autonomy under the circumstances of ideological dictatorship but also criticized the latter directly. It did all of the following: deconstructed the essential ideologemes of soviet society with their pretensions to absolute truth, ridiculed the myth of technical progress and the alleged power of planning, skeptically analyzed the asserted primacy of society with respect to the individual, and revealed the mechanisms of power used against human beings as well as the ways the latter accommodated themselves to the system

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