Lietuvos partizanai šiuolaikiniame lietuvių romane: kolektyvinė atmintis ir istorijos interpretacija
Lithuanian Partisans in a Contemporary Lithuanian Novel: Collective Memory and Interpretation of History

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the depiction of Lithuanian partisans, guerrilla war and history in the novels Žali (The Green, 2002) by Marius Ivaškevičius, Tarsi gyventa (As If Lived, 2004)by Teodoras Četrauskas, Per sutemas (Through the Dusk, 2008) by Juozas Jasaitis, Kartybiųtaurė – iki dugno (The Chalice of Bitterness – to the Bottom, 2011) by Petras Venclovas, Pogrindis(Underground, 2012) by Antanas Šileika [Canadian writer], and Neužmirštami Suvalkijos vardai(Unforgettable Names of Suvalkija, 2014) by Justinas Sajauskas. The novels are analysed lookingfor collective memory, history and it’s interpretation by actualising Maurice Halbwachs’ conceptof the collective memory, Hayden White’s notion of the discourse of history and Umberto Eco’stheory of interpretation. In the works of the above mentioned authors, the reconstruction of the past, history, the relation between the reality and fiction, narrativity, identity, representationand interpretation are treated very differently. The main reason of this is that the majority of the authors chose the historical discourse which narrates, while only few selected the historical discourse which narrativizes. Novels, Žali and Tarsi gyventa, are an attempt to interpret history implicitly refreshing the forgotten collective memory and creating a narrative. An artistic interpretation of Juozas Lukša-Daumantas’ narrative is presented in the novel Pogrindis. It isbased both on imagination and historical facts, aiming at acquainting the Western reader with theunknown partisan war in Lithuania. Kartybių taurė – iki dugno and Per sutemas show not only the partisans as the collective memory but also what the latter is supposed to be. NeužmirštamiSuvalkijos vardai attests how the artistic devices help the author to convert the autobiographical memory of the contemporaries into the fictional stories. The conclusions state that the collective memory of the guerrilla war is related either to abstract or concrete partisans; the discourse ofhistory determines the interpretations showing various intentions of the author, the text, and the reader. Lithuanian novelists do not raise the problem of history, they simply use the historical realia, contexts and interpretative strategies.

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