Kultûros Kritika Tarpukario Lieuvoje: Julijonas Lindë-Dobilas
Cultural Criticism in Pre-war Lithuania: Julijonas Lindë-Dobilas

Summary/Abstract: So far writings of Julijonas Lindë-Dobilas, an important writer and critic of the first half of the XXth century, have been analyzed from the viewpoint of literary history and criticism. An author of first Lithuanian psychological novel “Raving,” Julijonas-Lindë Dobilas remains an important figure in the history of Lithuania’s literature. However, his critical writings, collected into one volume one decade ago, represent his going beyond the borders of art or literary criticism. In the present article he is treated as a versatile cultural critic, who developed a rather unique critical discourse in the cultural context of Lithuania’s first half of the XXth century. Being not only a novelist, but also a Catholic priest, Lindë-Dobilas never submitted himself to official viewpoint of the Church nor sought some fashionable ideology of his day. His writings represent a sum of approaches. Influences range from Taine to Walcel and Croce. While in his aesthetics Lindë-Dobilas is a humble follower of Western thinkers of his time, in cultural criticism he developed a broad and interesting approach, his own categories and conceptual tools. His writings on literature, art, psychology of nations, creativity, cultural history are an interesting example how cultural criticism took shape and matured in pre-war Lithuania.

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