Balss atgūšana: triju represētu latviešu dzejnieku likteņi
To Regain the Voice: The Fates of Three Repressed Latvian Poets

Author(s): Anda Kuduma
Subject(s): Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Latvian Literature, Lithuanian Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Skuja; Gūtmanis; Zihmanis; repression; trauma; memory
Summary/Abstract: The article aims to describe the fate of three repressed poets in the context of complex historical and socio-political events and evaluate the reception of traumatic personal experiences in two periods of their creative process: 1) the period of losing their voices after the exiles (end of the 1950s – 1980s); 2) the period of regaining their voices in post-Soviet Latvia (after 1990). The poets’ traumatic experience caused by the repressive mechanism of the Soviet totalitarian regime has influenced the development directions of their work and opportunities for it, which, from the point of view of postcolonial criticism, raises the issue of representation. In the 1980s and 1990s, Latvian literature actualises and evaluates the traumatism of historical experience in the autobiographical and biographical genre. An active and productive process of recovering the muted voice begins, overcoming the problems of representation previously established by official censorship. The kinship of the destinies of the three poets reveals the aspirations and difficult paths of individual and national freedom throughout the 20th century, forming an overview of historical memory. The article highlights the importance of memory and remembrance in over coming individual and collective trauma.

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