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TAUTINĖS TAPATYBĖS (RE)KONSTRAVIMAS XX A. PAB. TAUTINIO ATGIMIMO LAIKOTARPIO LIETUVIŲ IR LATVIŲ LITERATŪRINĖJE SPAUDOJE

Author(s): Viktorija Jonkutė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 30(35)/2016

The present article, exploring the texts from Lithuanian literary weekly ‘Literatūra ir menas’, monthly ‘Pergalė/Metai’ and Latvian ‘Literatūra un Māksla’ and ‘Karogs’ of the years 1988–1992, discusses and compares the most representative episodes of (self)reflection, the changes and continuity of national identity during the time. It is shown, how collective memory, (re)created by rituals of communicative memory, participates in the (re)construction of national identity as well as tendencies of heroisation and mythologisation, cases of deconstruction, demythologisation (Suodumas, Gavelis). It is claimed that canonical impersonate expression forms of nationality and national heroes (Lačplėsis, Rainis), i.e. general cultural universals, expressions of national ideals dominate in Latvian reflections. The pantheon of individual national heroes is more fragmented and scattered in Lithuanian reflections and participates in communicative memory more passively than in Latvian. But here self-reflection and representation of exiles as collective national heroes is much more intensive.

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Läti rahvalaulud Johann Gottfried Herderi kogus

Author(s): Beata Paškevica / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 65/2016

The handwritten Latvian folk songs in Johann Gottfried Herder’s manuscripts collection at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Manuscript Department of the Berlin State Library (also known as “Livonian collection”, as titled by Leonid Arbusow) are a testimony of the folk songs collection campaign at Herder’s request in 1777 and 1778. The authors who responded to Herder’s request and collected, commented, and translated Latvian folk songs have been identified in some cases, but there are also manuscripts of unidentified authorship; the identity of their authors has been widely discussed in previous studies. In the present study, handwritings in documents held at the National Library of Latvia, the Academic Library of the University of Latvia, the National Archive of Latvia, and the Historical Archive of Latvia have been compared and all collectors of Latvian folk songs in Herder’s personal archives have been identified. It has been found that the unidentified handwritings belong to Heinrich Baumann, Gustav Bergmann, Jakob Benjamin Fischer, and August Wilhelm Hupel. It has been discovered that manuscripts No. 50 and No. 53.1 of Herder’s personal archives were written by Gustav Bergmann; manuscript No. 51 was written by Jakob Benjamin Fischer (it includes texts from the 50th manuscript by Baumann and the 52nd manuscript by Bergmann as well as some original texts which were missing in both Baumann’s and Bergmann’s manuscripts); manuscript No. 52 was written by Gustav Bergmann, and manuscript No. 53.2 was written by August Wilhelm Hupel. Herder selected parts of manuscripts No. 50, 51, and 52 to publish them in a separate section titled “Fragments of Latvian Songs” (Fragmente lettischer Lieder) in his collection “Folk Songs” (1778/1779). Encompassing six texts, “Fragments of Latvian Songs” is the first set of Latvian folk songs in Herder’s volume. There is also a second collection, titled “The Song of the Spring” (Frühlingslied) in which five texts are included. The original handwritten texts of “The Song of the Spring” have not been found in Herder’s personal archives in the Berlin State Library; therefore it must be assumed that Herder received yet another handwritten collection of folk songs which has been lost. For this reason, the number of songs in the lost collection remains unknown as well. Considering that “Fragments of Latvian Songs” were selected from eighty submitted texts (which included different variations of the same song), we can assume that “The Song of the Spring” has been similarly selected from a wider amount of texts according to rigid principles known only to Herder himself. Thanks to the cooperation of Livonian authors, Herder had a broad collection of Latvian folk songs in his possession.

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Elektroniczny historyczny słownik łotewski oparty na korpusie wczesnych tekstów łotewskich

Author(s): Everita Andronova,Renāte Siliņa-Piņķe,Anta Trumpa,Pēteris Vanags / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2016

This article deals with the development of the Electronic Historical Latvian Dictionary (http://www.tezaurs.lv/lvvv) based on the Corpus of Early Written Latvian Texts (http://www.korpuss.lv/senie/). Some issues concerning the compilation and processing of the corpus data are discussed and the main sources added to the Corpus during the four-year project are described: the 16th c. Lord’s Prayers, 17th c. dictionaries, texts of oaths and laws, religious texts and so-called dedication poetry. The aim of the project is to compile a pilot electronic dictionary of 16th–17th century Latvian where all parts of speech are represented among the entries. This dictionary will contain ca. 1,200 entries,including both proper names and common nouns.The main emphasis is on the description of the dictionary entries supplied with relevant practical and theoretical observations. Each part of the dictionary entry is discussed, followed by comments on various issues pertaining to that part(e.g., the choice of headword and the representation of spelling versions) and how these were resolved. Special attention is paid to the head of entry, explanation of meaning deduced from the examples found in the corpus, different types of collocations and their representation in the dictionary, as well as etymological information. Finally we present a brief review of the dictionary writing software TLex 2013 based on our experience with this tool.

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Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma folkloristikā

Author(s): Rita Treija,Beatrise Reidzāne,Māra Vīksna / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 8/2017

Baltic philologist Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma (1901–1983) worked both in linguistics and in the field of folkloristics. Being still a student of the University of Latvia, she started work at the Archives of Latvian Folklore where her duties from 1927 until 1936 were to organize collecting of regional words and place-names. In her folklore collection, LFK [714], there are 478 folklore units altogether recorded in Kroņvircava, Liezēre, Mēdzūla, Riga, and Auleja. Part of the material is written in a phonetic transcription. After the World War II, Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma lived in Germany. Her scientific experience both in linguistics and folkloristics was well-known in society, and it led her to a new stage of work life which was very noteworthy for Latvian culture. She was asked to join the editorial team of the new edition of Latvian folk songs, „Latviešu tautas dziesmas” (Copenhagen: Imanta, 1952–1956, Vol. I–XII). She was the linguistic editor of the volumes who proofread both literary and various dialectal texts of Latvian folk songs. The complicated edition required four years of intensive work, still, the published volumes were of great importance for Latvian diaspora since they provided easier access and research opportunities to a part of riches of Latvian folk songs. In exile, Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma devoted herself to educational work with university students. First at the Baltic University in Hamburg and Pinneberg (1946–1949), and later at the University of Bonn, besides the Baltic languages she taught the stylistics of Latvian folk songs. She also carried out several studies on the linguistic issues of Latvian folk songs.

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ANNA/ASJA LACIS AND THE MULTILINGUALITY OF THE OTHER

Author(s): Susan Ingram / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The article discusses the multilingual nature of Anna/Asja Lācis’s own works as well as those devoted to her. When Anna Lācis’s memoirs were published in German in 1971, the editor Hildegard Brenner pointed out that the name Asja Lācis should appear more often in the research on Walter Benjamin and the cultural scene of Weimar. Asja Lācis did not receive well-deserved acclaim over the subsequent decades either. The conference, which is devoted to Asja Lācis and her work in the context of proletarian theatre and the ideas of leftism, indicates that the situation has changed under the influence of geopolitical and technological circumstances. The article analyses the influence of changes in the world on approaches to translation in culture and ensures an insight into Walter Benjamin’s translation work before meeting Asja Lācis in Capri. The goal of the paper is to analyse the efficiency of such work in order to understand both the difficulties in their relationships and the reception of their literary heritage, which are closely intertwined, as well as to facilitate the dialogue between this reception and leftism, which juxtaposes it to Antonio Gramsci’s works about translatability.

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The Role of Analogy in Romanian Noun System. With Regard to the Analogical Influence of the Plural Forms on the Singular Ones

Author(s): Ionel Apostolatu / Language(s): English Issue: 4-II/2010

Analogy represents one of the main causes that determined the reorganization of the grammatical system in its evolution from Latin to Romanian. A special case of analogy within the nominal system is represented by the influence of the plural forms on the singular ones. Thus, following a certain inflexional model, well represented in language, a whole series of nouns brought forth new singular forms under the influence of the plural ones and also changing their declension type. On the one hand, as far as the singular – plural opposition is concerned, the speaker aimed at the uniformization and normalization of the paradigms, where the differences between the forms were too obvious, and on the other hand, their distinction was taken into consideration in instances where there was a minimum difference or even an identity of the morphemes.

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INDIVĪDA UN MASAS ATTIECĪBU TRAKTĒJUMS RAIŅA LUGU RADĀMAJĀS DOMĀS

Author(s): Zane Šiliņa / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 2/2015

Rainis’s world outlook has been strongly influenced by the Marxist philosophy, yet his attitude towards this doctrine is rather complicated. On the one hand, the poet was attracted by the idea of changing the world, voiced by Marxism, and he was fascinated by the personality of Karl Marx, in whom he saw a brave and talented reformer of the society; yet, on the other hand, Rainis has severely criticised a number of ideas propagated by Marxism which have been proposed as the foundation of socialism. Firstly, the distinctly materialistic orientation of the Marxist doctrine and the social and political movements associated with it is incompatible with Rainis’s artistic endeavours and his conviction that the decisive role in the development of the society is played by the enhancement of the man’s spiritual world rather than by the economic conditions and their transformation. Secondly, Marxism is unable to solve the contradiction that occurs between the necessity to act in the name of the interests of the overwhelming majority and, simultaneously, to guarantee a free development of every individual. One could even assert that Marxism tries to bypass the potential conflict between the individual freedom and mass interests. On the other hand, Rainis, who had a high regard for the individuality and wanted to harmonise the collective potential for the development of the society with the free development of the personality, is particularly sensitive to the contradictions existing between the individual and the society and strives to address them in his literary works. The issues outlined above in relation to the treatment of the individual and the mass specific of Rainis’s literary works have been analysed in this article in the context of the working notes of Rainis’s unfinished play “Īliņš (Kurbads)”.

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DAŽAS RIETUMU MARKSISTU IDEJAS, ALBERTA BELA PROZA UN LITERĀRAIS KINEMATOGRĀFISKUMS

Author(s): Jūlija Dibovska / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 2/2015

The Latvian writer Alberts Bels (b. 1938) uses elements of literary cinematography in his prose. Although the number of these elements is not large, they testify to the fact that there is nothing unintentional in the writer’s prose. One of the ways how to establish the semantic load of elements of literary cinematography is to examine the context in which these elements are used following the views of the 20th century Marxist leaders. Thus, as an aesthetic value, literary cinematography in Alberts Bels’s writings can be seen as a compromise between traditional culture, which according to Walter Benjamin requires an aura and active experience of the reader, and the new art which was created on the basis of traditional art. If literature takes over the patterns of narrative cinema and uses them to create new, yet non-radical forms and structures, literary cinematography can be regarded as a favourable result of what Benjamin calls the loss of aura in a reproduced work of art.

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Vampīra tēls pasaules un latviešu literatūrā

Author(s): Bārbala Simsone / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 1/2015

The theme of the article is evolution of the popular folklore image of the vampire in world literature. From the monster of folk narrative the image of the vampire entered literary culture at the beginning of the 19th century when writers of the age of Romanticism sought material for their work in folk tales. The novel “Dracula” written by the Irish writer Bram Stoker set a large part of attributes for the image of the vampire in readers’ consciousness. It became a turning point in the evolution of the vampire. In the following years the vampire was a popular symbol in the 20th century literary experiments; however, it gained a considerable fame with a more rapid spreading of the cinema. Later, until the second half of the 20th century the image of the vampire was degraded to the level of a cheap horror monster. In the 1970s it was revived by the American writer Anne Rice in her series of novels “The Vampire Chronicles”. For the time being the latest tendency in the evolution of the vampire is represented by the novels of paranormal romance subgenre intended for young adults. In these novels the vampire has assumed the aura of a romantic character. In comparison with world literature vampire has not won a massive popularity in the novels of Latvian writers; however, some authors have occasionally used this image in their works. The image of the vampire appears in Latvian literature as a classical blood sucking monster, as a political symbol and also as a romantic hero in fantasy and adventure novels for young people. As we can see, the presence of the image of the vampire in Latvian writing reflects the same tendencies that have dominated world literature on a smaller scale. For this reason Latvian literature can be considered to be an interesting testimony of literary connections in the world.

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Granātābola semantika O. Vailda pasaku krājuma "Granātābolu naminš" un P. Rozīša stāstu krājumā "Granātu ziedi"

Author(s): Ilze Kačāne / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 1/2006

In culturological discourse pomegranate contains extensive and diverse semantics. It can be interpreted as a symbol of fertility, resurrection, and rebirth, In Oscar Wilde's fairy-tales many such symbols are present. Among them the pomegranate is one of the semanthemes that repeats. This repetition is the significant component of the writer's poetics. O. Wilde and his creative works have influenced many Latvian writers. Pavils Rozitis gets acquainted with his works when translating his "Aesthetic Manifesto" in 1909 and the supplemental Wilde's fairy-tale "The Fisherman and His Soul" Pomegranate is one of the images in P. Rozltis's collection of short stories "The Blossoms of Pomegranates". The article is an attempt to clarify common and different pomegranate semantics in Wilde's and Rozitis's works.

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Annas Brigaderes publicistika

Author(s): Ieva Kalniņa / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 1/2006

Anna Brigadere (1861-1933) is not only a dramatist, a poetess, and a prose writer well-known in Latvian culture, but also a publicist who has worked in editorial offices of newspapers. In 1908-1909, A. Brigadere was the chief of the Literary supplement and of the satirical supplement "Skaidiena" Wood-yard) of newspaper "Latvija," in 1920 she' wrote editorials for newspaper "Latvijas Vēstnesis" (The Messenger of Later) and since 1916 for many years she was the compiler and editor of Daugavas kalendārs" ((The Calendar of the Daugava) later "Daugavas gadagrā-mela {The Year-book of the Daugava)). There are several basic topics close to A. Brigadere's heart about literary, ethical, social, or political issues that she discusses in her articles. The first group of articles contains the defence and explanations of her own works (about the of fairy play "Sprīdītis," about plays "Raudupiete," "Uga," "Pastari," Suvejas sapnis" (The Dream of a Dressmaker)). The second group of articles consists of essays and reminiscences about mil standing social and cultural figures of Latvia (Rūdolfs Blaumanis, Reinhold-Veics, Jānis Rozentāls, Jānis Ziemeļnieks and others). The third theme includes two issues - alcoholism and family life. A. Hit gadere compares alcohol to the Devil, and pub to hell. She claims that drinking was introduced and supported by German gentry. Woman is the victim in lilt aspect, however, it will depend on woman if alcoholism will be controlled Therefore in the 20s of the 20th century A. Brigadere brings up a necessity for new type of woman who would be able to defend her children and herself, wlv is aware of her feminine responsibility in the family, but mainly who has sell respect (article "Piezīmes par laulības problēmām" (Notes about the problem:' a married life)). During the time of the Republic of Latvia A. Brigadere emphasizes in hr articles that the real independence of the state will be achieved by the nation* selfesteem of each individual, culture, and the ideology of the country. 'I I* writer defends Latvian cultural values and their significance in the life of Ik nation (articles "Cīņa par garīgo Latviju" (Struggle for Spiritual Latvia), "IMi robežai" (Across the Border), and others). The most valuable contribution of A. Brigadere in Latvian publicistics are ll* notes of 1917-1918 "Dzelzs dūre" (Iron fist), that tell about this complicated III* torical time in Latvia, and especially in Riga. The works of A. Brigadere is , important historical evidence and an artistically powerful work of publicistics.

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Jura Rozīša mitoloģiskais romans “Tunas Dēls"

Author(s): Sandra Lazduzieda-Čaklā / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 1/1998

Mīts caurauž cilvēces gara dzīvi visā tās pastāvēšanas gaitā: kā vienīgā augstākā, absolūtā, sakrālā realitāte arhaiskajā sabiedrībā un kā viena no apspēlējamām realitātes variācijām modernā cilvēka apziņā. Literatūra — kā individualizēts jaunrades veids — ir mīta sinkrētisma pārvarējums un vienlaikus mīta glabātāja. Demītoloģizācijas un mītoloģizācijas tendences periodiski ir izpaudušās visos literatūras vēsturiskās attīstības posmos, taču pilnīga atbrīvošanās vai pretēji — pilnīga izkušana mītā, definējot to arhaiskās kultūras kontekstā, laikam tomēr nav iespējama. 19.un 20. gadsimta pētījumi etnogrāfijā un etnoloģijā deva iespējas tos ekstrapolēt citās humanitārajās disciplīnās, t.sk. Eiropas literatūrā ienāca ne vien līdz tam jau plašāk pazīstamā antīkā un kristietības mitoloģija, bet arī ģermāņu-skandināvu, citu etnisko kopību mitoloģiskie priekšstati. Pakāpeniski arvien lielāka uzmanība tika pievērsta mīta funkcionālajam skaidrojumam, struktūrai, kas savukārt auglīgi iespaidoja rakstniekus mitoloģiju uzlūkot ne tikai par potenciālo personāžu krātuvi, bet arī pašiem daiļliteratūras tekstu ietvaros radīt oriģinālas mītologēmu sistēmas, kas metaforiski izsaka mītiska motīva vai sižeta invarianto arhetipisko kodolu. Sājā apcerē esmu aplūkojusi Jura Rozīša romānu “Kuņas dēls” - spilgtu mitoloģiskās jaunrades paraugu. [...]

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Symboliczne i filozoficzne podobieństwa poezji Jana Kasprowicza i Jānisa Rainisa

Author(s): Paweł Wojciechowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 35/2020

The text Symbolic and philosophical similarities between Jan Kasprowicz’s and Janis Rainis’ poetry presents the figure of Kasprowicz – a great Polish modernist, and Rainis – a Latvian poet and playwright, a man of the theater, author of numerous works for children and a recognized translator of the works of William Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, George Gordon Byron, and Aleksander Pushkin. The analysis is directed toward the lyrical work of the Latvian and the Polish poet, emphasizing its symptomatic symbolism and philosophical influences (Blaise Pascal, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson) present in the phenomena of nature and love.

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RYTŲ EUROPIEČIO SINDROMAS ŠIUOLAIKINĖS (E)MIGRACIJOS NARATYVUOSE

Author(s): Laura Laurušaitė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 62/2014

Employing the notion of imagology as a general imitational principle in modern-day society (Milan Kundera) and the concepts of hetero-image, self-image, and imageme introduced by literary imagology (Joep Leerssen), this article focuses on literary representations of Eastern Europeans in the latest wave Lithuanian, Latvian and Bulgarian émigré narratives. The selected narrative corpus includes four émigré novels generated in Britain: Vilis Lacitis’ Stroika with the view to London (2010), Alek Popov’s Mission in London (2012), Aleksandra Fomina’s We visited the island yesterday (2011) and Zita Čepaitė’s The breeze of London (2013). In discussing several manifestations of emigrants from the post-communist bloc, the author of the article concludes that the inherited patterns of Soviet mentality determine a similar structure of characters‘ consciousness, identical personal values, and motivational mechanisms that bear witness to a common stock type “Eastern European”. This is a certain social type with an entire preconceived repertoire of stereotypical images describing a subject of post-Soviet descent. This subject appears in émigré narratives as an inferior working-class figure with low self-esteem, a person of no reputation guided by amorality and aggressiveness. People from the former Soviet bloc perceive themselves and are perceived by local British (Western European) natives mostly in negative terms. Although, at first glance, all the personal and national characteristics of homo postsovieticus appear to be negatively charged, in every unfavorable estimation there lay a positive imageme counterpart that can be activated at any given moment (e. g., passiveness/ faithfulness, self-humiliation/patience, primitiveness/honesty, etc.).

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Folklora un ideoloģija: folkloras teksti latviešu mācību literatūrā PSRS 20. gadsimta 20.-30. gados

Author(s): Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 42/2020

The focus of this article is Latvian textbooks published in the USSR from 1920-1930 for Latvian pupils living in the Soviet Union, and the use of folklore texts in them. Attention is focused on the principles of the selection of specific texts and how the authors of textbooks interpret folklore texts. This research aims to determine how folklore units available in Soviet Latvian textbooks resonated with the dominant dogmas of the Marxist-Leninist ideology in the USSR. The first half of the article describes the most important aspects of the Soviet Latvian diaspora and the organization of education. In this part of the study, all Soviet Latvian textbooks issued from 1920- 1930 were examined: ABC, Latvian language and literature textbooks, school reading books and chrestomathies, as well as published selections of folklore units (24 books in all), not all of them included folklore texts. The focus of the analysis is only those books in which folklore had been published. The analyzed folklore units show how these texts can be used for propaganda purposes using various methods: by selectively picking out only those folklore units that correspond to the Marxist-Leninist ideology, commenting and creating paratexts, ignoring Latvian folklore genres (mythical songs, magic tales), using metrics and formulas of classical folklore to create texts with new content glorifying Soviet reality.

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O prawdzie – II hermetyczny fragment Stobajosa. Przekład i komentarz

Author(s): Aneta Tylak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

Stobaeus’s Anthology contains – among others – the Hermetic fragments attributed to Hermes Trismegistos. In the twentieth century French scholar, A.-J. Festugière added 29 Hermetic excerpts of Stobaeus in the Corpus Hermeticum. The Article is a translation of excerpt II of Stobaeus with commentary.

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Sic undique fulgor percussit. Ekfraza w VII eklodze Kalpurniusza Sykulusa

Author(s): Eryka Gryksa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

The aim of the article is to propose a new Polish translation of the ekphrastic passage of the VII Eclogue (vv. 23-72) by Calpurnius Siculus. It will be preceded by a short commentary, in which special emphasis will be placed on the means of artistic expression used by the poet. The 50-line ekphrastic passage is a story told by Corydon, who recalls his visit to Rome. It is the longest description of this type preserved in pastoral poetry. A shepherd, who wants to leave the countryside and go to the city to start a real literary career there, describes with delight the breathtaking amphitheatre. He is impressed by the splendour, rich ornamentation, as well as the animals exhibited in the arena. In addition to hares, horned boars, elk and bulls, Corydon could also admire sea monsters. All of them ﬁt in with the tradition of locus horridus, which is in opposition to the topos of loci amoeni, i.e. an idyllic, safe place away from the hustle and bustle of the city (topos, which is well known from bucolic poetry).

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Augustyn i Jan Kasjan o dopuszczalności kłamstwa, które jest bezwzględnym grzechem

Author(s): Przemysław Nehring / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

The author of the article analyzes the similarities and diﬀerences in Augustine’s and John Cassian’s approaches to both the nature of lying as a sin and its possible permissibility or at least its pardonability in strictly deﬁned situations. He argues for the position that it is impossible to say unequivocally whether Cassian undertook a conscious polemic with the Bishop of Hippo on this issue or even whether he was at all familiar with both or any of his treatises on lying. The fundamental diﬀerence between them regarding the issue of accepting intentionality in committing this absolute sin stems from the nature of the writings in which they articulated their views, their rhetorical context and the anthropological perspective of both authors.

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Ceļā uz sinkrētisko garīgumu: reliģiozitātes dimensijas Noras Ikstenas romānā “Ūdens mirdzēšana”

Author(s): Ilze Jansone / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 53/2023

The article analyzes the novel Ūdens mirdzēšana (The Glistening of Water, 2021) by Nora Ikstena, paying special attention to the author’s use of “imaginative apologetics”, which represents syncretic spirituality. The first part of the article analyzes the image of the protagonist(s) and her (their) inner journey, while the second part focuses on the symbolism of the Eye, contextualizing the novel within world literature that treats the eye as a symbol. The third and final part of the article describes the syncretic spirituality found in the novel – it is based on a mixture of Christianity and nature religions, and aims at the self-growth of the individual. This spirituality is analyzed from four perspectives: as opposed to the profane, consumerist world; as a quest for existential meaning; as a form of linguistic expression, and as an individual experience legitimized through religion and literature. Both the cyclical understanding of time inherent in the novel and the references to nature, as well as the loose interpretation of Christianity inserted into Marija’s experience, point to syncretic spirituality as the imaginative apologetics of the novel. Thus, in this spirituality, elements from different religions and mythologies are strung together as equal links in a chain, largely ignoring their original message and using them to represent the individual’s spiritual experience.

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Padomju kara romāna apokalipse latviešu literatūrā: Visvalža Lāma “Kāvu blāzmā”

Author(s): Ausma Cimdiņa / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 53/2023

Military fiction is a genre relatively little explored in Latvian literature. Novel Kāvu blāzmā (In the Glow of Northern Lights) by Visvaldis Lāms offers a gratifying matter for the analysis of genre transformations in confrontation with the ideological and aesthetic platform of the 1950s Soviet war novel. The novel was published in 1958 in five sequels in the literary monthly magazine Karogs (No. 7–11). It came under the spotlight of Soviet ideological censorship and politically charged criticism, was harshly condemned, and the printing of the novel was discontinued. In contrast to the grand narrative of the Soviet war novel, based on heroization of Soviet people and the Soviet soldier, Visvaldis Lāms presents an image of a Latvian legionnaire and a viewpoint of World War II from the perspective of Latvian people, thus showing a rather heterogeneous and contradictory worldview, untypical for the Soviet war novel. The writer assigns a narrowed-down time segment to the war events, exploring in depth the final phase of the German occupation in the territory of Latvia. In order to reveal the dilemma faced by Latvia and the emotional, social and psychological tensions linked with it, Visvaldis Lāms has chosen a manner of narration which is close to the existentialist fiction.

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