CEEOL - Browse Subjects Result

We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.

Pirmieji modernizmo blykstelėjimai lietuvių prieškario teatre 1920-1929 m.

Author(s): Irena Aleksaitė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 4(37)/2004

In pre-war Lithuania of the 20s, there were essential differences between manifestations of modernism in literature, art, and theatre. These differences were due to objective reasons having to do with the historical developments in each of these areas. What the modern and innovative manifestations in all areas of the arts had in common was the fact that they came belated compared to analogous phenomena in Western Europe (where they became the focus of avant-garde art).Lithuanian theatre's unique and exclusive developmental peculiarities as well as its evolutionary difficulties in the third decade of its existence determined the belated and overly modest manifestations of modern art. These manifestations are associated with the formation of professional theatre, the direction representing the old pre-reformist Russian school, the theatre repertoire, as well as the complicated situation of the company in the first decade of the professional national theatre's existence.Director Borisas Dauguvietis' outbursts of modernism in the third decade of the theatre involve elements of symbolism, naturalism, orientalism, "technicism", a theatrical improvisation in the "commedia dell'arte" style; these single flashes can be observed in the following plays: G. Hauptmann's "Hannele", M. Maeterlinck's "The Intruder", J. Vilkutaitis-Keturakis's "Amerika pirtyje", C. Gozzi's "Turandot", L. Pirandello's "Right You Are, If You Think You Are", and Moliere's "The Imaginary Invalid". B. Dauguvietis' searches for the origin and essence of modern stage tools and their contact with the repercussions of Eastern (A. Tairov's) and Western modern stage art are also notable. In the context of the national drama theatre's repertoire, these productions demonstrated B. Dauguvietis' creative potential as well as the company's barely noticeable slip towards scenic novelties. In that sense, the fourth decade of the theatre's development was far richer and more colourful, linked with the entrenchment of scenic innovation and modern direction (examples of the above include A. Oleka Žilinskas', Mikhail Chekhov's, and their students A. Jakševičius' and R. Juknevičius' original directions representing the scenic avant-gardism of the 1930s in Russia.)

More...

Septyneri emigranto metai: Arkadijus Buchovas Kaune

Author(s): Marius Vyšniauskas / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 16/2016

The article analyses the life of Arcady Buchov (1889–1937) in Kaunas. This man was a satirist and the editor of the political newspaper “Echo”. A. Buchov reveals the diversity of Imperial/Soviet Russian politics and rival activities. Moreover, not only he helps to understand changing roles of Russian, Lithuanian, and Western Europe states but also presents general structure of culture, socialization and politics in the first decade of the 20th century. The aim of this article is to analyse the life and works of A. Buchov, his work experience in the period of the first Republic of Lithuania, and take a look into the environment he matured and the ideas he expressed. In addition, to reveal close contacts with Lithuanian politics, press, and family of L. Gira. Editorial office of “Echo” named “Spy nest” and problematic political reactions of A. Buchov are analysed as well.

More...

Literatūra Kaip Medijų Sistema Arba Kas Yra Medija Mariui Katiliškiui ?

Author(s): Saulius Keturakis / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 64/2010

This research paper has got two aims. The first is related to the idea by Wolfgang Iser, that is the so called medial turn which has dicplaced literature from the central position in the cultural paradigm and transformed it to media equal to all the other forms of it. Analysis of the novell „Mi kais ateina ruduo“ by Marius Katili kis is linked to the idea by German cultural theorist Oliver Jahraus about literature as the media system, which allows to interpret literature as a part of the theory of a modern subject. In this way literature has been restored to the dominating position in culture. The second aim of this research paper is to analyse an encounter of the tradition with the different technological linguistic, acoustic and visual media in the novel by Marius Katilikis, to show a reflection of human being in the mediated reality, which seems to be for the first time so consistently accomplished in the whole history of the Lithuanian critical thinking.

More...

Konstantino Sirvydo Punktų sakymų spaudmenys ir rašyba

Author(s): Virginija Vasiliauskienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 69/2013

This article describes the usage of typefaces as well as the basic principles of orthography in Konstantinas Sirvydas’ book of sermons Gospel Points (SP). Orthography of SP was mostly influenced by Latin and Polish. Most of the different diacritics are seldom used, but in most cases they are used consistently. In certain cases these diacritics are used to mark a stressed syllable or were a means of differentiation in homographs and homoforms. Variations in marking fricative consonants and affricates can be determined both by technical reasons in printing and by reflecting changes in the speech of Vilnius’ residents. Typefaces used for marking abbreviations and omissions followed Latin traditions. Three different typefaces were used during printing for marking both the capital letters and <J> in those parts of the text that were in antique cursive. No special letters were used to differentiate long vowels from short vowels. Variations are evident in marking: (1) [e] and [ai] that follow a soft consonant; (2) voiced consonants before voiceless, and voiceless consonants before voiced; (3) the prefix iš-. Principles of combining adjacent words or writing them separately were influenced by prosodical features as well as by basic standards of other languages and also technical features of the printing process and language competence of editors and typesetters. Usage of capital letters is based on Latin and Polish or is taken from quotable sources.

More...

Rankraštinės Purpuros chronologiniai santykiai su 1759 metų Žyvatu

Author(s): Aleksas Girdenis / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 07/2005

This article deals with the manuscript Purpura iszganima mukos Jezusa, which was compiled in the North-Western Lowland Lithuanian dialect. The title page bears the year 1707, but basing myself on the linguistic data I attempt to prove that the text was composed (or reedited) only after the middle of the nineteenth century or even slightly later. Along with the salient graphic peculiarities that show such a late origin of the manuscript, certain linguistic features which are different in the other Lowland Lithuanian book (based on the same dialect) Ziwatas Pona yr Diewa musu Jezusa Christusa (1759) prove this to be a comparatively late version of the manuscript Purpura: 1. The morphological alternation of [t], [d] : [è], [dþ] is almost totally absent in Purpura; in Zywatas this process was still in the embryonic stage of development. 2. In Zywatas the sound [e] was consistently used in unstressed word-stem and inflectional positions. In Purpura the shift can be traced as it progresses very clearly: -e- ´ -¼-, -e ´ -¼. 3. In certain cases the cluster [nî] was more than just nasalized, it was actually turned into [nán] in Purpura. Yet the same cluster [nî] in Zywatas was always kept unaltered. 4. Certain archaic morphological features were absent from the manuscript; yet they were present in Zywatas. Note for instance, the loc. pl. ending -su and also such archaic forms of the consonantal declension as the instr. sg. sesermi '(with) sister', instr. pl. sesermis '(with) sisters'h, etc. At the end of the article certain strong arguments are advanced to demonstrate that the linguistic basis of Purpura was the subdialect of Kretinga of the so-called littoral Lowland Lithuanian dialect.

More...

Kirilikos Evangelijų (1865) rašyba: Laurynas Ivinskis ir Jonas Krečinskis

Author(s): Daiva Litvinskaitė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 07/2005

The Evangelijos (1865) is a Lithuanian book compiled in the Cyrillic alphabet. It is based on an earlier Lithuanian book by Juozapas Arnulfas Giedraitis (1757-1838) Naujas Istatimas (1816), which was printed in Latin letters. Laurynas Ivinskis (1810-1881) was thought to be a compiler of the Evangelijos. However, a comparison of its orthography with the spelling of the autonomously written Kalendorius of Ivinskis of 1865 demonstrates that the concept of Cyrillic orthography diverges greatly in those two Lithuanian texts. Still the orthography of the Evangelijos is analogous to Ivinskis' Kalendorius of 1866 that was compiled in collaboration a year later with Jonas Kreèinskis (ca. 1820 after 1884). The most frequent words found in the Cyrillic based Lithuanian works by Ivinskis and Kreèinskis have clearly demonstrated that the orthography of the Evangelijos was very similar to Kreèinskis' model of that orthography. Philological analysis has shown that Ivinskis and Kreèinskis might have worked together on the text of the Lithuanian Evangelijos in Cyrillic.

More...

"Nebibliografinë" Jono Bretkûno Postilë (1591): Vlado Daumanto egzempliorius

Author(s): Ona Aleknavičienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 06/2004

In this article I describe the copy of Jonas Bretkûnas' Postilla (1591), which is kept in the Kaunas Art Gallery of Mykolas Žilinskas (this is a division of the National Art Museum of Mikalojus Konstantinas Èiurlionis), in the section of Archival Documents and Photographs (call number: Tkr. 148). Until 1944 the copy was kept in the private collection of Vladas Daumantas. For a certain period after World War Two it was unknown to scholars. The copy was included neither in the Lithuanian Bibliography (Lietuvos TSR bibliografija, 1969; LB I), nor in the supplement volume (Papildymai, 1990; LBP). This is the tenth copy of Bretkûnas' Postilla kept in Lithuania. Daumantas' copy is not defective, but is in good condition. There are, however, certain errors of pagination. Certain circumstances attest that this copy was the property of Vladas Daumantas: (1) an inscription in purple pencil on the title page "VDaumantas" (cf. Fig. 1); (2) an inscription "VDaumanto kolekcija" in the accession book of the Art Museum of Mikalojus Konstantinas Èiurlionis; (3) a description of the Postilla in the manuscripts by Petras Jakðtas (a contemporary of Daumantas; they both were members of the 27 Book Lovers Society).

More...

Uwagi o polszczyênie Dzienników (1853-1856) Antanasa Baranauskasa

Author(s): Halina Karaś / Language(s): Polish Issue: 06/2004

Linguistic analysis of Antanas Baranauskas' (1835-1902) Diary (1853-1856) proves that the author recorded it in a Polish dialect that was spoken in the region of Kaunas (Lithuania) at that time. His Diary reveals some phonetic, grammatical, and lexical features typical for that northern borderland variety of the Polish language. There are numerous examples of phonetic features that are not different from the contemporary Polish usage, but hardly any of them were present in the standard Polish of the nineteenth century. Baranauskas used many phonetic features that were characteristic for the northern borderland Polish dialect, e.g., different from the standard Polish distribution of <o> and <ó>; pronunciation of unstressed [e] and [o] as [a]; reduction of unstressed vowels; secondary palatalization and dispalatalization, especially dispalatalization of [n'] and palatalization of [s], [z], [c], [dz] in the position before [k']. The two latter cases can be explained by the interference from the Lithuanian language. There is assimilation (and simplification) of sequences (units) of palatalized consonants and fluctuation of alveolar and dental consonants, which are characteristic to Lithuanian (not Polish). There are also some cases of hypercorrection.

More...

XVIII - XIX amþiaus lietuvišku tekstu grafemos , <J>

Author(s): Giedrius Subačius / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 05/2003

Around the third and fourth decades of the eighteenth century printers evidently believed that capital (upper case) letters and <J> were to be differentiated like their lower case equivalents and <j> (cf. Jurgis Kasakauskis' Razanczius, 1727; Jonas Jaknavièius' Ewangelie, before 1727, 1731, 1738, 1743). On the other hand such a rule was not applied consistently at that time, and all the texts still possessed deviations from the rules (whether because of absence of italic <J>, as in Kasakauskis' Razanczius, or because of the strong influence of an older model, as in Jaknavièius' Ewangelie). Nevertheless the new (fashionable) letter <J> sometimes managed to push the grapheme aside. Thus there is no functional distinction between and <J> in the anonymous grammar called Universitas (1737). Moreover, in the second half of the text the typesetter switched to using only the letter <J>. 1.2. Approximately in the middle of the eighteenth century (in 1750 and later) the Vilnius' University (Academy) printing house finally established the precise orthography of the letters and <J> that matched respectively the sounds [i] and [j] (in Lithuanian the sound [i] is a vowel and the sound [j] is a sonorant consonant that can occur only before a vowel and is always pronounced like English [y] in yes); cf. Jonas Jaknavièius' Ewangelie (1750, 1756, 1758), Vincenzo Caraffa's Pedelis Miros (1750), Mykolas Olðevskis' Broma (1753).

More...

Tarmės įtaka Mariaus Katiliškio raštų kalbai

Author(s): Janina Švambarytė-Valužienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 76/2017

The article describes linguistic views of writer Marius Katiliškis (real name is Albinas Vaitkus, born on 15 September 1914 in Gruzdžiai, Šiauliai district; died on 17 December 1980 in Lemont, a suburb of Chicago), who comes from Northern Lithuania, Žagarė district, discusses the lexis of Šiauliai sub-dialect of the Western Aukštaitian used in Katiliškis’ works and dialect speech patterns that the writer is known for. The article is compiled with reference to the material of the manuscript of the Glossary of Marius Katiliškis Works (abbreviated as KtŽ), compiled by the author of the article. KtŽ lexis is compiled from the novels Miškais ateina ruduo (1969), Užuovėja (1990), Išėjusiems negrįžti (1990) and a collection of short stories Seno kareivio sugrįžimas (2003). Katiliškis had a good command of Žagarė speech: he had heard quite a few stories told in it, collected and noted individual words, their forms and language expressions. Dialect lexis abundant in Katiliškis’ writings indicates that the writer acted as a dialect user, i.e., created words, formed collocations not included into any dictionaries, used various nuances of word meaning. Words used or created by Katiliškis are affective, noticed by the reader as new, emotional, finally interesting in the way of phonic and semantic meaning. In Katiliškis’ writings the story is relayed by using simple and extended sentences or thoughts that are divided into short sentence components. It seems that the writer wishes to halt the reader for a moment and to emphasise every collocation or phrase. Usually, this kind of fragmented sentence also conceals an emotion expression. Katiliškis’ writings, as indicated in the article, are written in local dialect, i.e., dialect language used in 20th century. Up till this day, the development of standard language requires a more in-debt study by linguists focused on various areas of research, and Katiliškis’ writings are texts on which such an investigation should be grounded.

More...

KULTŪROS SĄVOKOS RAIŠKA DAUKANTO DARBUOSE

Author(s): Roma Bončkutë / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 98/2019

This article investigates how the emerging term of “culture” was conceptualized in the works of the famous Lithuanian historian Simonas Daukantas (1793–1864). He was the first Lithuanian nineteenth-century historian who wrote in his mother tongue. Although Daukantas was the follower of Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), who was the first to establish “cultura” as a term (die Kultur), Daukantas did not use the term “cultura” to signify the concept of culture as it is known today. The article shows that in his Polish texts Daukantas uses the term “civilization” in place of “culture” and this word is found in his dictionary Didysis lenkų–lietuvių kalbų žodynas (The Great Polish-Lithuanian Dictionary ~ 1850–1856). In Dictionary he translated the term “civilization” from Polish to Lithuanian using the word vigilance (“akylumas”): “Cywilizacya” became “akylumas”, the verb cultivate: “Cywilizować” became “akylinti” and the adjective vigilant: „Cywilizowany” – “akylas”. Using Reinhart Kosellek’s theory on the history of concepts, this article discusses why Daukantas chose the word vigilance („akylumas”) in place of the concept of culture.

More...

Lietuvių dramaturgija ir jos „krizės“

Author(s): Neringa Klišienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 1/2021

The cultural shift that has been taking place over the thirty years since Lithuania regained its independence is bound up with the role of a rapidly changing – in terms of both stage and text – theatre. These changes were mostly expressed through rhetorical formulations of a discourse of “crisis”. It is no exception that this word has been used as a usual descriptor of the state of Lithuanian dramaturgy. Through a discussion of the differing aspects of the relationships between the defenders of the logos theatre and the proponents of stage praxis, this article argues that during the transitionary period that changed Lithuania’s history, and which also supplied the concept of “crisis”, the world of Lithuanian theatre, afflicted with constant perturbations, revealed itself. The multifariousness of “crisis” is also elucidated: at the start of the period of independence the term was used to describe the vacuum problem of Lithuanian drama, after ten years – the lack of current relevant plays, today – the limited access to contemporary dramaturgical texts. The conclusion is thereby drawn, that the dissemination of dramatic texts is not only a prerequisite of lessening the long-lived tensions between text and stage authors, but also of deeper studies of the development of contemporary Lithuanian dramaturgy.

More...

Use of posture verbs in old Lithuanian writings: A case study of the verb gulėti ‘lieʼ

Author(s): Agnė Kuliešienė / Language(s): English Issue: 13/2022

This paper reports on constructions with the posture verb gulėti ʻlieʼ in religious Lithuanian writings of the 16th–19th centuries. The aim of the current study is to offer an overview of the use of these constructions and their grammaticalization potential in the old Lithuanian language. 662 samples were selected from “Evangelijos bei Epistolos” by Bartholomäus Willent, “Ewangelie Polskie y Litewskie” by Jonas Jaknavičius, “Naujos maldų knygelės” and “Naujos giesmių knygos” by Daniel Klein, Johann Jakob Quandt’s Bible and “Naujas įstatymas” by Juozapas Arnulfas Giedraitis. The website “Senieji raštai” (“The old Lithuanian writings”) of the Research Centre of Written Heritage, the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, was utilised to explore the old writings; the constructions were extracted using the search engine of the website. To analyse the semantics of these constructions, the FrameNet system was used. First, the theoretical approach of this study is discussed, and the sources and methods applied are indicated, then, the semantic analysis of the posture verb gulėti ʻlieʼ is presented and finally, its grammaticalization potential is examined, followed by conclusions.

More...

Creating Urban Heterotopia: Užupis in the Focus of Literature and Film (Tūla by Jurgis Kunčinas and Ten Minutes Before the Flight of Icarus by Arūnas Matelis)

Author(s): Gintarė Bidlauskienė / Language(s): English Issue: 46/2022

This article aims to analyze and compare two representations of the Vilnius district of Užupis: the literary image created in the novel Tūla by Jurgis Kunčinas (1993) and the cinematic image provided in the documentary Ten Minutes Before the Flight of Icarus by Arūnas Matelis (1990). Applying the approaches of geocriticism, urban studies, and intermedial contexts allows to relate these images in terms of the dominant motifs of the sensorial experience of the city related to two representational strategies: observing and walking in the city. In the novel Tūla, different gazing modes make the urban space visible, and the protagonist’s walking links particular urban objects to the whole referential space. In this way, the analysis of the representation of Vilnius, especially Užupis, in Tūla highlights the links between the construction of the fictional urban space and the structure of the city novel. Ten Minutes Before the Flight of Icarus focuses on the district of Užupis and the everyday life of its residents. The street-level camera eye matches the gaze of the potential perceiver and his bodily ability to grasp the space haptically, i.e. by footsteps. The movement on foot is essential as it connects all the spatial points into one entity and highlights a permanent link between walking in the city and storytelling as reading or writing. Ultimately, both representational strategies allow qualifying the area of Užupis as the “other” space or a heterotopia due to its distinctive language, which is also a bodily practice, intrinsic to both texts.

More...

Človek, ktorý vynachádza sám seba: americkosť a ostrovnosť v dielach Jonasa Mekasa a Beatrice Gibsonovej

Author(s): Christelle Nicolas / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2020

Two artworks concerning exile and New York, world city and archipelago: Walden from Jonas Mekas (1969) with reference to Henri David Thoreau (1854); and A Necessary Music from Beatrice Gibson (2009) according to The Invention of Morel from Adolfo Bioy Casares (1940). Are these artworks a recreation by the separation achieved by the desert island as described and conceptualized by Gilles Deleuze? But here, the desert island is also a new world, the possible space to new human being, to humans who are inventing themself by the geographical distance from the Ancients, from Europe and Africa: America.

More...

Vilniaus universiteto Lietuvių literatūros katedra 2023 metais

Author(s): Jurgita Žana Raškevičiūtė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 1/2023

Katedros mokslininkai 2023 metais tęsė literatūros ir kultūros istorijos tyrimus, kuriems plėtoti svarbi doc. Dariaus Kuolio sudaryta sociologo ir civilizacijų istoriko Vytauto Kavolio knyga Laisvės kultūra (Odilė, 2023), palydėta įvadinio sudarytojo straipsnio „Persigrumti su Vytautu Kavoliu“. Knygoje sutelkti Kavolio straipsniai, skirti laisvės ir liberalizmo problemoms. Tarptautinę mokslo rezultatų sklaidą liudija katedros mokslininkų straipsniai užsienio leidiniuose. Prof. Mindaugas Kvietkauskas publikavo straipsnį „Moshe Vorobeichic à Vilnius: contextes culturels et inspirations“ Prancūzijoje išleistoje kolektyvinėje monografijoje Moï Ver (Paris: Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2023). Prof. Brigita Speičytė straipsnį „Władysław Syrokomla i debiut Karoliny Proniewskiej: przykład autorstwa dialogowego“ rinkinyje Władysław Syrokomla: Szkice i studia (Białystok: Wydawnictwo Prymat, 2022), išleistame Lenkijoje. Doc. Audinga Peluritytė-Tikuišienė paskelbė du šiuolaikinės lietuvių literatūros tyrimams skirtus tekstus: „The Semantics of the Void in Two Novels: Gone with the Dreams by Jurga Ivanauskaitė and Buddha’s Little Finger (aka Chapaev and Void) by Victor Pelevin“ (Studia Rossica Posnaniensia, 48 (1), 2023) ir „Granica, wojna i miłość w prozie Birutė Jonuškaitė“ (Czytanie Literatury. Łódzkie Studia Literaturoznawcze, 12, 2023). Varšuvos universiteto leidinyje savo straipsnį „Laisvės sampratos antinomijos šiuolaikinėje lietuvių dramaturgijoje“ publikavo asist. Neringa Klišienė (Prace bałtystyczne. Język – Literatura – Kultura, t. 8, 2023).

More...

Etnosimbolizmas kaip ankstyvųjų Naujųjų laikų raštijos tyrimo metodologija: teoriniai svarstymai apie XVI a. Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės politijos tapatumą

Author(s): Skirmantas Knieža / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 3/2023

The article aims to present historical ethnosymbolism as a theoretical alternative to the dominant modernist theories of nationalism. While the latter mainly focus on social factors and associate the emergence of nationalism with the industrialization of the 19th century, ethnosymbolists suggest evaluating cultural factors and interpreting the emergence of the modern nation as a chronological, continuous, and gradual process. The emergence of ethnosymbolism in the 1980s can be associated with a broader cultural turn in historiography and history studies: scholars shifted their focus to foundational myths and myths of descent, analyzing symbols that helped establish and cultivate the cultural memory of communities. Ethnosymbolist John Armstrong introduced concepts such as ‘mythomotheur’ and ‘myth-symbol complex,’ while Anthony D. Smith contributed to establishing the category of communal affiliation termed ‘ethnie’– a culturally coherent political community with a sense of solidarity among the higher strata of society. This community leverages ethnicity in a broader sense, including common history and name, myth of descent, and association with a certain territory, to maintain and strengthen their dominant position and independence. Examples from the literature of the 16th-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) suggest that the myth of Roman descent, efforts to turn historical battles with Moscow and Ottomans into an epic, etymologization of Lithuania’s name, importance of the Jagiellonian dynasty, and other symbols helped cultivate historical subjectivity and a sense of identity among the nobility and intellectuals. While these insights should not imply proactive construction of nationhood, as Caspar Hirschi suggests in his study on the contemporary Holy Roman Empire, they indicate that the commonly employed term ‘political nation’ of the GDL can be further refined by reconsidering the contents of ethnicity, primarily dealing with the sense of historical identity and memory. This article argues that such a reading strategy can be used to uncover new layers in Early Modern literary texts, especially those related to cultural memory and political identity.

More...

World Literature and Mythology: Guarantees of Freedom of Man and Nation in Sigitas Geda’s Poetry

Author(s): Karolina Bagdonė / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

In this article, the author uses the theory of intertextuality (Julia Kristeva, Gérard Genette, Marco Juvan) to analyse reflections on the openness of cultural identity and Europeanness in Sigitas Geda’s (1943–2008) poetry and his commentaries. The objective is to discuss how resistance to Soviet ideology could be constructed in mythological and world-literary contexts. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s vision of the universality of World Literature has remained important in Geda’s work. The Lithuanian poet adopted and applied it in his work by creating a mythological foundation as a unifying universal, a synthesis of Lithuanian and various national cultures. In this way, he conveyed a deeper sense of European identity, coming from the intertexts of modern World Literature (especially the poetry of François Villon, Johannes Bobrowski, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Paul Celan). Geda freed the imagination of a reader constrained by the Soviet occupation and directed it towards the universal world.

More...

The Lithuanianisation of Adam Mickiewicz

Author(s): Viktorija Šeina / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

In this article, I analyse the cultural practices applied by Lithuanian interwar intellectuals seeking to Lithuanianise the great Polish romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz. Mickiewicz was born to a family of Polish-speaking nobles in a predominantly Belarusian part of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Because his historically themed works had an impact on the Lithuanian national movement, Lithuanian intellectuals sought ways to attribute Mickiewicz to Lithuanian culture. Mickiewicz, who wrote in Polish, was a stalwart Polish-Lithuanian patriot. As this was in conflict with ethnocultural Lithuanian nationalism, interwar defenders of Mickiewicz’s attribution to Lithuanian literature looked for additional arguments supporting the poet’s Lithuanianness. In this article, I explore two ways that Mickiewicz was Lithuanianised: through a myth surrounding his ethnic origins and by introducing distortions into Lithuanian translations of the poet’s works. From the end of the nineteenth century, Lithuanians generally saw their local nobility as ‘Polonised Lithuanians’. This view applied to Mickiewicz as well. Without having any factual evidence to support it, the interwar Lithuanian philosopher Stasys Šalkauskis sought to convince readers that Mickiewicz was descended from the Rimvydas clan. Another means of Lithuanianising Mickiewicz was through ideologically motivated editing and distorting translations of his works into Lithuanian. The most striking example of this was a 1927 anthology of the poet’s works compiled by Lithuanian literary historian Mykolas Biržiška.

More...

Literatura non-fiction w Litwie w ostatnich dziesięcioleciach

Author(s): Teresa Dalecka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2024

The main aim of the article is to briefly describe non-fiction literature in Lithuania which is heterogeneous. Popular reading titles are dominated by translations, including a few from Polish. In addition, non-fiction books by Lithuanian authors are published, as well as a small number of works by authors writing in Polish. Each of these phenomena was presented using a descriptive method, with greater attention paid to texts written in Polish. Each of these phenomena was presented using a descriptive method, with greater attention paid to texts written in Polish. Lithuanian non-fiction prose, created in both Lithuanian and Polish, revolves primarily around the theme of loss and transience. It is the result of the authors’ need to preserve on the pages of books the memories of a homeland in danger or lost, family, identity and language. In Polish non-fiction literature, represented mainly by Ryszard Kapuściński, Lithuanian readers are interested in the complex phenomenon of the 20th century – the mechanism of the existence and collapse of totalitarian systems, as well as the related psychological consequences suffered by the collective and individual people, and their transformation in a specific historical social space. Kapuściński’s observations on how history’s cataclysms change the lives of ordinary people and how the boundaries between attackers and victims blur. The small number of non-fiction prose items allows us to conclude that this literary genre is just making its way in Lithuania. However, its popularity among readers gives it a chance for rapid development in the near future.

More...