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.
The purpose of this paper will be to compare the ideas of one highly regarded southeast European writer, Danilo Kiš (1935–1989) of Yugoslavia, with those of some leading writers and thinkers from the Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. My analysis will center on the vague concepts of “identity” and “national culture”. I will explore, by reference to the many essays and interviews of Danilo Kiš, concrete topics such as essentialism and linguistic and ethnic diversity and look for parallels or contrast in the works of some Baltic writers. These thoughts will, I hope, spark a discussion based on sources broader than those that I command about what terms such as identity and national culture actually mean and how they effect the production, or reputation, of writers. It should also be possible to look at some issues relating to cultural translation in Kiš, because he grew up in the contested border area between Hungary and Serbia, was the product of an ethnically and religiously mixed marriage, and translated and taught internationally for much of his life.
More...
There are four XV–XVIIth century East Slavic manuscripts written in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) that are indirect copies of the XIth century Old Bulgarian Codex Suprasliensis. Recently some scholars have proposed adding to the list another three XV–XVIth century East Slavic Menaion readers (two of which were written outside the GDL). The author demonstrates that these three manuscripts do not stem from the Codex Suprasliensis, but represent an alternative edition of the Menaion reader which contains a number of texts in a quite different textual version. The article presents a list of the distinguishing features which help mutually separate the two structurally similar versions of the Old Church Slavonic Menaion reader for March.
More...
Review of: Lauryno Ivinskio lenkų-lietuvių kalbų žodynas. Parengė Ona Kažukauskaitė. Vilnius. 2010, Lietuvių kalbos institutas. 2010. 524 p. : faks. + 1 vaizdo diskas (DVD). ISBN 978-609-411-052-8.
More...
This article examines the ways in which the self-awareness of a feminine identity, the perceived value of women and the self-esteem of a particular author have been evolving from 1904 to the end of the First World War; the author in question is Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė (1886–1958), Lithuanian publicist, writer and educator. During her studies at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków in 1904–1907 (and in Adrian Baraniecki’s High Courses for Women), she decisively chose to study the humanities and became one of the first modern Lithuanian women engaged in literature, literary criticism and the politics of education. This article presents the context of the women’s emancipation movement that at beginning of the 20th century in Kraków, where the increasing possibilities of education for young women had become increasingly available. Right after her return to Lithuania in 1907, Kymantaitė took part in the Lithuanian Women’s Congress in Kaunas and became involved in the preparatory work on the regulations of the Lithuanian Women’s Society. In her collection of articles Lietuvoje: kritikos žvilgsnis į Lietuvos inteligentiją (“In Lithuania: A Critical Look at the Lithuanian Intelligentsia,” 1910), besides a wide scope of issues that were considered, Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė discussed the issue of the relationship between well-educated men and women and questioned the equal value of women in the nascent modern Lithuanian society. In 1910, Čiurlionienė wrote a dramatic dialogue Ateities moteris (“Woman of the Future”, 1910), which highlights the idea that the equality between man and woman rests on shared human values. The dialogue foregrounds the spiritual faithfulness of the woman to the man she had chosen – faithfulness that is upheld despite the distance that greatly separates them, contradictory to the thought that women are incapable of creating ties of friendship with men, as expressed by one of Nietzsche’s literary characters. The main character of Ateities moteris – Johanna – reveals herself as a rebel only when she confronts the antagonist’s patriarchal worldview and his commanding affirmation of women’s lower position and the determinism of biological needs. References to Otto Weininger’s study Geschlecht und Charakter (Sex and Character, 1903), as well as a quote that evokes misogynistic sentiments from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883), appear in the dramatic dialogue, provoking a polemic with these authors' positions. The dialogue indicates the writer’s interest in the theories of gender struggle. The text reflects Čiurlionienė’s involvement in the preparation of the statute of the Lithuanian Women’s Society as well as the influence of liberal feminist ideas that she had encountered while still in Kraków. Following the Romantic authors’ attempts to reveal female heroism, Čiurlionienė strived to create a distinctive interpretation of the end-of-the-19th-century “Lithuanian Jeanne d’Arc” in her psychological sketch (novelette) Joana Vaidilaitė (1914–1918). Johanna’s worldview is undoubtedly more akin to the ideas of early modernism, whereas Joana Vaidilaitė’s sedentary lifestyle is determined by the young woman’s realia of the 19th-century countryside, and later by her treatment in a psychiatric hospital. The sketch suggests the reality of the protagonist’s mystical motherhood, which others treat as a manifestation of madness. The novelette has never been published. Had Joana Vaidilaitė been published during the first years of Lithuania’s independence, there could have been an opportunity to enrich the history of Lithuanian literature with original efforts to give a sense to motherhood, with the Romantic treatment of madness as a form of clairvoyance and the modernist interpretation of the sea as a fluctuating womb. To conclude, starting with the formulation of the statute of the Lithuanian Women’s Society in 1910, Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė’s attempts to express liberal feminist ideas in literary fiction become more noticeable; in these writings, the author refuses to think of motherhood as a manifestation of the impersonal nature's force (which relates to the views of the misogynists), and she cherishes the idea that conscious motherhood is equated to the creation of an individual capable of enriching cultural resources in the future.
More...
Hinsey, Ellen and Tomas Venclova. Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova. Rochester (New York), University of Rochester Press, 2017, xvi + 405 pp., ISBN 9781580465861. The reviewer characterizes the publication as a book of confessions and recollections, in which Ellen Hinsey, an independent American researcher, questions Tomas Venclova, a writer, poet, translator, leading Lithuanian intellectual and Professor Emeritus of Slavic languages and literature at the Yale University. In his answers, Venclova summarizes and takes stock of his eighty-year life story, which was primarily associated with political events and the artistic, mainly dissident, community of the former Soviet state. However, the book of interviews also finds room for a more distant Lithuanian history with the country’s complex and equivocal political and ethnic situation, linguistic excursions into the nation’s past, or deliberations over phenomenon of exile. In the last part of the book, Venclova gets the reader acquainted with the life of the Lithuanian, Russian, and Ukrainian diaspore in the United States, and does not evade even controversial issues of the current Lithuanian politics.
More...
Jankevičiūtė, G., & Geetha, V. (2017). Another history of the children’s picture book: From Soviet Lithuania to India. Chennai: Tara Books. The review article discusses a book by Giedrė Jankevičiūtė and V. Geetha, Another History of the Children’s Picture Book: From Soviet Lithuania to India (2017). It describes the content of the monograph in the context of studies on picture books, especially those of Russia, Lithuania, and the Soviet Union, on the history of childhood and Russian literature. The main merit of the volume, in the opinion of the reviewer, is the choice of Indian and Lithuanian book art for comparison, which is made from the perspectives of the history of literature, art, societies, and understanding of childhood.
More...
Justas Paleckis: On the sunny Side of the World // Juozas Baltušis: What no Song is singing about // Petras Cvirka: The Seeds of brotherly Solidarity // Antanas Vienuolis: The Secret of Lake Plateliai // Jonas Šimkus: Brave Heart // Jonas Avyžius: Advanced in Years // Myola Sluckis: Childhood Memories // Konstantin Simonow: The Fourth // POEMS: Davydas Judelevičius: Poets about themselves and their Time // Salomėja Nėris: Greetings // Sing life, heart // Antanas Venclova: I was with you / / Eduardas Mieželaitis: Got in the Storm // Justinas Marcinkevičius: Sun // Vladas Šimkus: My Summer // LITERATURE AND REVIEW: Kostas Korsakas: The Lithuanian Soviet Literature // LITERARY PORTRAIT: Mykolas Sluckis: Ieva Simonaitykolaitis // Jonas Lankutis: Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas // Vytautas Kubilius: A Folk Poet // Vytautas Galinis: Writer, Intelligence and People // Sergej Iwanow: Interview with Eduardas Mieželaitis // Michail Zinowjew: Fighting Poetry // ART: Janina Markulan: Young Lithuanian Theatre-Art // Alexej Gastew: Guest of the Lithuanian graphic artists // Sergej Sergejew: Cameraman and Director at the same time // Stasys Budris: Lithuanian Sculpture // OUR CORRESPONDENTS TELLING: Sergej Larin: Encounters in Vilnius // WHAT BRINGS US CLOSER: E. JULINA: Books about German revolutionaries
More...
In interwar and post-war societies, men were required to show endurance, courage, and emotional stability, but their traumas, caused by the experience of war and the economic, political, and social realities of the post-war period, are just started to be analysed. Algirdas Jeronimas Landsbergis (1924–2004), a playwright, prose writer, editor, literary and theatre critic of the Lithuanian diaspora, conveys these themes in his work. The images of masculinity revealed in the texts help clarify the general experience of the society hidden in the works and understand what kind of masculinity prevailed in society after the world wars changed the lives of women and men. Using K. G. Jung’s theory of analytical psychology, the article analyses A. Landsbergis’ short stories, which literature researchers less studied. Texts are explored as reflections and shapers of society, and in the case of masculinity, it is discussed what is meant by the archetypes of masculinity recorded in the literature. Based on the work of R. L. Moore and D. Gillette and J. C. Campbell, the archetypes of the divine child, the child prodigy, the Oedipus child and the hero and mature masculinity – the king, warrior, magician and lover are distinguished.
More...
Review of: Balti kirjakultuuri ajalugu I. Keskused ja kandjad. Koostanud Liina Lukas. Autorid Vahur Aabrams, Meelis Friedenthal, Tiina-Erika Friedenthal, Katre Kaju, Tiina Kala, Kairit Kaur, Martin Klöker, Lea Leppik, L. Lukas, Anu Mänd, Pärtel Piirimäe, Ulrike Plath, Aivar Põldvee, Tiiu Reimo, Aiga Šemeta, Jaan Undusk, Kristi Viiding. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2021. 304 lk.
More...
2013. aasta sügisel 8.−10. novembrini toimus Saksamaal Lüneburgis asuvas baltisaksa arhiivis ja kultuurikeskuses, Carl Schirreni Seltsis (Carl-Schirren-Gesellschaft – CSG) 25. Balti seminar. Nimetatud seminare hakati veerandsada aastat tagasi korraldama (balti)-saksa, eesti ja läti teadlaste ühise foorumina. Baltisaksa kirjandus on Balti seminaride teemaks olnud ka varem: nii käsitleti 1995. aasta seminaril baltisaksa, eesti ja läti kirjandussuhteid. Viimatisel seminaril keskenduti aga baltisaksa kirjanduse retseptsioonile − nii tagasivaateliselt kui ka tänasel päeval. Põhjuseks asjaolu, et viimasel ajal on täheldatav teatav huvi kasv baltisaksa kirjanduse vastu nii Balti riikides kui ka Saksamaal, millest annavad tunnistust nii teadusüritused, tõlked kui ka üldisem huvi baltisaksa autorite vastu. Kolm päeva kestnud seminaril CSG asupaigas Brömsehaus’is – XIV sajandist pärinevas kaupmehemajas – astusid rohkem kui 60-liikmelise kuulajaskonna ees üles 13 esinejat Saksamaalt, Lätist ja Eestist.
More...
Review of: Viktorija Šeina, Savas svetimas dainius. Adamas Mickiewiczius lietuvių literatūros kanone (1883–1940): monografija, Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2021, 304 p.
More...
Review of: Viktorija Šeina, Savas svetimas dainius. Adamas Mickiewiczius lietuvių literatūros kanone (1883–1940), Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2021, 303 p. ISBN 978-609-425-310-2
More...
Lithuanian Tatars’ manuscript tradition is a unique cultural phenomenon, which was born in XVI century, when Lithuanian Tartars lost their Turkic language, and it composed an exclusive heritage feature of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The scientific literature refers to four literary languages recorded in Lithuania Tartars’ manuscripts. These are Chorezm, Chagatai, old Ottoman and Crimean Tatar languages. Over the centuries, Tatars have not lost connection with their compatriots in the East. There is much information about Tartars’ trips to Istanbul, the Balkans and Mecca. However, inaptitude of the liturgical Arabic language and loss of the Turkic language was the reason why Lithuanian Tartars were constrained to change their religious literature into Old Belorussian and later into Polish. In this way, Lithuanian Tartars’ manuscript tradition was born, when Slavic text was written in the Arabic alphabet. One of the peculiarities of these manuscripts is that it is a multilingual monument. In manuscripts, beside the Slavic languages, there are many texts written in Arabic and old Ottoman words. Lithuanian Tartars’ writing tradition, little bit modified and modernized, remained till our days. At the end of XIX century Chamail written in Cyrillic alphabet appeared, whereas Kitab written by printing-machine in the Latin alphabet appeared in 1980s. The oldest Tartars’ manuscripts (kitabs, chamails, tefsirs and tedžvids), written in the old Belorussian and Polish languages in the Arabic alphabet, are dated back in the middle of XVII century. The meaning of the word kitab in the Arabic language is a book. However, kitab refers only to a very large size and scope of a book. Kitabs for Lithuanian Tartars had a great cultural and educational value. It was possible to learn from them about Muslim rituals, traditions, and access to popular hadith – stories about prophet Muhammed and his predecessors. There were also a lot of Eastern stories, folklore, sometimes biblical legends. Chamail (prayer-book) consists of prayer text written in the Arabic and Turkic languages and explanation of the text in old Belorussian and Polish. It is also possible to find knowledge about Muslim chronology, advices how to heal disease by praying, dreams interpretations, lucky and unlucky day predictions. Quran reading rules are stated in tedžvid. Tefsir is the Quran with narration between the lines and comments in Polish. It helps to understand content of the Scripture. All the written forms are equally important and reflect the unique Lithuanian Tartars’ culture and its links with other cultures.
More...
The article addresses the constructions tai yra/to jest in the text of the sermons by Konstantinas Sirvydas. In the contemporary research of syntactic semantics, these units are termed ‘conclusive components’ and are attributed to the group denoting equivalence. Meanwhile, their semantic representation is expressed by the scheme TR1 tai yra R2 (TR1 that is R2). In the scheme, R1 and R2 are linked by the relation of open equivalence based on the correctness of the statement, whereas R2 may express a conclusion, generalization, clarification. The metatextual fragments used in a religious text, which are inserted by means of the phrase tai yra, have much in common with lexical parallelisms. However, they stand out by their greater vividness and richness of the content and play an important stylistic function. The metatextual inserts starting with the construction tai yra are rather widespread in Sirvydas’ Postil (circa 1,000 cases). It can therefore be assumed that it is a characteristic feature of Sirvydas’ baroque style. They recur in a single sentence or in a longer passage composed of several compound sentences. Their functions are varied: a) information restoration, auxiliary; b) explanatory; c) rhetorical. The text by Sirvydas is dominated by the allegorical interpretation of concepts and phenomena. To achieve vividness, the author skillfully combines a word and an image, whereas metatextual inserts add transparency and become a powerful stylistic device in the process of educating the believers and shaping their moral values.
More...
The article analyses the forms of financial support collected for protestant missions in Prussian Lithuania in the first half of the 19th century. It investigates the role of mission supporter, inspector of Bachmann Manor near Klaipėda (the former Memel) and member of the Moravian Church Wilhelm Andreas Rhenius in gathering donations for missions in southeast India. Lithuanian periodical publication Nuſidawimai apie Ewangelios Praſiplatinima tarp Ʒydu ir Pagonu (editor Johann Ferdinand Kelch, published from 1832) is also discussed. The paper examines the translation of Ernst Friedrich Ball’s sermon Tēkel, tai yr: Swēre tawę Swàrcʒeis ir perlèngwą ißrądo (Königsberg, 1843) by Evangelical Lutheran priest, future professor at the University of Königsberg and author of the Lithuanian grammar Friedrich Kurschat (Frydrichas Kuršaitis).
More...
The article questions the date of death of Mikalojus Daukša. Until now, it was generally assumed that Daukša died in February 1613. Two documents of 1613 and 1614 are presented proving that Daukša was still alive at that time. As a result, a new date of his death is proposed, namely the second half of February 1615.
More...Język – Literatura – Kultura
Volume 8 of the series "Works in Baltic Studies. Language – Literature – Culture" features sixteen articles (in Lithuanian, Latvian, English and Polish) devoted to various aspects of the notion of freedom, analysed from the perspectives of Lithuanian and Latvian linguistics, literary studies and cultural studies.
More...
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.
More...