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The restoration of Lithuanian independence affected Poles of Lithuania, with their lives undergoing significant changes. The attitude towards Poles also transformed. Based on journalistic texts from the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language, the article focuses on the image of Poles of Lithuania painted by selected material, analysing the features which are most frequently mentioned, emphasised, and attributed to them. The structural approach to meaning in the article is combined with a cognitive one, involving the use of appropriate methods of analysis – from the meaning of the word to the meaning of the sentence. The study shows that in the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language, Poles of Lithuania are portrayed primarily as the national minority fighting for its rights, suffering a lot of hardships, discriminated, as people who fear a free Lithuania, as a national minority whose leaders, seeking power, have harmed their compatriots and good relations between Lithuanians and Poles. The analysis of the material shows that at the early stages of Lithuanian independence, Lithuanians considered Poles not as others, foreigners, but as one of their own.
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The former traditional Lithuanian proper names in the south of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania used to belong to one geographical unit spanning Voronovo, Lida, Grodno, Suwałki–Białystok and Lithuania Minor. However, the history of this area is very diverse. Various Baltic tribes lived there and belonged to different administrative units, not to one state. The aim of the article is to find the differences in stress, formation, pronunciation, motivation and contacts with other languages in the proper names of this area. The former proper names of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Prussian borders are now found in three states. The article examines 3,950 place names and personal names: 1) 900 (500 place names and 400 personal names) in current Belarus between Voronovo and Grodno; 2) 1,880 (1,170 oikonyms, microtoponyms,110 hydronyms, 600 personal names) in present-day Poland; 3) 1,170 place names from Lithuania Minor in the area of Kaliningrad, now belonging to Russia. These proper names are described in more detail in the following sections, the forthcoming scientific monograph and its appendices.
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The use of the word laisvė (freedom; liberty) started to prevail only in the 19th century. Prior to this, the words valnastis, valia, and various loan root hybrids were found in the earliest written works. The noun laisvė was used for the first time in written Lithuanian in the 17th century, namely in the Dictionary of Konstantinas Sirvydas of 1642. The article focuses on the equivalents of the word laisvė in earlier works, that is in Kathechismas arba moksłas kiekwienam krikszczionii priwalvs [Catechism or Science Obligatory to Every Christian] written by Mikalojus Daukša in 1595 and in his Postilla Catholicka [The Catholic Postil] written in 1599. The analysis has disclosed the use of loan words and various hybrids, but this must have been predetermined by the pursuit of stylistic diversity, because variety and figurativeness of vocabulary are characteristic of M. Daukša’s texts. No translation scheme has been observed: different words in the Lithuanian language usually correspond to the same source word in the translation. Neither the meanings of equivalents nor the context had any influence on translation.
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The article focuses on the stereotyping of linguistic attitudes. The aim is to reveal the attitude of Lithuanian school students towards language-related stereotypes in society. The research is based on the data from the Vilnius University project “Linguistic Attitudes and Linguistic Behavior of the Lithuanian Population” (2020–2021; supported by the State Lithuanian Language Commission). They consist of qualitative semi-structured interviews with 68 students (aged 16–19). The interviewees live in various Lithuanian cities and towns. The pupils were asked to express their views on the following linguistic stereotypes: 1) the situation of the Lithuanian language is getting worse; 2) today’s young people are illiterate; 3) internet communication has a negative effect on the Lithuanian language; 4) English and its active use poses a threat to the Lithuanian language; 5) the mother tongue must be respected and loved. The research shows that students are critical of the existing negative stereotypes related to the Lithuanian language. They more frequently do not identify with the group that creates and maintains such stereotypes. Therefore, negative stereotypes basically perform the social-differentiation function. The positive stereotype is accepted by students as a non-negotiable truth. Thus, this stereotype performs a social-explanatory function, helps to support the group’s ideology, unites the community.
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In the 21st century, the concept and evaluation of text adaptation (retelling, screening, staging, comics, etc.) has changed in children’s literature around the world, including Lithuanian literature. Hierarchically, the secondary text of the adaptation has gained a new status: it is no longer seen as inferior. There is a move away from fidelity to the original source. According to Genette’s concept of hypertextuality, the newer text (hypertext) is not inferior to the older text (hypotext) but rather creates a dialogue relationship. The aim of this paper is to analyse cases of adaptation of literary works in the same medium. The pieces selected for the narrative and/or intertextual analysis of the text are short stories "The Empty Pot", "The Magic Brush", "Four Suns" by contemporary Lithuanian (e)migrant writer E. Daciūtė, published in the series of books titled "Bears’ Tales. Lupine Labyrinth" (2014) and "Bear Tales. The Garden of Dreams" (2016). The analysis of the selected works from "Bear Tales" by E. Daciūtė has revealed the author’s innovative approach to adaptation and creation. Different examples of adaptation have revealed her creative use of Chinese folktales: from adaptation, indirect quotation, to free interpretation. Thanks to E. Daciūtė, Lithuanian children’s literature is enriched by an intercultural dialogue between Lithuanian and Chinese cultures. Undoubtedly, her works have contributed to the dissemination and popularisation of Chinese folklore, mythology, literature, and culture in Lithuania.
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The article analyses the relationship between freedom and memories as revealed in Antanas Vaičiulaitis’ (1906–1992) letters to his family and friends. In the memoirs, the connection is conveyed in a distinctive way through the places that were important for the writer. The analysis draws on two theories: Maurice Halbwachs’ memory categories and Edward S. Casey’s link between place and memory. Vaičiulaitis’ individual experience of memories is constructed in the foreground mostly by mentioning his native land and people who were important to him. They are actualised in the letters by a horizontal axis of representation – the landscape and natural objects that are significant to the writer are arranged according to the gaze and become the repositories of his memories. The second plane is related to vertical representation, where memories are used to convey the author’s sensual relationship to the place. The letters constantly recreate his habitus, the places that integrate the writer’s notion of freedom, and the customs that unite Lithuanians around the world. Thus, Vaičiulaitis’s constant nostalgia for freedom in his letters can be seen as a way of remembering, a unique sphere of experience, a world created through imagination, encompassing the feeling of being in a certain place.
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The Krajowcy movement originated at the beginning of the 20th century as a conceptualisation of a multinational, independent, and autonomous state on the territory of the former Grand Lithuanian Duchy. It was to unite three nationalities (Polish, Lithuanian, and Belarusian) into a federation. Inspired by the Swiss model, the state would be made up of nationality-based cantons which would each be guaranteed ethnic, cultural, and religious equality. The chief Democratic Krajowcy were Ludwik and Witold Abramowicz and Michał Römer. Their Conservative counterparts were Konstancja and Roman Skirmuntt and Czesław Jankowski. They presented their opinions in journalism, publishing their own press, including: "Gazeta Wileńska" (ed. Michał Römer), "Przegląd Wileński" (ed. Ludwik Abramowicz), and "Kurier Litewski" (ed. Czesław Jankowski). The inception and popularity of the Krajowcy movement spanned the years 1905–1914. After the First World War, which established the independent nationstates of Poland and Lithuania, the Krajowcy mentality was largely defeated by burgeoning Polish and Lithuanian nationalisms. The last representative of the Krajowcy in the interwar period was Ludwik Abramowicz, who published the "Przegląd Wileński" until 1938. Up until the beginning of the Second World War, modified versions of the Krajowcy ideal were referenced by Stanisław Swianiewicz and Józef Mackiewicz.
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"The Conspectus of Lithuanian Literature" (1946), edited by Petronėlė Janutienė, "The History of Lithuanian Literature" (1947), edited by Juozas Masilionis, and "The Lithuanian Literature" (1948), edited by Pranas Naujokaitis, are three textbooks originally prepared and published in DP camps. The authors of these textbooks point out that due to the lack of resources and living literary examples, they often had to be guided by memory alone. This raises a question how, in the postwar era, consciousness, guided mostly by memory, tells the history of literature and speaks about freedom to a child who lives in exile; what it says about a free human being. A textual analysis offers an answer that the textbooks coveyed an understanding of freedom as a power uniting a community into a nation. At the same time, freedom is not a gift to the community but a task. The community lives in between two states: freedom is what community has, defends, and maintains, or loses and regains. Both are impossible without a fight. In addition to this, a refugee camp student using the textbook is taught that personal freedom is defined by choices which bring a person closer to the nation.
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The article deals with the Latvian writer and translator Dzintars Sodums’s (1922–2008) opinions about the state and development of the Latvian language, his perception of language as a prerequisite for freedom and development of democracy and political thought. Sodums saw the development of the Latvian language as the mission of his life, but his professional opportunities were restricted by his status as an émigré in Sweden and the USA. Sodums felt like an outsider in the Latvian émigré society, and this feeling influenced his views on the Latvian language and its use in his poetry, novels, and other writings.
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As contemporary society puts more emphasis on the individual’s right to live freely, the topic of values and moral responsibility becomes more relevant. This tendency is reflected in contemporary Lithuanian dramatic texts. Playwrights combine opposing messages, quotes, and meanings of dramatic discourse produced by the mass media in order to create multi-layered texts. These, in turn, question or revise the notion of the modern human freedom. The paper focuses on the plays written in the last decade by Herkus Kunčius, Dovilė Zavedskaitė, and Paulina Pukytė. The texts in question often demean the concept of “freedom” using the code of mass culture, thus not only revealing some “moral” dilemmas of the post-Soviet era but also offering a critical evaluation of the new reality created by mediacracy.
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The article focuses on four stories of partisan children produced in the years 2019–2021. Lying at the heart of the deliberations is the memory of the partisan war in families. It is believed that involvement in the partisan war has directly affected the fate of members of the fighters’ families and their attitudes towards occupation and resistance. The challenges faced by families during the struggles for freedom and the repressive experience that followed were severed or completely broken ties, dilemmas of the formation and maintenance of identity, and difficulties in communicating the lived-through experiences. The conclusions formulated in the article allow us to look in some detail at the difficult situation of partisan families both in the occupied country and after the restoration of independence.
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The article is devoted to the cinematic depiction of the Soviet gender contract and its implementation exemplified by the heroine of the film "Stebuklas". The aim of the article is to analyse the female character in the times of the fall of communism and her adherence to the rules that were set by the communist authorities.
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In this article, the author attempts to conduct a film analysis through the prism of the original concept of film identity narratives. The concept is based on the hermeneutic reasoning of narrative identity by Paul Ricoeur combined with metahistoric and historiophotic reflection by Hayden White and the amplification of Mieke Bal’s focalisation theory accomplished by Robert Birkholc. The analysis pertains to Dzintars Dreibergs’ full-length feature film "Blizzard of Souls" (Dvēseļu putenis, 2019), which is based on Aleksandrs Grīns’ novel and commemorates the 100th anniversary of Latvian independence. Dreibergs’ film is a war drama which concentrates on the fate of young Artūrs Vanags, who joins the ranks of Latvian Riflemen and fights for his own and, consequently, his homeland’s freedom. The film shows the time of the First World War and the period of the Latvian struggle for independence. The article consists of two significant parts – a methodological and an analytic one.
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In folk worldview, disease is presented as a phenomenon that disturbs the balance in the body, mind, consciousness, or subconsciousness of a person, as well as a hostile being. Since the disease interferes with the correct order of life and disturbs the human functioning system, the only solution is to combat it and effectively free oneself from its presence. There are many treatments and ways to get rid of disease, among which zagovory constitute a separate group. In Lithuanian zagovory, as well as in all others, we can indicate a system of disease control strategies, which presents ways of influencing the disease in order to combat it (M. Marczewska). These models of behaviour are perfectly reflected in the texts of Lithuanian zagovory. Disease is expelled by the use of correct strategies. In this case, the issue of determining the location of the expulsion becomes an important element of the zagovor. The main principle here is to refer the disease to a place from which there is no return or to the place of its origin. That is why it is supposed to be a distant, foreign, untamed, closed, or dead space which belongs to a dimension other than that of a human being. In Lithuanian zagovory, we can indicate several “directions” of disease referral, which are related to the basic spaces of the world – earth, water, and air spheres. – EARTH – a binary space combining the world of life and fertility as well as the chthonic world, the sphere of dying and death. The disease is assigned to this dimension and sent to it during treatment. – WATER – mythological and media space; the surface of water is a natural border between the human world and another dimension – the underworld or a parallel world which is inaccessible to humans. This means that it is a suitable place for an expelled disease. What is more, water acts as a substance that cleanses the body physically and mentally, soaks up the disease, and overcomes it (immersion, melting the disease). – DRY TREES – they belong to the air space because the disease is directed “up”, “high” on dry trees which are no longer alive, to a zone that is already closed and belongs to a different chthonic dimension.
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The article explores the formative period of the Czech underground in the mid 1970s as portrayed by a lesser known book Mařenická kniha by Pavel Zajíček. It presents its distinct point of view of the whole process and draws basic comparison with other influential ways in which underground’s semiotic space was being described.The article explores the formative period of the Czech underground in the mid 1970s as portrayed by a lesser known book Mařenická kniha by Pavel Zajíček. It presents its distinct point of view of the whole process and draws basic comparison with other influential ways in which underground’s semiotic space was being described.
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The article explores the problem of the bird from Psalm 103 (104), 117; the attempts to identify it, their conditions and mechanisms and the importance of deciding the identity of this representative of the Middle East fauna for the exegesis of the Psalm from Antiquity to early modern times. The study begins with a comparative analysis of Polish translations and paraphrases from the Middle Ages to the 17th century, with reference to source texts (part 1). It is followed by the attempts to identify the bird, reconstructed on the basis of Joannes Lorinus’ commentaries ("Commentariorum in Liber Psalmorum… tomus tertius", 1616) and the ancient, medieval and early modern sources Lorinus indicates (part 2), and the implications of the findings for the exegesis of the Psalm in two keys: birds of prey (part 2.1) and other birds (part 2.2), which were first used by Saint Hieronymus and Saint Augustine. The results of the analyses are then merged in relation to individual historical periods from the perspective of perceiving Biblical fauna from a textual to a naturalistic paradigmin the 18th century (part 3). The study ends with the discussion of traces of reception of the problem outside the scientific biblical-philological discourse in early modern Polish republic (part 4) and a concise reconstruction of contemporary findings on the identity of the bird, also non-conclusive (part 5).
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The dissertation presents an elephant, the biggest land mammal in the cultural and biological context. It discusses the oldest findings of elephants’ bones, the history of the species, and the meaning of its name and its etymology. The article aims to present a broad research spectrum of interdisciplinary character, combining nature and humanist sciences. On the one hand, it shows the zoological conditions of the animal, its characteristic morphological features and behaviour, on the other hand, it presents how these aspects were interpreted in beliefs, literature and art. The article explores the motif of an elephant and its images in old cultures, especially in the ancient world and Indian and African mythology; it also focuses on the reception of the elephant image in Polish modern culture. It was Pliny’s and Aristotle’s early zoological works, which made elephants appear in images and symbols of the whole Europe. They brought clearly positive connotations with them, which allowed for using elephants as moral examples. They were associated with strength, memory, long life, wisdom, fidelity as well as royal or imperial power. They were used as military and pack animals, they took part in parades and festivals to add splendour and show richness and high social status of their owners. Elephants were eagerly shown in travelling menageries as a peculiarity. Their images were present on Roman coins, in old bestiaries, herbaria, modern zoological encyclopaedias. The motif of an elephant was, as we can see in the dissertation, known in Old Poland. The basis for the analysis are mostly source texts: manuals and encyclopaedias (especially Jakub Kazimierz Haur’s "A Storeroom or a Treasury of Farm Secrets", Jan Jonston’s encyclopaedia, Benedykt Chmielowski’s "New Athens"), memoirs and journey accounts (by Albrycht Radziwiłł, Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł, Krzysztof Pawłowski, Michał Boym, Maksymilian Wikliński), literary works (in particular Wacław Potocki’s "Chocim War", Samuel Twardowski’s Important Embassy) and various other historical records such as the description of the parade during the wedding of the Grand Crown Hetman, Jan Zamoyski. The article also discusses few iconographic images of elephants, from the territory of the Old Polish Republic (illustrations from herbaria, the picture of the Hasken she-elephant) and the first representatives of this species in Polish zoological gardens.
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Michał Boym’s Flora Sinensis is the most important 16th century treatise devoted to flora and fauna of China and compiled in the West. The import of zoological knowledge to Europe was then an extremely complex process, in which animal world research prevalent in modern times and frequent problems connected with translating and preparing scientific illustrations played a significant role. The aim of the first part of this study is to analyse the way in which Boym used the information taken from treatises of Chinese scholars to show the fauna of the Middle Kingdom to European readers, and to indicate what methods of the zoological description he took from Chinese authors. In the second part, on the basis of numerous historical sources, the author shows the late 17th century and the 18th century reception of the "Flora Sinensis" to demonstrate that in the middle of the 17th century Boym could have easily transferred the knowledge from China to Europe thanks to the similarity of paradigms in describing the world of nature. The subsequent decades brought a gradual change in thinking about zoology, which made his treatise obsolete very quickly.
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The article aims to explore the motif of salamander in old Polish literature, as well as the literary traditions which contributed to its perception in the old ages. The reflections are embedded in the context of the works of ancient writers and medieval compendia (Aristotle, Pliny, Isidore of Seville), the treatises containing information on salamander and the works of modern naturalists (Gessner, Aldrovandi, Jonston, Topsell). The reading of this material allows us to learn about the state of knowledge of old humanists on this amphibian and enables to verify their attitudes towards the information resource inherited from antiquity. Similar thought patterns are present in Old Polish writers’ works, who oscillated between repeating data taken from classical canons, skepticism about them or an open polemic with their authors.
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