Eroso trauma Vitalijos Pilipauskaitės-Butkienės ir Tomo Petrulio poezijoje

Abstract

This article aims to raise and reveal the relationship between eros and trauma in contemporary Lithuanian poetry. The object of the article is the situation of the trauma of eros in contemporary Lithuanian poetry, which manifests itself as a significant part of the phenomenon of eros for the experience of the lyrical subject and the perception of the world. This situation is represented by the most relevant contemporary poetry from the following authors and collections: Vitalija Pilipauskaitė-Butkienė’s “Breath” (2015) and Tomas Petrulis’ “Sterile” (2020). The problem of the article is the intersubjectivity of the human body in a relationship, allowing the subject to experience not only himself but also another who, through his bodily touch, causes suffering. The article uses the phenomenological perspective of trauma to attempt to answer the questions of what trauma is, what is the relationship between eros and trauma, and what identity of modern poetry is revealed by the violation of the body occurring in the social environment. The research is carried out using the methodologies of Alfred Schutz’s social phenomenology and Husserl’s phenomenology. It is also based on the research of trauma theorists Gabriele Schwab and Sonia Sonia Baelo-Allué and the thoughts of other philosophers relevant to the article. In the poetry of Petrulis, the eros experienced by the subject marks aspects of modern everyday life from a philosophical, social, and cultural point of view. In poetry, the motif of the (used) body is clear, tense, and rich in erotic, pornographic images. In contemporary Lithuanian poetry, violence and traumatic experiences manifest as part of the phenomenon of eros. In Pilipauskaitė-Butkienė’s poetry, the body experiences constantly recurring physical and emotional abuse. Directing another force to the body of the subject is constructed in a frightening, open world in which not only the use of a body subjected to physical force constructs the concept of eros but also a motif of spiritual suffering when the subject reflects on the meaning, guilt, eroticism of the body.