Erotiskās prozas fenomens Latvijā un pasaulē

Abstract

The present paper “The Phenomenon of Erotic Fiction in Latvian and World Literature” is devoted to the fiction genre acquiring immense popularity in Western literature while having attracted only fragmentary attention in Latvian literary scholarship, namely the erotic fiction, which is currently among those genres of literature most widely read among Latvian readers and therefore titled as somewhat phenomenal. The first part of the paper provides insight into the history of the erotic world literature and the most common division of the genre into the three basic categories; this part also provides a short overview of the erotic aspects in the Latvian original fiction during the 20th century. It has been possible to decide that the erotic prose has had only a limited representation in Latvian literature, mainly due to historical and socio-political factors, because the common tendency was to euphemise the said aspects, which were often met with an open reproach of the more Puritan part of the society. Erotic aspects in poetry and prose somewhat flourished during the epoch of Decadence (the first decade of the 20th century) and after that, only during the turn of the 20th/21st centuries when the prohibitions invoked by the Soviet censorship were lifted. Nevertheless, even during these periods, the more free approach resulted in only a few prose works of this kind or else episodes in works of other genres. The conclusive part of the paper is devoted to four novels by currently the most popular author of erotic romance in Latvian literature, Karīna Račko, inviting at the same time the discussion about the reasons for the popularity of these novels which might proceed from their common structural characteristics. It is possible to observe that the novel’s structures are notably similar to the basic plotlines of fairy-tales that the readers recognise on an archetypal level. Consequently, this makes it possible to view these novels as a sort of fairy-tales for modern grown-ups whose attraction is multiplied by the fact that the texts include specific aspects of visualisation that make it possible for the readers to identify closely with the characters.