Mėginęs peržengti save : Stasio Leskaičio-Ivošiškio gyvenimas ir kūryba

Abstract

The facts of Leskaitis-Ivošiškis biography are reconstructed on the basis of his oeuvre and archives. The author of the article succeeded in collecting the most important facts concerning the bibliography of Leskaitis-Ivošiškis, introducing this forgotten personality and practically yet unknown au thor to the reader. Leskaitis-Ivošiškis' works belong to the period between the two world wars. He was an artist and an intellectual of the Western type who engaged in a wide range of activities. He started his career working with newspapers and magazines and later became known as a journalist, a writer, a literary critic and an author of philosophical essays. His most valuable work in his literary and theatre criticism which is based on sound aesthetical principles, idealistic philosophy and romantic conception of art. Though sometimes quite assertive in his judgements, Leskaitis-Ivošiškis brought a new Western-type thinking into Lithuanian literary criticism urging writers to seek universal objectives. He found his ideal - "Philosophy and Beauty" - embodied in Classical literature. Existentialism can be traced in his own literary works where he proved to be both a good psychologist and philosopher. He ignored and sometimes even provoked negative reaction towards himself, always striving for real values. The article gives a short overview of the most important literary works of Leskaitis-Ivošiškis, namely his novel "Spūdai" and novellas "Sena daina" ("An Old Song"), "Ar dovanosi?" ("Will You Forgive me?"), and "Kaimyniška rapsodija" ("Neighbourly Rhapsody"). The author hopes that having provided a general picture of Leskaitis-Ivošiškis' oeuvre she will encourage other researchers of the interwar period to undertake analysis of this distinctive and interesting author.