Tales of transformation: (re)injecting Latvia’s coastlands with temporality

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the potential for a broader, more integrated treatment of the long-term development of Latvia’s coastal landscape, seeking avenues for conveying its dynamism. Various transformational processes are considered, with a particular focus on dune migration – formerly a major issue in Latvia but nowadays essentially resolved and forgotten. Relief features of the sandy, forested areas, as well as old pine trees, serve as cues to temporality in the present terrain, while historical and folkloric sources provide insights into past perceptions of the landscape and the experiences and imaginings of landscape change.