Vācbaltiešu un latviešu attiecību attēlojums Rūdolfa Blaumaņa daiļradē

Abstract

The article explores the relationship between Baltic Germans and Latvians in the works of Rūdolfs Blaumanis by turning attention towards the interpretation of this topic within the context of the social history of literature. An insight into previous evaluations by literary historians has been provided. In the first part of the article, two works with central Baltic German characters – novella “Andriksons” (1899) and play “Ugunī” (In the Fire, 1906, written in 1904) – have been analyzed. In these works, German landowners have been depicted demonstrating the social and national conflicts of the age in their relationship with subordinated Latvians. The characters of landowners are ambiguous and indecisive, and they are distanced from everyday reality and living in the past. Their communication with Latvians is characterized by complications and obstacles. Hence, these characters can be viewed as a wider generalization about the crisis of the Baltic German community by the turn of the 20th century. In the second part of the article, episodic characters of Baltic Germans in prose fiction have been explored along with the overview of satirical poetry by Blaumanis in which the relationship between Baltic Germans and Latvians mostly in the period after the revolution of 1905 has been addressed. It has been concluded in the article that in the representations of the relationship between Baltic Germans and Latvians, Blaumanis depicts the instability of the transition period and avoids disclosing his own views. This corresponds to his concept of the depiction of social problems in literary works. Satirical poetry, which is less neutral but also less literary successful, remains an exception. Baltic German characters in works of Blaumanis are mostly episodic, and besides neutral background characters and politically charged characters in satirical poetry, the most interesting both literary and historically are the characters in which the contradictions of the period have been represented.