Latvian Writer Research Articles

Otherness and Alienation in Jana Egle’s Fiction

The Latvian writer and poet Jana Egle devotes special attention in her texts to people who are perceived by society as “others”. Such individuals are frequently regarded as anomalous by those in their immediate vicinity, which often results in a sense of detachment and disconnection. In her short fiction, Egle examines a range of forms of otherness, including individuals from diverse national backgrounds, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and those facing social disadvantage. Adults are frequently influenced by long-standing stereotypes and traumatic experiences, whereas children tend to be more receptive to forming close relationships due to the absence of such biases. This article seeks to examine the manifestations of otherness in Egle’s works through the lens of the self-other binary and the insights gleaned from contemporary researchers on identity issues. Egle adroitly depicts the tenuous and nebulous border between the self and the other by exploring the inner realms and experiences of the marginalised. Through catharsis, she fosters a sense of proximity between these “others” and the reader. Despite portraying tragic scenarios, she maintains a quality of levity that is challenging to articulate but perceptible.

THE EXPERIENCE OF TRANSFERRING AND OVERCOMING HISTORICAL TRAUMA IN SHORT STORIES: AN EXAMPLE OF JANA EGLE AND DACE VĪGANTE

The article aims to evaluate and characterise the reflection of the transference of historical trauma and the perspective of overcoming it in the short stories of contemporary Latvian women. The article deals with examples of the short stories of Latvian writers Jana Egle and Dace Vīgante, highlighting the impact of historical and psychological conditions and the traumatic consequences of the heroes’ fates. The theoretical and methodological basis of the article is the theoretical studies on postcolonial criticism, cultural memory and trauma, and intergenerational communication issues by Aleida Assman, Dominick LaCapra, Laurie Vickroy, Polly Jones, Gabriele Schwab, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and others. The selected examples of Egle's and Vīgante's stories reflect the inclusion of individual stories in the collective trauma narrative. The chronotope of the historical memory in Egle’s and Vīgante’s prose forms a hard-to-exit labyrinth where the deep subconscious traumas resonate with insuperable conflicts after the Second World War and the unavoidable coincidences of circumstances. The characters have fallen not only into the historical and sociopolitical traps but also into the traps of personal traumas. Both writers highlight the limits of historical memory marked by the intersection of individual and collective memory.

The Screaming Thing: A Material Ecocritical Exploration of Trauma in Aleksandrs Pelēcis’s Poems

This article investigates the intersection of trauma studies and new materialism, offering a fresh perspective on human trauma through the prism of nonhuman forces. Drawing inspiration from material ecocriticism, a paradigm that evolved from materialist and posthumanist ideas and has not yet been brought into contact with trauma studies, the article underscores the significance of considering the embodiment of experience, thus arriving at an extended notion of trauma. This new theoretical framework is tested by examining the testimonial poetry of Latvian writer Aleksandrs Pelēcis, who was deported to Siberia by Soviet authorities in 1946. His poems employ inanimate objects and animals to create metonymical and metaphorical connections between human and nonhuman actors within the context of long exile. By illuminating a shared experiential space, Pelēcis manages to project and diffract traumatic feelings and memories, thus making them more comprehensible to his readers. This, in turn, places trauma studies on a trajectory away from the traditional conceptualisation of the inexpressible and the awkward.

Aleksandra Čaka lektora darbība Rūdolfa Egles Literatūras studijā

In the history of Latvian literature, Aleksandrs Čaks (1901–1950) is better known as a poet-urbanist. There is much less information about his work as a lecturer. In 1924, after entering the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Latvia, Čaks could not pass the necessary exams of the first semester and abandoned his studies. Encouraged by his family, in 1925, he entered the Compulsory School Teacher’s Course in Riga and graduated from it, obtaining practical teaching experience at the Drabeši six-grade boarding school and in the Literary Studio of Rūdolfs Egle (1889–1947). The purpose of the research is to describe and find out what was the importance of Čaks as a lecturer in Egle’s Literary Studio from 1935 to 1939, where Čaks gave lectures on the theory of poetry and the history of Russian poetry, paying special attention to the modernists. The study was carried out using the biographical method, which helps to reveal the relationship between the personality and the environment, using documents and memories of colleagues. This allows us to see Čaks’s personality in specific historical circumstances – his interest in the work of a lecturer, which, in the first decades of the 20th century, taking into account the political and social changes in society after the First World War, forced to re-evaluate the subjects and learning methods so that students acquired new skills through practical training. Teaching by doing was also the main idea of John Dewey (1859–1952), and it formed the basis for Čaks’s interest in the lecturer/student collaboration process. Čaks’s interest in Russian poetry began in the 1930s when he published descriptions of contemporary Russian poets in the press. Čaks’s public introductory articles about Latvian writers and their works were also important. It is difficult to evaluate the period of activity of Egle’s Literary Studio in the biography of Čaks because there are no preserved plans and notes of Čaks’s lectures, which could provide a deeper insight into his opinion as a literary theorist. Čaks’s activity in the Studio is evaluated through his publications, the books on the field in his personal library, and notes on memories of colleagues and the Studio’s students, which confirm the importance of Čaks’s personality in the overall context of the activities of the Egle’s Literary Studio.

Reālisms un ideālisms 19. un 20. gadsimta mijas latviešu literatūrā

The article traces late 19th and early 20th-century theoretical discussions of the concepts of realism and idealism and their impact on Latvian literature, paying attention to the terminological and ideological aspects and the poetics of literary texts. The introductory part explains the topicality of research on realism and idealism. The main body of the article traces the genesis of realism and idealism in 19th-century European and Latvian literature by using the up-to-date methodology of literary studies and the humanities. Detailed attention is paid to the late 19th and early 20th-century discussions in Latvia that explain the historical use of these concepts. By scrutinizing the available material, it is possible to conclude that concepts of realism and idealism are historically rooted and interactive. It is, therefore, possible to state that literary practices at times substantially deviate from 19th-century theory, where both concepts are used inconsistently and at times polarised. The up-to-date theoretical approach based on the methodology of cultural studies and new historicism that accentuates the polyphony of an age helps to reveal the many-sidedness of 19th-century literature and provides an insight into the possibilities and meanings of the concepts of realism and idealism. Such an approach opens up new potential for interpreting well-known texts by Latvian writers.

Andrejs Dripe’s Journalism about the Federal Republic of Germany and Its Impact on Societal Change in the 1980s

This article examines travels outside the Soviet Union by Latvian writers who were recognized by the occupation regime and acclaimed by the public during the Brezhnev Era, as one of the privileges enjoyed by the so-called creative intelligentsia, and how those travels were reflected in their literary and journalistic writings. Journeys abroad elicited conflicting emotions, and writers had to be relatively affluent to travel. Still, they often experienced humiliation when confronted with the reality of their meager financial means outside the U.S.S.R. and the fact that they remained in imprisonment even in the free West. The surge in popularity of literary periodicals in the 1980s played a crucial role in shaping a new culture of the press and journalism, as they provided large masses of readers with essential information about living abroad. Notes on the travels include observations on the socio-economic situation, environment, and political events and documents that have facilitated trips to the West. The case study explores the travelogue by Andrejs Dripe from the 1980s. Dripe’s journalism records the rapid transition from the Brezhnev Era to Gorbachev’s perestroika. It becomes the first official source of information about the West only a few people among his readers have visited.

Ideology in the Development of Latvian Co-operatives from the 19th Century to 1934

In this paper I will examine the ideology or the basic ideas upon which the co-operative movement in Latvia developed from its beginnings to 1934. The notion of co-operatives in Latvia entered mainly via literary sources in the early 19th Century. In particular, the translation into Latvian of the works of such people as the social reformist Heinrich Zschokke, the social reformer Johann Friedrich Oberlin and others. The ideas of the German co-operators Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen also had a lasting impact on the development of Latvian co-operatives from the second half of the 19th Century. During the interwar period of Latvian independence, such Latvian writers as Vilis Siliņš and Klāvs Lorencs, who had gained their experience of co-operatives abroad, were influential in the development of Latvian co-operatives in the 1920s. In addition, many books and pamphlets on co-operation were translated into Latvian and published during this period. These included the writings of Charles Gide from France, Johann Friedrich Schär and D'Henry Faucherre from Switzerland, Albin Johansson and Anders Hedberg from Sweden and Emma Freundlich from Austria, as well as others. Many new co-operative ideas were brought back to Latvia after Latvian participation at meetings of the International Co-operative Alliance and similar organisations, as well as attendance by Latvian co-operators at the International Co-operative Summer School held by the International Co-operative Alliance. After the coup d’état in 1934, the co-operative movement became an instrument of the state and fulfilled the instructions from the state. In general terms, it can said that the intellectual impulses from Western Europe motivated and activated the formation and development the Latvian co-operative movement, especially in the interwar period to 1934.

Prozas dramatizējumu iestudējumi 21. gadsimta Latvijas profesionālajos teātros. Rūdolfa Blaumaņa piemērs

The article provides an insight in on the dramatizations of prose works in the professional theatres of Latvia from 1911 until nowadays. Up until now, there was no systematic research being done on dramatizations as a separate theatrical process. The article also provides an in-depth overview of ten 21st-century dramatizations of Rūdolfs Blaumanis’s (1863–1908) works. Blaumanis is the most staged Latvian writer in the professional theatres of Latvia. It was unsheathed during the research that the frequency of the dramatizations of his works in the 21st century grows. The dramatizations of his works in the professional theatres of Latvia in the period 2000–2020 could be split in to three parts. One part – 22 classic productions of his plays during the aforementioned period; another part – 10 dramatizations of his prose writings, and yet another part – 6 staging works based on the motives of his writings. The tendency of producing a stage version of the prose work of an author might become an educational platform bringing longevity to the writers’ work or even their renaissance. It might raise the general awareness and interest of the public about a specific prose genre. The prose writings of Blaumanis are well suited for dramatization because all author’s short story masterpieces sustain distinct inner dramaturgical rhythm and elements otherwise peculiar to dramaturgy.

Metonymy, Presence, and the Ethics of Imagination in Postmemorial Writing: Andra Manfelde’s Zemnīcas bērni and Katja Petrowskaja’s Maybe Esther

ABSTRACT This article engages with two third-generation narratives of totalitarian trauma—Latvian writer Andra Manfelde’s prose work Zemnīcas bērni (The children of the bunker, 2010) and German writer Katja Petrowskaja’s autobiographical novel Maybe Esther (Vielleicht Esther, 2014)—to demonstrate the substantial role of metonymy in postmemorial writing where it serves the function of reactivating the troubling past. The author’s theoretical departure point is the observation that metonymy has been overlooked within the emphasis on the archive as the empirical basis of postmemorial prose. Metonymical connections between the past and the present are implied in Marianne Hirsch’s (2012) concept “points of memory.” However, her concept seems suited more for explaining the affective power of family photographs, while postmemorial texts are full of all kinds of metonymies: not just images, but also names, dates, and objects, able to enforce the presence of the past. In order to account for these metonymical signs encountered by autobiographical narrators in their storyworlds and made present on the level of narrative discourse, the article suggests turning to Eelco Runia’s (2014) philosophical conception of metonymy as a transfer of presence. The final aspect discussed here is the way metonymy enables ethical imagination.

The History of Vilnius Young Writers’ Chapter and Its Relations with Young Latvian Writers in the Soviet Era

The History of Vilnius Young Writers’ Chapter and Its Relations with Young Latvian Writers in the Soviet Era

Mapping the symbolic capital of a nation: Riga in fin-de-siècle Latvian novels

This article concentrates on the representation of Riga in six fin-de-siècle Latvian novels written by Augusts Deglavs, Jānis Poruks, and Andrejs Upīts. The relations between the country and the city were changing significantly at the time due to growing social mobility in the Baltic littoral. However, in this paper we also argue that to a considerable extent the descriptions of Riga preserve principles previously employed by Latvian writers who tend to focus on minute descriptions instead of mapping a broader territory. The representation of living conditions in Riga thus fluctuates between true-tolife episodes and the recycling of certain stereotypes that determine the overall perception. More specific elements enter into literary texts in two ways. First, as psychological close-ups become more nuanced, they suggest closer links between fictional characters and carefully depicted milieus. Secondly, in our last example we discover an ideologically conscious effort of Latvian identity construction as the author, Deglavs, promotes the necessity of mapping Riga as the symbolic national capital, thus summarising and transforming ideas already implicit in earlier representations of the city.

The Lost Place of Childhood: Writer Indra Gubiņa’s Memories, Life and the Literary Geographical Aspect

Researching Latvian literature in exile is a relatively new phenomenon that emerged in Latvia at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. As the writers’ archives became accessible, new opportunities for research opened up. In this article,1 I look into the historical situation in the context of World War II, marking out potential directions of my research and a theoretical basis. Using the archives of the Latvian writer in exile, Indra Gubiņa, I focus on the city of her childhood, Jelgava, as a lost place that acquired a symbolic significance in author’s memories, the course of her life and literary geography. The article explores the nuances of Gubiņa’s double belonging, her connection to the place of her childhood and the Latvian language. The methodology used in my research marks out the potential and prospective approach to the creative oeuvre of Gubiņa from the theoretical point of view of lost place, the topography of childhood and literary geography. This kind of research on the life and works of a single writer serves as a possibility to widen the field of investigation in studying literature, taking into consideration a broader spatial context, and working with the new tools of research.

Secondary Witnessing and Narrative Erasure in Inga Gaile’s The Beautiful Ones

This article engages with the challenges of representing traumatic historical events in a post-traumatic situation when the process of narration involves negotiating the gap between the past and the present, between the narrator and the other’s suffering. Particularly, the article focuses on Latvian writer Inga Gaile’s novel The Beautiful Ones (Skaistās, 2019), which deals with the aforementioned structural and ethical complexities already in its beginning, subjecting it to a series of narrative erasures and thus signaling the difficulty of embarking on a story that would do justice to the impact of trauma. The beginning of Gaile’s novel deserves a close reading of its own since it provokes, in a concentrated form, broader questions about the nature of secondary witnessing, which grows out of researching history, and its potential reflection in narrative form. The article also discusses how a broken beginning might point to authorial values and frame the remaining novel as a sincere and deeply human approach to past tragedies.

AN INTERPRETATION OF A HISTORICAL PERSON: MAURICE MAETERLINCK IN THE LATVIAN LITERARY TEXT

At the beginning of the 20th century, as the popularity of Maurice Maeterlinck grew, more and more often the names of the Belgian symbolist, his characters, quotations and paraphrases of his texts occurred in the Latvian fiction. A character in Latvian literature, a reader and connoisseur of Maeterlinck indirectly reflects the taste of people interested in literature at the time and through the prism of reception aesthetics provides an insight into the specific features of reading the popular writer. Thus Maeterlinck’s intertext reveals the most essential Belgian concepts and aspects of metaphysical thought to Latvian writers. It can be read both in the works of art of Maeterlinck’s translators – Zeltmatis (Ernests Kārkliņš) and Augusts Baltpurviņš and in the works of other Latvian writers at the beginning of the 20th century: Viktors Eglītis, Edvards Vulfs, Fallijs and Antons Austriņš. In the case of the male character the bond is created with Maeterlinck’s own literary activities and his innovations, whereas the female characters are depicted as alien: heroines of Maeterlinck’s plays resemble Pre-Raphaelite damsels.

THE IMAGE OF THE VAMPIRE IN WORLD AND LATVIAN LITERATURE

The theme of the article is evolution of the popular folklore image of the vampire in world literature. From the monster of folk narrative the image of the vampire entered literary culture at the beginning of the 19th century when writers of the age of Romanticism sought material for their work in folk tales. The novel “Dracula” written by the Irish writer Bram Stoker set a large part of attributes for the image of the vampire in readers’ consciousness. It became a turning point in the evolution of the vampire. In the following years the vampire was a popular symbol in the 20th century literary experiments; however, it gained a considerable fame with a more rapid spreading of the cinema. Later, until the second half of the 20th century the image of the vampire was degraded to the level of a cheap horror monster. In the 1970s it was revived by the American writer Anne Rice in her series of novels “The Vampire Chronicles”. For the time being the latest tendency in the evolution of the vampire is represented by the novels of paranormal romance subgenre intended for young adults. In these novels the vampire has assumed the aura of a romantic character. In comparison with world literature vampire has not won a massive popularity in the novels of Latvian writers; however, some authors have occasionally used this image in their works. The image of the vampire appears in Latvian literature as a classical blood sucking monster, as a political symbol and also as a romantic hero in fantasy and adventure novels for young people. As we can see, the presence of the image of the vampire in Latvian writing reflects the same tendencies that have dominated world literature on a smaller scale. For this reason Latvian literature can be considered to be an interesting testimony of literary connections in the world.

SEVERAL WESTERN MARXIST IDEAS: ALBERTS BELS’S PROSE AND LITERARY CINEMATOGRAPHIC APPROACH

The Latvian writer Alberts Bels (b. 1938) uses elements of literary cinemato- graphy in his prose. Although the number of these elements is not large, they testify to the fact that there is nothing unintentional in the writer’s prose. One of the ways how to establish the semantic load of elements of literary cinematography is to examine the context in which these elements are used following the views of the 20th century Marxist leaders. Thus, as an aesthetic value, literary cinematography in Alberts Bels’s writings can be seen as a compromise between traditional culture, which according to Walter Benjamin requires an aura and active experience of the reader, and the new art which was created on the basis of traditional art. If literature takes over the patterns of narrative cinema and uses them to create new, yet non-radical forms and structures, literary cinematography can be regarded as a favourable result of what Benjamin calls the loss of aura in a reproduced work of art.

THE LINKED DATA COLLECTION “ RAINIS UN ASPAZIJA ” ( RunA ): NEW RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES ( EXAMPLE – CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN RAINIS AND ASPAZIJA DURING HIS TIME IN PANEVĖŽYS PRISON )

The research aims at examining the epistolary exchange between Latvian writers Rainis and Aspazija available in the Rainis un Aspazija (RunA) linked open data collection and dating back to the period Rainis was in Panevėžys Prison (1897); and at exploring the opportunities the collection offers in revealing links between objects, persons, events, and thus, at gaining a broader perspective on the historical context of the time. The collection, as a visual and content resource, thanks to the linked data environment created therein, reveals a wide range of cultural and historical material about both writers, and marks out the context of the time, the most important events, people, places, etc. The collection, with the help of linked data, publishes open, structured data regarding its objects, entities and respective links between the same. The article also analyses the issue of how important a role the interpretation of this type of structured data has in literary research and how it helps contemporary researchers in analysing a literary work or any literary research material (letters, working notes, documents, etc.).

“Oh, Somov-Sorcerer!”: Visual Contours of the Portrait of Vjačeslav Ivanov in the Latvian Novel of 1926

Konstantin Somov is one of the characters in Victor Eglitis’s novel Inevitable Fates. The Latvian writer and artist was familiar with members of the “World of Art” and created an ekphrasis in his novel of the famous portrait of the poet Vjačeslav Ivanov, and also described his impressions of the famous Tower from meetings with A. Remizov, L. Zinov’eva-Annibal, N. Berdjaev, and Z. Serebrjakova. The gallery of portraits, landscapes and interiors creates visual effects in the novel; these are reflected in the description of the characters, who are contemporaries of Victor Eglitis. The characters of the novel are presented according to their images in photographs and artists’ portraits. The portrait, painted by Konstantin Somov, is a visual image of the novel’s hero, a philosopher, poet and scientist, and the owner of a modernist salon in St. Petersburg.

Lake Managment in the Piebalga Region: Climate, Nature and Culture from the 1890s to Now

There are many regions in Latvia with a long history and beautiful landscapes. However, of all the regions, the most beautiful landscapes and the richest culture are in the Piebalga region. Piebalga is located in the Vidzeme highlands, where the longest domestic river in Latvia, the Gauja, has its source. There are several counties in the Piebalga region, the most famous of which is Vecpiebalga, where two of the first Latvian writers were born, the Kaudzītes brothers, who are well-known for their novel The Surveyors’ Time, one of the first books written by Latvians. In this study, the culture, religion and environmental management practices of Piebalga during the 19th century were studied using an extensive analysis of historical literature about the region, and compared to Piebalga in the present, which was studied using case study research. During the research it was discovered that the main influences on Piebalga culture and environmental management practices have been the Hernhutian congregations who influences had shaped the local culture and continues to do so even after being effectively disbanded. It was also discovered that the municipalities in the region are less effective at monitoring lakes than they were during the 19th century due to lacking resources.

Dinner with Mock Faustus: Multilingual Cuisine Cooks the Identity

Phenomena related to gastronomy form an important part of both individual and collective identities. The gastronomical dimensions of literature can often be perceived as a commentary on the political, historical and societal, going beyond just the food. As cuisines are becoming more mixed globally, languages describing gastronomical scenes in literature are also becoming more multilingual.
 The novel Mock Faustus (1973), by the Latvian writer Marģers Zariņš, fuses the gastronomical and the multilingual to the extreme, producing a utopian linguistic hybrid of the Latvian language to which a mix of foreign languages and countless intertextual references are added. This is achieved by the gastronomical vocabulary and imagery omnipresent in the narrative of writing a fictional cookbook. The depiction of gastronomical phenomena allows Zariņš to indirectly comment on Latvian history from the 1930s to 1945 and the confused and fragmented identities of these times.