bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
About Mindset and Language: Or We Believe As We Pray, We Live As We Believe
Authors: Laumenskaitė Irena Eglė , Akelaitis Algirdas
Published: November 2022

The authors of this article take an approach of hermeneutic circle in their research on the link between the historically developed Lithuanian lifestyle and mentality that define the semantics of socially actual notions, the language of Bible translations and prayers. In twentieth century translations of the New Testament into Lithuanian they find persuasive example for hermeneutic reflection in the prioritisation of the word garbė (honour), which corresponds only to the social dimension of the Greek word doxa, resulting in neglect of the word’s theological meaning, which is much more essential to Biblical thought.During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, traditional Lithuanian mentality was impacted by the focus on defining Lithuanian identity in terms of language, which was essential to the pursuit of Lithuania’s political sovereignty. Cultural identity was determined by the peasant worldview, which drew on the semantic field of language to promote values. The influence of apprehension on Bible translation is inevitable: the lifestyle can influence the way we read and understand the Bible and similarly the choice of the words we put into our prayers. And vice versa: how we pray, read and understand the message of the Bible, we choose the lexemes for Bible translation that condition our belief and finally the lifestyle. Drawing on the principles of hermeneutics the authors of the article analyse instances of incongruence between the historical mentality of honour and the semantic field of doxa in various translations.
Pranas Naujokaitis, Lithuanian Literature Juozas Girnius, “Returning to Žemė (Earth)” in Literatūros lankai (Literary Folios)
Authors: Greimas Algirdas Julius
Published: November 2022

Recenzija: Pranas Naujokaitis, Lietuvių literatūra: Trumpas lietuvių literatūros istorijos kursas gimnazijai, Tübingen: Patria, 1948.
Irony, Tragedy, Community: Richard Rorty Through the Eyes of a Barbarian (translated by Brigita Speičytė)
Authors: Bielik-Robson Agata
Published: November 2022

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Beata Kalęba, Rozdroże: Crossroads: Polish Literature in the Context of Lithuanian National Rebirth
Authors: Speičytė Brigita
Published: November 2022

Beata Kalęba, Rozdroże: Literatura polska w kręgu litewskiego odrodzenia narodowego [Kryžkelė: Lenkų literatūra lietuvių tautinio atgimimo aplinkoje], Kraków: Universitas, 2016, 296 p., ISBN: 97883-242-3038-9.
The (Im)Possibility of Comparativism: Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas and Miguel de Unamuno
Authors: Kučinskienė Aistė
Published: November 2022

The goal of this article is to explore textual connections between Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas and Miguel de Unamuno and to identify what might be the most fruitful paths for comparing Spanish and Lithuanian literature. The author notes that different possibilities for comparison depend on how much attention is accorded to each of the following three concepts: national literature, world literature, and general literature. When the concept of national literature is stressed it is typical for the idea that all national literatures have distinct paths of development to dominate, that the only “methodologically correct” juxtaposition is to compare direct relations between national literatures (influences, effects, appropriations, etc.). The concept of world literature is based on questions of international canon; these studies do not belong to the field of comparative literature per se, but are relevant to Lithuanian literary studies in terms of analysing reflections of international canonical elements in our literature. The basis of comparison that is most difficult to grasp methodologically is the concept of general literature. Drawing on it begs the question whether, if commonalities exist between different literatures (common tendencies, ideas, or themes), it is necessary to base research only on direct influences. The article comes to the conclusion that the most appropriate concept for comparing Lithuanian and Spanish literature is that of general literature. The comparative analysis of Vaižgantas and Unamuno uses a thematic approach, which makes it possible to see that these authors have much in common in terms of their positions in the literary field and their actual texts, despite the absence of direct biographical or textual connections.
Feminist Phenomenology in the Criticism of Birutė Ciplijauskaitė
Authors: Šimėnienė Akvilė
Published: November 2022

This article presents feminist phenomenology, a paradigm within critical philosophy and literary studies that been evolved over the last several decades; the article explores the main circumstances of its development, including the historical contexts and texts that led to its emergence and conceptualisation. The origins of this syncretic approach are associated with the works of Edith Stein, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Hannah Arendt. The article discusses feminist phenomenology’s broad, interdisciplinary streams – feminist musicology, theology, philosophy of science, and ethics – and how they use research tools offered by phenomenology.Feminist phenomenology is seen as an approach that challenges disciplinary hermeticism, which holds human experience as the most important object of any analysis.The article surveys the works of the main authors who were actively involved in the process of introducing feminist phenomenology: Sara Heinämaa, Lanei Rodemeyer, Mikko Keskinen, Linda Fisher, María C. López Sáenz, Eva-Maria Simms, Beata Stawarska, Lester Embree, Christina Schües, Dorothea E. Olkowski, Helen A. Fielding, and Anne van Leeuwen.The article presents general research strategies and classifications at the intersection of feminism and phenomenology, most importantly: embodied experience, a critical view of patriarchal structures of power and knowledge, qualitatively new experience, a focus on synaesthesia and a particular emphasis on different types of women’s/female experience. The second half of the article presents the work (in particular several late texts) of the Lithuanian émigré critic Birutė Ciplijauskaitė as an example of feminist phenomenology.
Ieva Simonaitytė – Cultural Dialogue Mediator
Authors: Šeina Viktorija
Published: November 2022

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A Fresh Look at Boundaries and Borders
Authors: Šidlauskas Marijus
Published: November 2022

Audinga Peluritytė, Ribos architektonika: Šiuolaikinė lietuvių literatūra ir kontekstai, Vilnius: Vilniaus universitetas: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2016, 243 p., ISBN 978- 609-459-712-1
Uncles and Aunts by Vaižgantas in Literary History, Cinema and Theatre
Authors: Vanagaitė Gitana
Published: November 2022

In the article, by combining several theoretical accesses (narratology, intermediality and hermeneutics), the author analyzes Uncles and Aunts (Dėdės ir dėdienės) – the long story by Vaižgantas which is accounted for literary classics, and also its theatre and cinema versions: the film That Cursed Humility (Tas prakeiktas nuolankumas) and two theatre productions of the same title. She raises the following questions: what kind of canon of reading and comprehending Vaižgantas’ story has been circulating in the culture circle, and how have the film and performances been affecting this canon?Another question in the article is related to the relations between literary / cinema / theater texts. Both the film and theatre performances have explicit references to the story by Vaižgantas, as if recognizing the original, or authorly, status of this story. However, in spite of the relationship establishing this hierarchy, the film version and theatre productions, which took place in different historical-political times, regarded the ideological specificity of their times rather than the axiological plane of the story that claims versatility (except the production directed by Regina Steponavičiūtė). Perhaps, that is why today there is still no solid canon of reading / comprehending Uncles and Aunts, which would be required by the literary classics standard. On the one hand, this proves the openness and versatility of the messages of the story by Vaižgantas, which is strongly related to the specificities of a certain period of time – the serfdom. On the other hand, this once again questions the concept of dialogue proposed by adaptation theories, on the basis of which the artistic hierarchy should be rejected and the cinema / theatre text perceived independently.
The Manifestation of Europeanness in the Soviet Lithuanian poetry: the Aesthetic Liberation of Identity
Authors: Bagdonė Karolina
Published: November 2022

This paper analyses three – the national, European and Soviet – identity models, their collision, overlap, and transformation. It focuses on the phenomenon of the Lithuanian national identity, which at the same time is locally distinct, but also open to Europe (Europeanness). The paper also presents an analysis of how Soviet ideology acted on and formed people’s self-depiction and how it emerged in Lithuanian poetry in the second part of the 20th century. For my sociological comparative analysis I wanted to represent a few distinct examples of identities and chose the creative works of two famous Lithuanian poets – Eduardas Miezelaitis and Sigitas Geda. Miezelaitis could be considered as one of the founders of Soviet modernist poetry who gave the impression of a free poetic language within the context of the Soviet regime. Nevertheless, he expressed an identity which is characterized by defensiveness, overprotectiveness, and a nomenclatural position. The poetry of Geda is an example of an expression of an European identity. It is characterized by an innovative relation to tradition, a search for a different and anti-ideological reader, and a complex poetic language.
Seven Letters to Valdemaras Kukulas
Authors: Šimkus Antanas
Published: November 2022

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For Algirdas Julius Greimas: Two Issues of Semiotica
Authors: Vaitiekūnas Dainius
Published: November 2022

Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies: Semiotica, 2017, Issue 214, Semiotica, 2017, Issue 219: Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, ISSN 0037-1998, e-ISSN 1613-3692
A Small Text of Remembrance for Juozas Aputis
Authors: Daujotytė Viktorija
Published: November 2022

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Return to Our Times: Juozas Aputis’s Relevance “Then” and “Now”
Authors: Kalėda Algis
Published: November 2022

The author of this article uses narratological and semiotic analysis to conduct a new reading of Juozas Aputis’s classic stories, while at the same time engaging in a dialogue with interpreters who have used different methodologies. Having established that Aputis writes about fundamental existential matters, the author of the article discusses how his texts communicate experiences that cannot be contained by empirical reality – the unconscious reservoirs within human beings that occasionally distort our behavior and feelings. According to the narrated events, the narrator is not only an observer of action but also an engaged participant in it and one who always remains empathic toward oppressed characters and the world at large. This kind of empathy is further developed in the works of twentieth century Lithuanian prose classic Jonas Biliūnas. The author of the article argues that readers’ understanding of Aputis’s prose oscillates between the model of prose that promotes traditional rural values and more universal dimensions of expression.
Discourse Structure in Juozas Aputis’s Triptych of Short Stories The Green Bend of Time
Authors: Nastopka Kęstutis
Published: November 2022

This paper discusses actor relations, time and space in Juozas Aputis’s triptych of short stories “Žalias laiko vingis“ (The Green Bend of Time, 1977). These three short stories are linked by the figure of the traveller-narrator.The first short story, “Arklio akyse“ (In the Horse’s Eyes) contains several individual and collective anthropomorphic actors as well as two zoomorphic actors – a mare called Jūra (Sea) and a small dog. The story also contains clear configurations of closed and open spaces, and a distinct aspectualisation of inchoate, terminative and durative time. In the second short story, “Troboj prie upės” (In a Hut by the River), the figurative paths of two actors – a traveller and a woman – are developed in parallel. The traveller becomes a listener to a dramatic lifetime confession and tries to solve the puzzle of the impossibility of coexistence between man and woman.The object of value in the first story is lost time, while in the second it a wish to get rid of one’s burden. In the third story, “Žalias laiko vingis” (The Green Bend of Time), the adopted burden of somebody else’s life becomes the traveller’s object of value.In the first story, space and time emerge in childhood memories; in the second one, the space of the homeland is replaced by an isolated hut and a railway; in the third one, the bend of time connects a traumatic war experience with mundane monotony, and the visibly present figures with their counterparts in the utopian space of childhood.
Reading With Attuned Ears: Music in the Plays of Kostas Ostrauskas
Authors: Smolskaitė Giedrė
Published: November 2022

The author of this article surveys and systematises the many manifestations of music in the texts of Lithuanian playwright and pioneer of absurdist and postmodern drama, Kostas Ostrauskas (1926–2012). Ostrauskas’s drama talks about music and cites it, turns famous figures of the music world into characters and the reader into an active performer, forcing the audience to see (and “hear”) music in various shapes and forms.To explore this dynamics, the author of the article draws on the classification of musico-literary connections developed by intermediality theorist Werner Wolf, which was in turn based on Steven Paul Scher’s triadic typology: a) music and literature; b) literature in music; and c) music in literature.The references to music that can be found in Ostrauskas’s works “illustrate” all of the variations and forms of the interplay between literature and music outlined by Wolf and Scher. The reader of Ostrauskas’s plays is invited to adopt an attitude more active than usual: emphasis is primarily on the plane of expression, as the plays are oriented towards the active reader-performer’s eyes and “ears” (presentation, visuality, plasticity). The systematisation of the connections between music and literature makes it possible to argue that Ostrauskas’s drama examines questions related to the specifics of both media.
Life’s Tactics and Its Critical Approaches: Reading Nyka-Niliūnas’s Texts
Authors: Šmitienė Giedrė
Published: November 2022

Alfonsas Nyka-Niliūnas’s poetry is hermetic and enriched with cultural images. At the same time, the poet is phenomenologically attentive to experience, and this focus influences his poetics. Nyka-Niliūnas acknowledged that his poetry is a particularly accurate autobiography. Thus, the intent of the article is to “step” into the hermetic world of Nyka - Niliūnas’s poetry by finding the individual base in his works.I employ two methodological approaches by distinguishing existentially open sentences-confessions and observing life’s tactics. The tactics of everyday life, examined in detail by Michel de Certeau, is insignificant and immersed in everyday situations, but with its logic of acting. Using the approach of tactics, on the one hand, a person is only mildly thematized, and on the other, he/she is less exposed to manipulations. This is why for the individual-centered research I have chosen the concept of tactics.In the case of Nyka-Niliūnas, the investigation of tactics leads to the motives of leaving home and allows understanding them not as routine, but as repetitive actions that help to understand situations. The departures arise from a desire to not fully identify with the place where he is and, at the same time, from an openness to another space—be it the surrounding fields, literature, or the Western European culture. The space of endless negotiations and continuous creative tactics opens up between belonging to and differing from one’s own kind.
The Intriguing History of Ideological Control
Authors: Tamošaitis Regimantas
Published: November 2022

Sovietmečio lietuvių literatūra: reiškiniai ir sąvokos, sudarė Algis Kalėda, Rimantas Kmita, Dalia Satkauskytė, Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2019. – 559 p., ISBN 978-609-425-246-4
Witold Gombrowicz and Philosophy
Authors: Sverdiolas Arūnas
Published: November 2022

The author of the article examines Witold Gombrowicz’s literary texts, diaries, lectures, essays, interviews and letters, as well as memoirs about him, trying to reconstruct the most important philosophical issues that concerned the writer and to describe the nature of his philosophizing. Gombrowicz’s philosophyzing is placed in the very broad context of the Western philosophical thinking tradition. Subsequently, that context is narrowed down to Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism which was closest to Gombrowicz and from which he specified his own position by strictly limiting Sartre’s concept of activistic freedom and self-creation and introducing the issue of pain and suffering.Gombrowicz fundamentally modified Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological conception of the transcendental ego, paradoxically identifying it with his own self. The author of the article also draws attention to the philosophy of life, mentioned neither by Gombrowicz nor the authors who researched his philosophy, which is important for understanding the foundations of writer’s thinking. He also analyzes the relationship between philosophical and literary thinking, the personality or even privacy of philosophizing, the “implementation” of philosophical thinking, and other issues.
History in the Scope of a Female Aristocrat: Historical Novels by Sophie de Tisenhaus de Choiseul-Gouffier
Authors: Speičytė Brigita
Published: November 2022

The article discusses the works of Sophie de Tisenhaus de Choiseul-Gouffier (1790–1878), a writer from historical Lithuania, which mostly consist of the historical novels. The novels, written in French and published in Paris, are based on the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.The article analyzes the specifics of the historic genre: individual motives for choosing it, communication strategy, specifics of history representation, and reflection on gender, social and national identity. The author’s memoirs are useful for the genesis of historical writing in the aristocratic environment of dilettante arts, influenced by the 19th-century mass experience of history and the tendency to project it into a historical narrative. The author of the article concludes that the strategy of cultural diplomacy characteristic of Sophie de Tisenhaus de Choiseul-Gouffier’s novels—the goal of popularizing Polish and Lithuanian history in the international arena in order to anchor the historical and cultural memory of a country deleted from the European map—is not the only one defining her historical fiction. In terms of identity reflection, her novels, which first of all stand out for their feminine perspective, reveal a “fundamental conflict” of aristocracy in the modern era, discussed by Norbert Elias, i.e. an ambivalent reconstruction and critique of the aristocratic ethos. From an aesthetic point of view, primarily because of the nature of historical knowledge, Sophie de Tisenhaus de Choiseul-Gouffier’s novels come forth as an alternative to the genre model of Walter Scott’s historical novel, which was popular in Europe at the time. Such an understanding of history allows the author to convey a distance based on values in relation to inherited and new forms of life emerging in modernity.
Vaižgantas’s Attempts at Constructing Lithuanian Collective Memory
Authors: Mačiulis Dangiras
Published: November 2022

By analyzing the written legacy of Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, the author of the article discusses his activities in forming Lithuanian collective memory. He argues that Vaižgantas‘s point of view towards the importance of collective memory in the life of the Lithuanian people has changed under the influence of political circumstances. Up until WWI, Vaižgantas thought that in order to consolidate the Lithuanian national community, the mother tongue would serve better than constructing collective memory by ways of reminding Lithuanians of the heroic episodes of their country‘s history. During the WWI, in his attempts at validating the right of Lithuanians to political and cultural emancipation, Vaižgantas began using the images of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which were reminiscent of the Lithuanian historical statehood. In the late 1920s, Vaižgantas actively participated in the organization of the jubilee campaign of remembrance of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Vytautas the Great (1350-1430). He believed that the actualization of the memory of the statehood of the GDL, symbolized by the personality of Vytautas the Great, could help to highlight the tradition of Lithuanian historical statehood and cultural continuity.
Open Doors
Authors: Gūtmane Zanda , Ostups Artis
Published: November 2022

Professor Zanda Gūtmane from the University of Liepaja (Latvia) Is Interviewed by Artis Ostups, Editor-in-Chief of the Latvian Online Magazine for Literature and Philosophy Punctum
The Narrative of the Third Generation
Authors: Grigoravičienė Erika
Published: November 2022

Natalija Arlauskaitė, Nuožmi taika: žlugusių režimų fotografija dokumentiniame kine, Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2020, 336 p., ISBN 978-609-07-0421-9
Reflection on the Significance of Kristijonas Donelaitis and His Works in the Lithuanian Press. Efforts to Commemorate Poet's 200th Birth Anniversary
Authors: Gaidauskienė Nida
Published: November 2022

On the eve of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Kristijonas Donelaitis (January 1, 1914), in Lithuania ruled by the Russian Empire, the press of the National Democrats and Liberal Democrats covered the efforts to erect a monument in honor of the poet (the idea arose in Lithuania Minor). It criticized the work of the committee that was in charge of the initiative, which was led by conservatives. The Catholic press was very reserved in its coverage of the initiatives of the memorial. The confessional aspect of the imagined Lithuanian national identity also hindered the involvement in a project that would unite the entire nation. In Russian-administered Lithuania, the emphasis was more on publications introducing Donelaitis’s personality and works. In the beginning of 1914, Kristijonas Duonelaitis’s Writings compiled by Jurgis Šlapelis was published in Vilnius; however, no public organization or institution sponsored the book. The difficulties in organizing activities to commemorate Donelaitis experienced by the Lithuanian Scientific Society testify to the fact that the poet had not yet been perceived as a national poet in Lithuania, and that there was a lack of coordinated work. In Russian ruled Lithuania, the articles and papers about Donelaitis by Juozas Gabrys Paršaitis, Mykolas Biržiška, Petras Leonas, Ignas Jurkūnas-Seinius, and Pranas Dovydaitis were overdue.With the outbreak of the war, the ambitions of the Catholic press to introduce the legacy of Donelaitis began to emerge. Some of the texts were used during the World War I for the purpose of Lithuanian cultural education. The studies of Gabrys-Paršaitis and Biržiška became an important part of the first literature textbooks of the Republic of Lithuania.
Mediation of Illness and Disability: The Complexity of Articuliation
Authors: Šmitienė Giedrė , Jonutytė Jurga
Published: November 2022

The article looks into Jonas Mačiukevičius’s autobiographical novella Laikrodžiai nesustoja [Clocks Don’t Stop Running, 1968], which delves into a young person’s decade-long experience of a serious illness. The analysis of the story branches out from the research of the authors of the article about the concept of disability in life stories. The authors have also written about the reception of this work in the 1960s. This time, the article discusses the literary features of the text itself and the depiction of the experience of a sick and disabled body.The authors of the article phenomenologically analyze the multilayered nature of the experience of the illness in the text: they analyze the writer’s choice to tell the story from the patient’s perspective and draw attention to the relationship with one’s impaired body and the dynamics of the patient’s self-perception. Analyzing deeper, the authors show that corporeality and dignity are inextricably linked. The experience of pain reveals that pain is never purely physical (it is always existential) and that it is mediated. The experience of illness, like that of disability, depends on the attitudes of the people around us, on their thematized and latent attitudes, which lend different meanings to human vulnerability. According to the authors, Mačiukevičius’s work, which spoke of vulnerability of a body during the Soviet era, could be read afresh today, when ableism has been increasingly appearing in the humanities and social sciences.
The poetry of Atgimimas. Who Called the Nation and Who Led it?
Authors: Rėklaitytė Akvilė
Published: November 2022

The author of the article focuses on the time of the Reform Movement of Lithuania, Sąjūdis, when around 1987-1990 the Soviet Union began to fall apart and Lithuania was granted an opportune moment to seek political independence. In Lithuania, the Soviet ruling elite tried to exclude dissidents, who were more active in politics; therefore intellectuals, writers, and artists formed the vanguard of the movement for freedom. A review of documentary material from the time has revealed the important role of poetry. The article explores the poetic discourse of the years of Atgimimas, i.e. poems published in official and illegal publications, and analyses their poetics (themes, stylistics, and imagery). It aims to verify whether poetry was the “leader” of the Sąjūdis discourse, as many people who remember the movement testify. The research shows that during the political liberation of the state, poetry as an independent field of art had been in crisis. Instead of creating a distinctive aesthetic world and language, it illustrated the changes taking place in society, trying to keep up with historical events. Memoirs and journalism, which satisfied the public’s need for the direct talk about the realities, became the real leader of the discourse.
Between Ethnocentrism and Multiculturalism: The Cultural Landscape in Polish Guidebooks to Vilnius (1856–1939) and Zalmen Szyk's Toyznt yor Vilne
Authors: Degler (Lisek) Joanna
Published: November 2022

This article explores changes over time in the manner in which multiculturalism in Vilnius was shown and evaluated in tourist guidebooks written between 1856 and 1939. It provides an overview of narratives which serves as a background reflecting the uniqueness of Zalmen Szyk’s Yiddish-language publication Toyznt yor Vilne (1939). From the mid-19th century on, one can detect an increasingly strident nationalist patriotism in Polish-language books of this genre, underscored by ethnocentrism and nationalistic megalomania. The city is depicted in most of these guidebooks as a bastion of Polish spirit and martyrdom, the quintessential example being a guidebook published by Juliusz Kłos in 1923. Zalmen Szyk, on the other hand, evinces a much greater readiness to incorporate various models of historical memory and interpretations of urban space: Vilnius in his work is unashamedly multicultural, without a trace of ethnocentrism. Szyk is extremely meticulous and unprejudiced in his treatment of all the ethnic groups living in the city and the heritage they left behind. He writes about each group in turn: Lithuanians, Poles, Ruthenians, Tartars, Germans and Jews, and the adherents of Catholicism, Judaism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Islam are all accounted for. In comparison with the Polish-language guides, Szyk’s Yiddish guide to multicultural Vilnius contains by far the most comprehensive description of the Polish cultural presence; notably, he does not shy away from incorporating elements of the romantic model of Polish martyrdom.
The Iconography of Jewish Vilna during the First World War
Authors: Laučkaitė Laima
Published: November 2022

The aim of the article is to show the picture of Jewish Vilnius/ Vilna created by German artists during the First World War. The research is based on an analysis of works of art published in the press of the time, or stored in institutions in Lithuania, Germany and Belgium, and also on an analysis of writings in German periodicals of that time. The media in Ober Ost during the war took an anti-semitic stance, promoted by the top military leadership, but the author of the article argues that there also existed a different attitude towards the Jews of Vilnius and their heritage. The views and origins of journalists, writers and artists taken on by the editorial boards of German newspapers published in Vilnius and Kaunas influenced the emergence of the Ostjuden discourse. This discourse was rather contradictory, and included both fascination with the traditional religious Jewish community, and its cultural heritage and spiritual values, and at the same time horror at the suffering and poverty of the community. This discourse also remained viable in postwar Germany, and influenced the identity of Jewish art in Vilnius in the interwar period.
Vilna as a Centre of Hebrew Literature: The Journal Hazman
Authors: Holtzman Avner
Published: November 2022

In 1904, a Hebrew journalistic and literary initiative was established in Vilna, headed by the writer and publisher Ben-Avigdor, and the journalist and editor Ben Zion Katz. Vilna was chosen, among other reasons, for being a deeply rooted centre of Hebrew culture, with a long tradition of printing and publishing. The new initiative revived it as a magnet for Hebrew writers and journalists, an impressive team that joined together to create the daily Hazman (The Time) and its supplements. The editors’ policy was not to impose a binding political line on the paper, but to give an opening to all the factions in the Jewish public, while also hoping to expand the target audience of the paper. The year 1905 was the time of glory of Hazman, both for its news and its literary sections. But its momentum was halted during 1906, due to the political storm in Russia and the rapid decline of Hebrew journals, which lost most of their readership to the flourishing Yiddish press. Thus, the Hazman affair embodies a dramatic crossroads. It was the beginning of the decline of Hebrew literature in Eastern Europe, alongside the laying of the foundations for Hebrew literature in the Land of Israel during the first two decades of the 20th century. This essay draws an outline of the affair on the basis of a variety of sources, including the newspaper itself, memories of the personalities involved, and correspondence that has survived from those days.
An Attempt to Reconstruct the Generation of Žemininkai: Benediktas Labėnas
Authors: Tūtlytė Rita
Published: November 2022

Benediktas Labenskas-Labėnas (1919–1949), a little-known literary figure from the Žemininkai generation, was a soldier and partisan, who died in the early post-war guerrilla warfare. The article presents a part of his work written in gymnasium, in military school and on the Eastern Front. It traces author’s evolution, discusses the relationship of his works to literary tradition, and highlights the distinctive nature of his themes and style. The research employs a hermeneutical approach, the perspective of the history of literature, and the socio-cultural aspect, which enable to identify the ideological and cultural reverberations of a specific historical time and their influence in the works of the young author. Labėnas’s oeuvre grows out of the neo-romantic tradition of 20th-century Lithuanian literature, the songs of volunteers and soldiers’ marching, as well as Christian culture. It takes root in social, psychological, and impressionistic prose. Labėnas’s work is characterized by a sense of harmony between the world and a human being, the imperative of the task of life, an ethical approach, and literary sense of genre and style that became increasingly pronounced with the time.On the one hand, Labėnas’s work has very little in common with the creative engagement of his generation, such as the inclination to existential questions and modern poetic language. On the other hand, his works are associated with a strong connection with the earth and reflection on that connection.
„In My Youth, It Seemed Pretentious to Call Myself a Writer“
Authors: Kašauskas Raimondas , Vasiliauskas Saulius
Published: November 2022

Saulius Vasiliauskas Interviews the Prose Writer Raimondas Kašauskas
Certain Aspects of Mythical Meaning of Frog in the Traditional Lithuanian Worldview
Authors: Džekčioriūtė Vita
Published: November 2022

The article is based on the traditional Lithuanian beliefs and customs recorded in the end of the 19th – first half of the 20th century. It aims at proving that frog in Lithuanian culture has its own unique realm of mythical meanings, which only partly correspond to those of the toad’s. In this realm, several groups of meanings associated with frog can be discerned. Firstly, frog is considered to be an accumulator of water in the popular meteorology. Its enhanced activity, its enlarged body or darkened color may indicate the approach of the rain. People used to believe that killing of a frog resulted in downpour, since such an act symbolically released the atmospheric water that had been accumulated in its body. A second group of mythical meanings associated with frog present it as a creature endowed with healing powers. Here, its cold-bloodedness is most important. Illness or physical malfunction represent the hot pole of the opposition hot vs. cold, while frog represents the cold one, thus being able to neutralize the heat resulting from illness. In the third group, frog is regarded as a zoomorphic part of the human body or as a foreign body embedded in it. A creature in frog’s shape is believed to live in the human belly. As result of physical malfunction, it may move and leave its place, finding itself close to the heart or in the throat. Having lost this part of the body, the person dies. So whenever this frog-like creature, commonly also called macica (womb) or gumbas (lump) moves, it is attempted to restore it back to its former place. Frog, regarded as a foreign body, is believed also to sit on the human brain, thus causing psychic diseases. In such case, the person is treated by attempting to lure the frog out of the body. In the fourth group of mythical meanings, tight connections between frogs and children are displayed. Both frogs and children are related to water and humidity. This idea is reflected in the notion of people being born from a water body. Little children, just like frogs, are characterized by poorly coordinated movements and inarticulate sounds. The smaller the child, the closer it seems to the frog. This association is best reflected by calling little kids frogs in Lithuanian. From such folk identification of children and frogs there also stems the traditional explanation typically given to children by grown-ups, of the children being brought by the stork. In the fifth group of mythical meanings, frog is presented as a threatening aquatic creature, which is used to scare the kids away from water. Frog is therefore considered as possible prototype of all the other scary beings residing in water.
The Friends’ Gift to Arvo Krikmann
Authors: Bufienė Giedrė
Published: November 2022

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On the Three Baltic Countries: How the Singing Opposition Became the Singing Revolution
Authors: Nakienė Austė
Published: November 2022

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Translations of the Sumerian and Akkadian Texts
Authors: Kerbelytė Bronislava
Published: November 2022

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Immortalizing the Treasures of Folk Culture
Authors: Ramoškaitė Živilė
Published: November 2022

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Foreword
Authors: Stundžienė Bronė , Daugirdaitė Vilma
Published: November 2022

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The Latvian Folklore Archives in the Course of Time
Authors: Vyksna Mara
Published: November 2022

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Professor Kazys Grigas: A Man among Men
Authors: Kudirkienė Lilija
Published: November 2022

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Balys Buračas – Both Familiar and Unknown: Fieldwork Notes from 1936
Authors: Vaitkevičius Vykintas
Published: November 2022

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Fieldwork Trip of the Museologists to Eastern Lithuania in the Summer of 1936
Authors: Vaitkevičius Vykintas
Published: November 2022

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Libertas Klimka. Lietuviškų tradicijų skrynelė, Vilnius: Didakta, 2013
Authors: Seliukaitė Irena
Published: November 2022

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Rita Balkutė. Galia užburti (kenkimo magija 1982–2012 metų įrašuose), Vilnius, 2013
Authors: Aleksynas Kostas
Published: November 2022

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Foreword
Authors: Stundžienė Bronė
Published: November 2022

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Quo vadis, Folklore Studies?
Authors: Voigt Vilmos
Published: November 2022

The article presents a problematic survey of journals in folklore, ethnology and anthropology. Starting from the very first publications, launched as early as the end of the 19th century, the author discusses their global panorama and general situation until nowadays, concentrating also on some essential theoretical and interdisciplinary issues in this field of humanities. Particular attention is paid to the journals published in the Eastern Europe (former “Soviet” countries), and especially – in the Baltic countries. Finally, the author concludes that in spite of radical social and cultural changes, many of the journals could survive until nowadays, and that they are necessary and useful. Still, he notes the lack of new “revolutionary” theories and methodologies, and calls for discussing the shape and direction that these periodicals should take.
On the Meaning of Water in Ballads
Authors: Liugaitė-Černiauskienė Modesta
Published: November 2022

The article departs from the point of ballads as (mostly) pieces of folklore of non-Lithuanian origin taking root and existing in the Lithuanian environment. The ballad Nenustiko broliukui ženybos [‘The Unhappily Married Brother’] (and the song type Augo sode klevelis [‘A Maple Tree Was Growing in the Yard’]), as well as a number of other ballads including the motive of drowning, gravitate towards the topic and thematic of water. The predominance of the water image suggests its symbolic meaning. Thus, the family ballad in question not simply relates of a cruel action – it creates a peculiar “family myth”. The notion of water as a primeval substance points to its cleansing and renewing function. Instead of drowning, the semantic shift is projected towards revival, associated with washing away of the wife’s inadequacy, and finally resulting in caring for her. The Lithuanian ballad is compared to the Belorussian and Ukrainian ballads containing distinct images of the star and of the middle of the sea. Special attention is paid to a couple of texts in which an opposition between the old wife (maiden) and the new wife (maiden) may be spotted. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, replacement of some oppositions with others is a characteristic of the mythical thinking.The action of the ballad (floating of the wife out to the middle of the sea, and subsequent plea of the husband pulling back and asking her to return) is remotely paralleled in the article with the ritual death and resurrection. However, such parallel does not suggest any specific ritual having allegedly existed in the family customs and perishing afterwards. Although (ritual) death and (ritual) revival are best reflected in rituals (therefore ritual analysis is especially useful here), they can manifest elsewhere too. An assumption is made of this being an archetype, repeatedly emerging on various levels, from the highest to the lowest ones. Examination of the marital relationship in the light of the archetype of birth – death – resurrection considerably broadens the scope of the ballad’s meanings. The archetype suggests its different interpretation.
Foreword
Authors: Būgienė Lina
Published: November 2022

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The Baltic and Arabic Character of the Sovius Tale. The Origins of the Mythonym
Authors: Lemeškin Ilja
Published: November 2022

The object of the article is the tale of Sovius, the origins of which (whether oral or written – translated) still inspire heated debates. The mythic personal name Sovius should be regarded as an artificial construction, and its appearance attributed to a mistaken deciphering of the copied original, as result of which the first syllable of the possessive adjective  was interpreted as the aorist of the verb ‘to be’, while the rest of the adjective – as a name:   >    >   . The name of questionable authenticity is not part the folkloric narrative itself, since it is found before and after the etiological legend, i.e. in the portions of text where the literary intentions of the author are expressed.Functioning of such a “name” is determined by the euhemerism of the written monument of the 1262. The first sentence    is a continuation of the literary title: *            “The tale of the pagan fallacy, this Sovius is called god, [although] Sovius was a man”. The deductive conclusion follows: Sovius is called god – Sovius was a man → man is called god. The hitherto established statement that folklore piece starts with words    “Sovius was a man” is bound to be corrected. The beginning of the etiological tale should reasonably be related to the following fragment of text:     “when he caught the wild boar…”Discussions of the possible written sources are lacking in argumentation based on textual analysis, since there is considerable shortage of the written artefacts that could be paralleled to the Sovius tale in terms of their narrative structure and semantics. Folklorists possess such textual parallels in their store – primarily, the Lithuanian tale “Rooms in Heaven” (AT 802*). The oral nature of the narrative in question is supported by the chronograph itself. The title of its 18th chapter *         “The tale of the pagan fallacy, this Sovius is called god” contains an important indication of the genre  “something that exists orally, that is told”. The notion  lays and obligation on the modern researchers to use and consider primarily this authentic denomination.
Mythical Images in “The Seasons” by Kristijonas Donelaitis: the Grass
Authors: Razauskas Dainius
Published: November 2022

This article is a continuation in the series of works on the reflections of Lithuanian folklore and mythology in the classical poem “The Seasons” by Kristijonas Donelaitis, the famous 18th century Lithuanian author (see Razauskas 2014a: 32–44, 2014b, 2015: 9–14). Here, the focus is on the peculiar “grass mythology”, namely, the allegoric, symbolical, mythical traditional images related to grass (meadow, haymaking, etc.) found in the second part of the poem. First, the parallel between man and flower / plant is taken into consideration (lines 2.73–76, 94–95 of the poem). Further, attention is turned to the traditional image of the personified death (The Reaper) with a scythe (2.88–91, 440–447), and afterwards, the traditional parallel between war and haymaking is investigated (2.434–443). Finally, the image of the grass, herbs and meadows as a beard is approached (2.442–447). Every one of these topics is illustrated with considerable amount of examples from folklore and mythological sources of Lithuanians and other related peoples. The presented analysis leaves no doubts regarding the traditional nature of the images used by Donelaitis.
The Traditional Anecdote: What Did Lithuanians Find Funny in the End of the 19th–the Middle of the 20th Century?
Authors: Bandoriūtė Salomėja
Published: November 2022

The author of the article discusses the main themes of humor prevailing in the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century, and targets of mockery in the anecdotes. Seeking to answer the question, what Lithuanians during this period found funny, it was noted that humor reflects the relevant social issues and is usually based on certain stereotypic assumptions directed at some social groups. In the anecdotes, mockery is most frequently directed at three social groups: women, foreigners, and persons of higher social rank. So it can be assumed that humor is born whenever the opposition between us and them can be discerned. The analysis also proves that joking on obscene topics is rather common; this is based on the possibility provided by the occasion of the humor-making to express one’s inappropriate opinions on the tabooed topics, thus in a way breaking free from the socially established norms. The article yields rather ambivalent conclusions: it would hardly be right to assume that Lithuanians in the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century were all thinking stereotypically, and were foul-mouthed nationalists, atheists, and antifeminists; yet one can rightfully maintain that humor was, is and will always be a form of mockery directed at certain people and social groups.
Generous to the World and Close to Lithuania
Authors: Liugaitė-Černiauskienė Modesta
Published: November 2022

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LITUANUS: The Lithuanian Quarterly Journal of Arts and Sciences, vol. 60:4, Winter 2014
Authors: Ivanauskaitė-Šeibutienė Vita
Published: November 2022

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Chronicle
Authors: Norvaišienė Vida , Razauskas Dainius , Žarskienė Rūta , Ivanauskaitė-Šeibutienė Vita , Būgienė Lina
Published: November 2022

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The Mental Image of the Mountain Ash (Sorbus L.) in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language
Authors: Gritėnienė Aurelija
Published: November 2022

The article focuses on more than 200 illustrative sentences containing the word šermukšnis [‘mountain ash’], picked out from the twenty volumes of the “Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language” (Lietuvių kalbos žodynas – LKŽe). The aim of the author is describing the semantic image of the mountain ash as shaped in the dictionary, also establishing the peculiarities of this plant that emerge as the most important ones in its hypertext. While analyzing the accumulated materials using the interpretative, comparative and descriptive methods, the author of the article depicts the visual features and places of growing typical to the mountain ash, discusses the qualities and possible uses of its wood, elucidates its nutritional, medicinal and mythical characteristics. She also briefly outlines the way of presenting the mountain ash in Lithuanian folksongs and various divinations. The analysis of the illustrative samples given in the dictionary that contain the lexeme šermukšnis [‘mountain ash’] enables composing the general image of this plant. Namely, the mountain ash emerges as a slender, upright tree with pinnate, lobate leaves and white (in folksongs – red) blossoms, bearing red unsavoury fruit that can be pressed for juice or boiled for syrup, fermented for mead or wine, dried to store for the winter, fed to the pigs or eaten by birds. The quantity of its blossoms and fruit serve as a sign indicating the future weather or the expected harvest. This tree usually grows in the forest or on its outskirts, at the edge of the meadow, by the road, at the basis of the hill or on its slope, or close to the people’s homes. It is bound to dwarf other trees and exhaust the soil. Its bark, blossoms and fruit are allegedly medicinal (used to cure colds, ailments of liver, kidneys, stomach, etc.). The wood of the mountain ash is good for carving. In the context of the mythic worldview, the mountain ash emerges as an especially significant plant, praised by the Lithuanians for its medicinal qualities and honored for its special magical powers. The folklore and illustrations from the dictionary likewise testify to the peculiar effect of the mountain ash on the mythical beings: it protects people and human homes from witches, sorcerers, devils, pucks, fairies and their offspring, and other evil spirits. Devil is especially scared of its stick. The mountain ash also protects the livestock (including cows, horses and sheep) from various spells. Mythical powers of this tree are obvious in its ability to turn humans into werewolves and vice versa. Therefore, the mountain ash is clearly present in human life from birth to death.
Folklore Signs along the Way. In Memory of Adelė Seselskytė
Authors: Kadžytė Gražina
Published: November 2022

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