Prior to World War II, Lithuanian literature had already been poised to take a new creative leap, and thus it was at that point that the Soviet, and later the fascist, and later yet, another Soviet occupation, undermined it. A third group emigrated to the West. In spite of this, however, genuine literature survived even under the most difficult conditions. Poetry predominates in Lithuanian literature to this day. Lithuanians have often been called a nation of poets.
Poetry depicts the soul of the nation and the memory permeated with the tragedy of history.
In the form of songs, it has assisted in preserving the identity of the nation after the population has moved to the cities. For the sake of truthfulness, one must note that history has dictated the fact that there have always been, and continue to be, writers who write about Lithuania yet are not Lithuanians. The latter won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. Photo by K. Driskius.