Search

The paper analyses Šatrijos Ragana's novella "In the Old Manor" (in Lithuanian: "Sename dvare") as a way in which an individual consciousness expresses itself when it discovers its own multi-layered relationship with the world. The story appears to be monologic, according to Mikhail Bakhtin's theory, with a dominating voice of the female narrator that marks all the material of the text by a single individual style and tone, which means that the main story line stays within the undivided scope of the female narrator. In Satrijos Ragana's text, memory functions as the main tool for self-knowledge that the narrator uses to reconstruct the testimony of her fluctuating consciousness looking back at itself. The interpretation of this novella aims at reconstructing the backbones of the narrator's worldview, which would serve to find out the different, at times essentially dissimilar ways in which she relates to the outer world. The analysis uses texts by Plato and Kohelet in order to reconstruct the notional field covering the processes of self-recognition (what is familiar to me and what is strange) and self-reflection (who I am and who I am not) of the narrator, embracing the figures of both Iruté and her mother. The novella is centred around the topic of time, therefore it accumulates the themes of memory, transience, loss, separation and death that appear as seen from different point of views when the author tells us about the life of other characters. The story shows a developing dialogue between alternative ways of experiencing or explaining the world, but these ways stay within the borders of a single consciousness. There are two poles in the story: one reveals Iruté's view of the world, with a delicate emphasis on a child's specific experience, her own individual vision and perception of the ways in which the world is constructed. The other pole covers her mother's position in life and her own perception of the world. In the introduction to her novella, the author presents a concentrated lyrical text to define the topical field of the whole narrative: this field is focused on the topic of life and death. The beginning of the text reveals a semantic field with a meaningful opposition of red and white colours: a symbolical form of introducing the notions of life and death. From the first sight, the white-coloured figures belonging to the same semantic field seem to have the meaning of life and living, while the red figures mean death. However, a more detailed analysis shows the ambivalence of the notions attached to these colours, i.e. the symbolical level of the story erases the border line between life and death. The introduction narrative reveals a living person (the narrator) approaching her dead mother that she is missing. The writer's desire to deny the end of human existence encourages her consciousness to look for ways to cover the distance between this world and the other side, which includes the past. Imagination, dreams and memory are the tools that the narrator can operate in order to ensure the continuity (retention) of the human existence. The story of her childhood (an experience imprisoned in the past, since it came to an end along with her childhood) serves as an answer to the question which - as a paraphrase of Kohelet's teaching - would sound in the following way: what is the use of experience if all things will elapse? The narrator remembers her childish relation to the world that enjoys being here and now, which is similar to the way of being that Kohelet describes: the way of existing that denies the metaphysical understanding of the world and covers but the scope of the visible side of life. The author shows the girl's life as being complete, not missing a single thing, or being similar to the goal that Kohelet defines in his book: to enjoy living and be pleased with the happiness of this visible world. To be more accurate, a person's life that is going on on this side is the only possible way of human existence that is available for a child's experience. The true position of an adult woman, based on a distinction between this side and the other side, the temporary and the eternal, the deficient and the ideal, originates from the cultural tradition relying on metaphysical understanding of the world - we can find its founding principles in Plato's philosophy. His contemplation on existence shows an obvious distinction between the true existence of eternal and immutable ideas and the visible, ever-changing and passing existence of this world that a human being can experience by his/her senses. In Šatrijos Ragana's story, an extreme situation stimulates the activity of the narrator's consciousness, helping her come closer to the source of vitality - her childhood experience. A child, who delights in the beauty of the world, gains a holistic experience that never divides anything into the above/the sky and below/the earth, into temporary/eternal, this side/the other side. Therefore, the image of the Garden of Eden, in the child's eyes, embodies itself in the living present, while the two poles that are incompatible in the adult's point of view - this side (something that passes and vanishes) and the other side (something that never changes and is eternal) merge in the child's experience. Without this experience, the adult part of consciousness starts to lack the desire to live. In this perspective, the eternal, never-changing, ideal and true existence coincides with the experience of Paradise that the child undergoes on this side and that the child's memory still preserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses Nerija Putinaitė's book "The Unbroken String. Adaptation and Resistance in Soviet Lithuania". N. Putinaitė adheres to the viewpoint of Hanna Arendt and other so-called totalitarianists who considered the Soviet regime as "the empire of evil". Even though, Putinaite's book does not present an exhaustive profile of the Soviet society as such, nevertheless, it initiated moral evaluation of the Soviet period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Istorija kaip politika: ivykių raidos apžvalgos," by Alfonsas Eidintas.

This article reviews "Lietuvos istoria (1795-2009.)" (Lithuanian history: 1795-2009), written by Arunas Gumuliauskas and published in 2010, which, according to the reviewer, is the first comprehensive history textbook that thoroughly covers Lithuanian history through the 20th century. The book emphasizes the 19th and 20th centuries, and is written in a style that the general reader, as well as the university student, can learn much. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a review of the book "Tarp laikinosios sostinės ir amžinojo miesto: Lietuvos ir Šventojo Sosto diplomatijos keliai," by Algimantas Kasparavičius.

This article reviews a book by Natalija Kasatkina, a sociologist, and Andrus Marcinkevicius, a historian: "Rusai Lietuvos Respublikos visumeneje 1918-1940 m. Istorenes retrospektyvos konstravimas" (Russians in Lithuania: constructing a retrospective history of society in the Republic, 1918-1940), published in 2009. The backgrounds of the authors help to make this a non-typical and more-thorough study of ethnic Russians in Lithuania during the interwar period.

This article presents a review of Algimantas Kasparavicius's "Lietuva 1938-1939 m. Neutraliteto iliuzijos" (Lithuania in 1938-1939: the illusion of neutrality), published in 2010, which examines Lithuania's policy of neutrality prior to World War II in the context of the policies of its Baltic, Soviet, and European neighbors, and Lithuania's limitations in terms of political and military power in following this course.

The article reviews the book "Lietuvos pramonės transformacijos ir jų socialinės-ekonominės pasėkmės," by Stankevičius Petras.

The article reviews the book "Geležiniai siauraašmeniai kirviai Lietuvoje," by Malonaitis Arvydas.

The article presents a review of the book "Istorija kaip politika: Istoriko ir diplomato straipsnių rinkinys," by Alfonsas Eidintas.

This article presents a book review of "Historians of Lithuanian Science. Vol. 1: Astronomy and Physics," compiled by Egle Makariuniene and Rasa Kivilsiene, and published in 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]