The article notifies the significance of the cultural dialogue which has the history of four centuries, the dialogue between Prussian Lithuania and Lithuania Proper. Taken into account are the peculiarities of ethnic formation of both areas, as well as different strategies of assimilation policy used by Prussia and Russia. Consequently, these different strategies were accepted differently and yielded different effect. The activity of two cultural societies, that of Litauische literarische Gesellschaft, and that of Birutė is taken for comparison in the aspect of rising Lithuanian national self-consciousness, and the emphasis is laid upon sociopsichological aspects of the dialogue (which was not always direct) rather than upon historical or cultural parallels. To refresh run-of-the-mill academic attitude and discourse, unconventional literary means of the detective genre are put to use as a compositional and stylistic instrument.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 26 (2013): Kristijono Donelaičio epochos kultūrinės inovacijos = Cultural Innovations of the Epoch of Kristijonas Donelaitis, pp. 112–125
Abstract
The article presents the first programme of publishing Lithuanian secular literature in Prussian Lithuania proposed and carried out by Martin Ludwig Rhesa, professor of Königsberg University. The first publication of Donelaitis’ poem The Seasons prepared by Rhesa will be discussed by assessing Rhesa’s contribution to it: the editing, translation, and provision of the scientific part (a research study-article and scientific comments). The first reviews of The Seasons which started appearing in Königsberg and Germany in the period of 1818 to 1820 will be examined.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 26 (2013): Kristijono Donelaičio epochos kultūrinės inovacijos = Cultural Innovations of the Epoch of Kristijonas Donelaitis, pp. 79–89
Abstract
Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714-1780), who was born and lived in Prussian Lithuania, was a Lutheran priest, therefore, it was not surprising that his poem “The Seasons”, as it was observed a long time ago, reflected the Lutheran ideology prevailing in Prussia at that time. To date, the links of Donelaitis’ poetry with the that time hymnals of Prussian Lithuania have not been paid sufficient attention to, although the texts of a high artistic level published in the hymnals, mainly translated from the German originals, were bound to contribute to the mature poetic expression demonstrated in the writing of the poem to be considered the first masterpiece of the Lithuanian belles lettres. The issue was raised in the monograph by L. Gineitis “Kristijonas Donelaitis ir jo epocha” [Kristijonas Donelaitis and his Epoch], however, the author did not indicate the particular hymnals by means of which Donelaitis could have become acquainted with the church hymns that influenced his poetic imagination. That is understandable, since, during the Soviet times. Some important hymnals stored in the foreign libraries were unknown to, or unavailable to, Lithuanian scholars.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 23 (2011): Daugiareikšmės tapatybės tarpuerdvėse: Rytų Prūsijos atvejis XIX–XX amžiais = Ambiguous Identities in the Interspaces: The Case of East Prussia in the 19th and 20th Centuries = Die vieldeutigen Identitäten in den Zwischenräumen: Der Fall Ostpreußen…, pp. 128–135
Abstract
Between 1848 and 1871, German identity gained importance in East Prussia. The basis for the nationalization was the increased opportunities for communication in smaller cities and even villages in Prussian Lithuania provided by the newly founded associations. Additionally, the press developed into the most important medium allowing the adoption of national sentiments on a level wider than the local areas. A national movement encompassing all political camps did not appear on the German side. Only liberals and democrats supported the German national state. The conservatives remained distanced to the German nation state as they primarily identified themselves with Prussian patriotism.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 23 (2011): Daugiareikšmės tapatybės tarpuerdvėse: Rytų Prūsijos atvejis XIX–XX amžiais = Ambiguous Identities in the Interspaces: The Case of East Prussia in the 19th and 20th Centuries = Die vieldeutigen Identitäten in den Zwischenräumen: Der Fall Ostpreußen…, pp. 69–103
Abstract
The paper analyses particular meanings which integrated the Germans and Lithuanians living in Prussian Lithuania, defined their regional patriotism, and constituted the fundamentals of the regional culture of remembrance in the 19th and the early 20th c. It also examines the circumstances which, at the turn of the 20th c., gave an opportunity for part of Prussian Lithuanians to create alternative meanings, based on the Lithuanian historical master narrative, and encouraged Prussian Lithuanians to maintain their ethnic peculiarity and to support their distinction from Germans. Since Lithuanian historical narrative, created in Prussian Lithuania, became a source of alternative meanings, its structure, as well as the sources of its formation, is exhaustively analysed in the article. The author tries to resolve the issue whether the alternative culture of remembrance, based on the structure of meanings which were consolidated in the Lithuanian historical narrative and characterized by its own ceremonies, rituals, and monument erection practices, had formed in Prussia Lithuania.