Res Humanitariae

Works of art that visualise historical events are very specific. The artists who create them are constantly faced with the dilemma of how far they can move from a realistic image in the work, and how to interpret a historical event so that it will be recognisable to the viewer, but at the same time maintain the innovativeness of the form and the pulse of the times. Artists were pushed into this dilemma by the era of Modernism and its principled desire to deny the importance of the storyline and the illustrative image. They had the choice of staying within the framework of conservative realism, or finding a way out. Therefore, this article seeks to reveal the solutions discovered by Modernist artists visualising events in Lithuanian history. The wide period (the 1930s and the 1990s) chosen for the study obliges us to single out the most outstanding examples, which do not adhere to a realistic view and the illustrative presentation of the event.

Straipsnyje lyginamas krikščioniškojo voto amato vaidmuo ikisovietinėje ir posovietinėje Ukrainoje. Voto tradicija Ukrainoje sovietmečiu apmirė ir atgimė tik iš dalies, o ne ypatingo amato lygmeniu, anksčiau paplitusiu įvairaus lygio juvelyrikos dirbtuvėse tiek miesto, tiek kaimo gyvenvietėse. Todėl šios tradicijos transformacija sovietų valdžios laikotarpiu reikalauja tolesnio giluminio tyrimo, atsižvelgiant į laipsnišką Ukrainos teritorijos įstojimą į SSRS.

The collective memory of people in the post-Soviet space preserves some stereotypes, and they have a certain influence on the cognitive process. For example, the focus on interfaith conflict, as well as silencing issues of constructive interaction, was a deliberate manipulation. The author set the goal of analysing intercultural contact between different ethnic groups in the religious practice of votive offerings in Ukrainian lands. The attribution of votive offerings preserved in museums in Ukraine shows that the tradition was widespread, but waned during the Soviet era.

Fr Jurgis Pabrėža (1771-1849), who was born 250 years ago, gave suggestive and memorable, timely and modern, and professionally written and delivered sermons to believers. Pabrėža himself compiled collections of sermons (a total of ten sets of sermons), and divided them by topic. The subject of this article is one of the surviving collections of sermons, ‘Sermons on Various Matters’. In his sermons, Pabrėža adheres to the Church tradition by referring to the Bible, the documents of the Ecumenical Councils of the Church, and the teachings of the Church Fathers, popes and saints. While thinking and deliberating in his heart, taking up theological studies, reading and studying the Holy Scriptures, and practising spiritual exercises, the preacher examines the current affairs of the time, and applies traditional teaching to them. Pabrėža’s goal was to preach the Word of God, keeping science and faith in close unity, in order ‘to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Thessalonians 5:9), the Incarnate Word of God. The Word preached by the priest, i.e. Jesus Christ, is God Himself, and all words refer to the Word, which is never only the past, but always both the present and the future.

The article presents theological thoughts on eschatological themes of Sergei Bulgakov, one of the most prominent theologians and priests in the Russian Orthodox Church in the late 19th and early 20th century. These themes touch on theological concepts of God’s last judgment, heaven and hell. Bulgakov interprets God’s last judgment in a very modern way, as a confrontation of the truth with its own primordial image in the idea of God. To the extent that the ‘final’ life of the person who has lived it differs from the best version of what it could have been if God’s will had been followed, so does the pain of unrealised happiness. The outcome of such a confrontation with truth is either heaven or hell. For Bulgakov, hell is not infinitely eternal. He believes that at the very end, when time and space no longer exist, those in hell can still experience God’s mercy. Hell is a lost God, heaven is a found God. Such thoughts are made all the more dramatic by the fact that Bulgakov’s work took place at a difficult political, economic and cultural time, both in Russia and in Europe, with the Bolshevik October Revolution, the First World War, and the Second World War. The influence of these processes on theology is also a focus of the article.

In the article, using authentic Lithuanian material, the celebration of St Martin’s Day in Lithuania Minor is analysed from a chronological point of view (from the first mention to the present day), in order to show the general stages in the development of the festival, and the modern changes to the customs. The paper analyses the St Martin’s Day feast from the late 19th to the 20th century, showing the structural and functional changes in the calendar feast. It also aims to analyse modern customs in the festival (since 2002), and to discuss the prospects for the continuity of the ethnic tradition in today’s festival.

The article focuses on the drinking habits of Swedish higher education students at the beginning of the 21st century. The main aim of the research is to determine the traditions of alcohol consumption. In February and March 2021, a quantitative survey was conducted, with interviews among 96 students who had studied or were still studying in Sweden. The article presents the most common occasions on which students choose to consume alcohol, and discusses students’ choices of strong alcoholic beverages and their attitudes about alcohol consumption at student festivals and on other occasions. The research reveals that the pressure to consume alcohol is felt from friends. However, the consumption of strong alcoholic beverages is not evaluated negatively at student festivals.

ge group of professional scientists and local ethno-culture preservation enthusiasts. The collected audio and video material is transferred to the most famous folklore archives in Kyiv, Lviv and Dnipro, and to regional cultural heritage protection institutions. It is a time-consuming process which is not always carried out systematically and consistently. In February 2022, the hostilities launched by the Russo-fascists in Ukraine fundamentally changed the specifics of this work. In these difficult conditions, it is necessary to look for opportunities urgently to transfer the mentioned recordings of ethnographic material, or copies of them, for storage in similar secure foreign archives. The article provides information about the author’s personal recordings of Ukrainian folklore, their scope, preservation possibilities, and the prospects for their documentation and research in Vilnius, in the archive of the Department of Folklore of the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore.

From the earliest descriptions and studies, the Prussian Lithuanians, or Lietuvininkai, and their sung folklore have usually been treated as one unit. However, the ethnographic region of Lithuania Minor is a vast territory stretching over 200 kilometres from north to south. Two distinct areas of ethnic Lietuvininkai music can be identified within it. This article aims to investigate the musical features of the folklore that existed in the Klaipėda district, and to reveal its uniqueness in the context of Lietuvininkai sung folklore.

Vaidybinis filmas „24 savaitės“ („24 Wochen“) – meniškai ir gyvenimiškai įtaigus pasakojimas apie tėvus, kurie laukiasi Dauno sindromą ir širdies ydą turinčio vaiko. Po emociškai įtempto tarpasmeninio svarstymo, veikiant emociniams artimiausių žmonių santykiams ir socialinėms profesinių santykių aplinkybėms bei visuomenės požiūriui, mama pasirenka vėlyvąjį vaisiaus abortą. Visa draminė istorija, tragedijai artimos peripetijos, emocinė dialogų sugestija, poetiškumo turintis prologas ir epilogas teikia paskatų šį filmą suvokti ne tik kino meno, bet ir literatūriniu, socialiniu bei gyvenimišku požiūriu. Vienas ir kitas rakursas parankūs siekiant pagrindinio straipsnio tikslo – fenomenologiškai aprašyti ir ištirti filme iškylančią protinės negalios (intelekto sutrikimo) refleksiją.