Klaipėdos universitetas

The article is devoted to present the literary research results on another view of Poles in the novel ‘The White Shroud’ by Antanas Škėma (1910-1961). The negative image of Poles has been predominant in Lithuanian literature from the late 19th to the end of the 20th century and is linked to the stereotypical views of a very close ethnic community and to the traditional opposition of an ideal village to the corrupt manor-house. Antanas Škėma represents another paradigm in which characters of the Polish origin are as-sociated with the values of high culture as opposed to the cultural unawareness and the parochial conceit of the Lithuanian peasantry. Škėma’s novel The White Shroud holds its significance to Lithuanian culture for a number of reasons. A different view towards Polish cultural values – and the independent stance of the author on the issue – is one of them.