Klaipėdos universitetas

The particular phenomenon of a Baltic style emerges in contemporary Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian organ music, related to the dimension of the depth and the cycles of waves, rising to appocalyptic transcendentality. Its features are like the style of eternity: eternal melody, monotony of rhythm, the power of the depths concentrating on eclipse and enlightenment. The philosophy of religion and nature, as well as aspects of pantheism, the search for ‘another space’, and the paradigm of the horizon of visuality, are clearly hidden in this semantic. All these ideas featured in the music could be called a Baltic phenomenon, the motivation of which is based on a confrontation with the agressive nature of the north and the Russian Empire. This concept is supported by the Baltic self, and is extended by the Lithuanian identity reconcept: the turn to Baroque and European connections in culture, statehood and the rationalism of the Enlightenment.

The debate on gastronomic culture and identity, the national heritage, national products and gastronomic nationalism, is one of the most active and popular in the contemporary public discourse. The increased importance of different identities in contemporary networked society drives the popularity of these topics. As a form of the intangible heritage, gastronomic culture is an evolving system that easily links past and present societies. In this way, the gastronomic heritage and the history of gastronomy are easily transferred to contemporary culture, and become the basis for various identities. Given that the intangible heritage operates in society through tangible representations, and that in gastronomic culture one of the most visible representations is dishes, this study analyses the communication of one of them, šaltibarščiai (cold soup), on the social network Facebook. The study aims to determine how the representation of a specific intangible element of the heritage is used to construct the Lithuanian national identity. The research has identified the most important topics of discussion, the discourses involved, and elements of the reality that are important for constructing the national identity and their interrelationships.

The region of Lithuania Minor to which the northern part of the Curonian Spit belongs, has been characterized by changing national affiliation in the course of the twentieth century (Germany, Soviet Union, Lithuania) and the resulting change of population. The following article analyses how different social actors have recurred to and managed the Curonian Spit’s cultural heritage. It shows how Curonian cultural heritage has been mobilized for the making of nationalist identities. Taking the case of the village of Nida (Nidden) it is shown that heritage is nothing fixed or given but is, in fact, produced over the course of time depending on the political, economic and social interests of the social actors involved as well as on the societal background. The example of the Curonian Spit and the making of cultural heritage is a contested and flexible process. Heritage is nothing fixed or given but is made and remade over the course of time, depending on the political, economic and social interests and power resources of the social actors involved. My examples have shown how the production of Curonian heritage has flexibly contributed to the making of German, Soviet as well as Lithuanian identities.