Klaipėdos universitetas

The article discusses the problem of spatial localization of Lithuanian literature and literature in general in the context of centre / periphery relations. The emphasis is laid upon the relative character of the concepts of centre and periphery, the fact which forestalls the formalistic or unconditional approach to the spatial existence of literature, when it is seen as isolated from historical, social and metaphysical implications of time. The author enters into polemics with postmodernistic treatment of culture and literature where hierarchic value system is no longer valid. He also proposes that modern culture is no longer literary-central and directs attention to the dramatic shifts in value-judgements and the consequences of the process.

Works of fiction and memoirs relating to the First World War written in the Lithuanian language or by Lithuanian authors have so far not been a preoccupation of Lithuanian literary scholars. Due to the breadth of the topic, the analysis in this article is limited to the most important works of fiction and witnesses’ memories of the Great War. The first fictional and documentary works analysed in the article were written during the war itself, the last at the beginning of the Second World War. There is quite a large and very varied (from the point of view of artistic quality) amount of this kind of literature. Using methods of narratology and comparison, the author sets out to analyse the main themes, plots and possible influences, while placing the writings in the history of Lithuanian literature.

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.

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.