Transitions of Lithuanian postmodernism : Lithuanian literature in the post-Soviet period / / edited by Mindaugas Kvietkauskas.

• TeilnehmendeR: Kvietkauskas, Mindaugas.
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: On the boundary of two worlds : identity, freedom, and moral imagination in the Baltics ; 32
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (365 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In 1990, Lithuania was the first of fifteen Soviet Republics to proclaim its independence from the USSR and, in doing so, dealt a fatal blow to this superpower. Overnight, this small country, whose very existence had been erased from the world map for 50 years, became Post-Soviet and proclaimed its return to a multicultural Europe. So, what happened then in the lives of Lithuanians? How did they survive the collapse of a planned economy and the crisis of values? How does Lithuania, together with the other Baltic countries, which had once been the most prosperous Republics in the USSR, come to terms with the fact that they are now among the poorest member nations in another transnational configuration - the European Union? These issues are actively addressed in the works of contemporary Lithuanian writers, whose texts are analyzed in the collection of articles, Transitions of Lithuanian Postmodernism: Lithuanian Literature in the Post-Soviet Period. Utilizing various perspectives, leading Lithuanian literary scholars discuss identity transformations and the discourse of reinterpretations of the past in contemporary Lithuanian prose, poetry, essay writing, and memoir. This book reveals both existentially universal dramas and specific experiences that arise from this unique double-post (Post-Soviet and postmodern) condition.

Table of Contents

""Cover""; ""Title Page""; ""Copyright Page""; ""Table of Contents""; ""Introduction: The Paradox of the Double Post""; ""The History of Post-Soviet Literature: Challenges and Models of a New Identity""; ""Postmodernism as Conjuncture""; ""The Writer in the Post-Soviet State: Trends in Self-Interpretation""; ""Lithuanian Prose: In Search of a New Identity""; ""The Present of Past Things: Transformations of Lithuanian Historical Discourse""; ""Apocalyptic Imagination in the Novels of Riardas Gavelis""; ""Three Articulations of Isaac in Lithuanian Literature""

""Women's Literature and Its Readings"" ""Patterns of Post-War Memory""; ""Forms of Self-Awareness in Lithuanian Documentary Literature""; ""Lithuanian Essay: Between the Soviet Era and Independence ""; ""Tomas Venclova: The Poet and Totalitarianism""; ""Sources of Classicism in Contemporary Polish and Lithuanian Literature""; ""Lyric Poetry since the 1980's: Caught Between Unrest and Meditation""; ""The Art of the Unpoetic Poem: Trends in Post-Soviet Lithuanian Poetry""; ""Authors""; ""Index of Names""