Deeds and Days / Darbai ir Dienos

An interview with Danguole Mikulėniene about the history of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language

Danguolė Valančė — 2024-08-21

One more look at Vydūnas

Danutė Petrauskaitė — 2024-08-21

More than 70 years have passed since the death of the philosopher, writer and honorary doctor of VMU Vydūnas (1868–1953). Several scientific articles have been published on his works, his books have been reprinted, and conferences are regularly held to analyze the philosopher’s thoughts, which remain relevant today. Therefore, it is difficult to expect to find new sources, such as unpublished letters or memoirs, when everything seems to have been collected and systematized. However, sometimes it is possible to find important documents relating to Vydūnas in one archive or another one. This article discusses the relationship of the composer and musicologist Juozas Žilevičius (1891–1985) with the legendary thinker of Lithuania Minor, and presents the unknown memoirs of this musician, which provide an opportunity to gain a deeper insight into Vydūnas’ musical activities.

Challenges in adjective agreement: an experimental study on bilingual children and adults learning Lithuanian as a foreign language

Jonas Stepšys — 2024-08-21

This study aims to discuss the challenges faced by bilingual children and non-native adults in agreement of adjectival words while learning Lithuanian. The study used an experimental task based on children’s language corpus. This task was designed to reflect the diversity of adjectival and noun declension paradigms and grammatical categories. Data was collected from 35 bilingual children and 25 adults learning Lithuanian as a foreign language. The results of this study show that bilingual children primarily struggle with gender agreement in adjectival words, while non-native adults most frequently make errors in paradigm agreement. These errors are related to changing the endings of unproductive paradigms to productive ones, replication of noun inflections, and a preference for unmarked grammatical categories over marked ones.

Holocaust reflection in Icchokas Meras novel “Stalemate”: recreating of religious plots and chess game scripts

Kristina Tutlytė — 2024-08-21

The article analyses the reflection of the Holocaust situation in Icchokas Meras’ novel “Stalemate”, using the statements of the cognitive poetics scholar Peter Stockwell (the concepts of script and schema). The structural model of this novel is a chess game, the text is supplemented with biblical plots (the motif of a father sacrificing his children; the myth of the creation of the world), and a few additional scripts are built in – certain identities and behavioral patterns assumed by the characters in the novel. By describing the course of a chess game and in parallel depicting the fates, behavior and value choices of the novel’s characters, an allusion is symbolically created that in the ghetto, in fact, each character is forced to play a symbolic game with life and death, and that each decision, action, move affects the others. The text becomes allegorical and the rethinking of the Holocaust situation, based on a rational multi-layered construction, turns into an intriguing intellectual and emotional challenge.

Podcasts: A new media genre and its key characteristics

Sandra Paškevičiūtė — 2024-08-21

Over the past decade, podcasts – a relatively new media genre – have garnered significant and increasing attention in the public sphere. Although podcasts have been extensively covered in many online articles and their research has attracted growing scholarly interest, the understanding of what podcasts are varies to some extent. Different sources and authors define the phenomenon rather differently, each outlining different distinguishing characteristics of podcasts. Moreover, podcasting is often compared to radio broadcasting, with ongoing debates about whether it should be considered a new medium or an extension of radio. Employing genre analysis, this article aims to discuss the most characteristic aspects of podcasts, as well as their similarities and differences with radio shows, thereby offering general insights into this genre and its place within the broader media landscape. The article also includes a case study comparing a Lithuanian radio show with an independent podcast, discussing their most common characteristics, similarities, and differences.

Liminality in Jurga Ivanauskaitė’s novels “Agnijos Magija“ (Agnya’s Magic) and „Sapnų Nublokšti“ (Gone with Dreams)

Eglė Mikulskaitė — 2024-08-21

The article explores the liminal, i. e. a transitional stage in the novels „Agnijos magija“ (1995) and „Sapnų nublokšti“ (2000) by Jurga Ivanauskaitė. Liminality, according to anthropologists Arnold Van Gennep, Victor Turner and Bjørn Thomassen, is defined as an in-between, threshold state of separation from stable social / cultural conditions, the loss of previous identity landmarks. The aim is to view these novels against the background of the author’s biographical and Buddhist concepts, considering that Ivanauskaitė’s experiences in the East have had a significant impact on the ideas of the novels that are important to us and how they change. The liminal phase is revealed to have positive features, enabling spiritual development and integration into the world through Buddhism and personal effort („Agnijos magija“). However, the stuckness inherent in this stage can also be highly destructive, paralysing, and shackling to potential becoming („Sapnų nublokšti“). In both novels, the liminality experienced by the characters is marked by suffering, illusions, fanaticism, hostility to the environment and susceptibility to alien influences. Liminality is seen as a phase that should end in integration.

“Living Dead” motif in the trauma dramaturgy by Gintaras Grajauskas and José Sanchis Sinisterra

Gerda Pilipaitytė — 2024-08-21

These texts, written after the end of ideological regimes, offer insight into how contemporary literature conveys the complex experiences of the past and their impact on culture. Dramaturgy is a particularly suitable type of literature for developing a narrative of cultural trauma, as the trauma depicted is always linked to current issues. Dramas, like other traumatic texts, are characterized by certain motifs to convey the trauma in question. One such motif, the resurrected dead, is explored in this article by comparing contemporary Lithuanian and Spanish dramas that reveal the trauma caused by communist and fascist regimes. A comparative study allows us to highlight the manifestations of a culture influenced by the ideology of communism in literature and to identify what is typical of post-Soviet and post-Franco texts, and what is typical of European trauma drama in general. In this case, the motif of the resurrected dead was found to be a characteristic of both Lithuanian and Spanish drama, and its use adds drama, allows for a comparison between the past and the present, and can be a metaphor for collapse.

The riddles by Kavolis. The dilemma of intellectuals – then and now

Dainius Genys — 2024-08-21

By analyzing the early work of famous Lithuanian sociologist V. Kavolis and the analytical scheme of intellectuals unfolding in it, the article presents the Kavolian concept of intellectuals. The latter is associated with such a rationality in which a cold mind and a taintless conscience coexist, which promotes the duty to improve the reflection of public affairs by recognizing the awareness of one’s own limits and the right of others to think differently. The text discusses such features of intellectuals like cognitive, analytical and communicative abilities, forms of sociality that nurture concern for public affairs, and moral culture. Kavolis was concerned not only with the understanding of particular social phenomena, but also with the possibility of contributing to the development of individual and public awareness. After discussing the concept of intellectuals composed by Kavolis, the article indicates parallels related to his sociological imagination and particular research method, which converge and develop in the later work of the sociologist. Finally, it draws the line between the model of public intellectuals constructed by the author a few decades ago and its ability to interpret contemporary reality.

Lithuanian nationalists in the Eastern United States 1941–1943: from the Lithuanian American National Association to the Lithuanian American National Center

Juozas Skirius — 2024-08-21

This article examines the most serious problem of Lithuanian nationalists in the USA: the consolidation of fragmented groups. This fragmentation caused problems not only for the cooperation of all patriotic groups among Lithuanian Americans but also for the activities of the nationalists themselves. The focus is on the attempts of the nationalists of the Eastern States of the USA to unite their forces during the World War II to achieve unity of the entire Lithuanian nationalist movement in the USA. To this end, the Lithuanian American National Association, operating in New York-Brooklyn (1940–1943), was reorganized in 1943 into the Lithuanian American National Center, maintaining the hope that the Center would become a focal point for unification. By changing leadership, local nationalist forces managed to consolidate. However, there were still contradictions with the nationalists of the Western States of the USA, who, from 7-8 June 1941 onwards, concentrated in a new organization, the Union for the Liberation of Lithuania, in Cleveland, and showed greater activity. Both groups wanted to lead the Lithuanian nationalist movement in the USA which was one of the reasons for their disagreements. Although the organizations remained quite independent until 1949, the common actions for the liberation of Lithuania were coordinated in good faith. The issue at hand is one that has not yet been explored by historians, and the sources used are included for the first time in the study.

About the Ukrainian War Refugee Arrival Centre situated on the premises of the main exhibition venue and the refugees themselves from the staff perspective

Auridas Gajauskas — 2024-08-21

This article is intended to provide an overview of the structure and operation of the Ukrainian War Refugee Arrival Centre, which was established in the main exhibition venue of the city of Dresden, Messe Dresden, in spring and summer 2022, from the perspective of its staff. The article first focuses on the history of the building and its location in the city, then reviews its infrastructure and the general features of its operation. Although the refugees’ stay at the centre was treated and organised by the city authorities as short-term, many of them stayed there for more than three months. This contributed to the quality of life of the refugees, and the centre itself is approached in the article in a more ambiguous way, as a ‘camp’. The article focuses on the relationship between the children and other refugees and the staff of the ‘camp’, reviewing trends in the expression of structural violence, as well as the limits of multiculturalism ideology. It also briefly reflects on the relationship between the founder of the arrival centre, the organisation Johanniter Unfall Hilfe, and the practical conditions for improving the operational possibilities of the ‘camp’.

Literature in the time of war: Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas’ poetry collection “Rūsčios Dienos” and “Diary” (1938–1945)

Aurelija Mykolaitytė — 2024-08-21

This article analyses the works of Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas written during World War II. Both the diary and the poems emphasise the destruction of war, often looking for analogies with the Last Judgement. The alternative is human relationships, creative existence and the belief in freedom, trust in one’s own nation. The poet’s work can be described as resistance, as a testimony to suffering in the face of oppression and a defense of human dignity. The writer condemns the ideologies that enslave mankind and shows the degradation of humanity. Mykolaitis-Putinas completely avoided the aestheticization of war, did not create the myth of heroism, but tried to remain morally responsible and critically assessed reality.

Two voices. Life stories and their scientific retellings

Jurga Jonutytė — 2024-08-21

In this text on the link between social philosophy and the methodology of narrative storytelling, I first raise the question of an important aspect of any such research: the ethics of the retelling of narrative life stories, which is encountered in the presentation of research results and in the formulation of scientific conclusions. The article does not deal with the legal aspects of research ethics, but with the epistemological assumptions of the research methodology, in particular highlighting two very important ones: the problem of recognition and acknowledgement oriented towards the normative context (which, according to the classic Hegelian concept, has been developed by A. Honneth and J. Butler) and the participation of the narrative unconscious sphere in the action of narration (just as much as scientific retelling). The analysis of the narrative unconscious sphere is based on the texts by L. Althusser, F. Jameson, M. Freeman and H. Meretoya. The paper argues that the ethical retelling of another person’s life story can only be ethically carried out through a deep analysis that separates the normative contexts of the narrator and the reteller (the researcher), the elements belonging to the narrative sphere of the unconscious, and thus makes us aware of the two distinct voices that are involved in the retelling: the narrator and the researcher. If such an analysis has not been carried out, then the reteller unintentionally arranges the emphases of his/her interpretation in such a way that it will be his/her own voice and position rather than that of the person who narrated his/her life.

Revenge, the core notion underlying relations between indigenous hunters-herders and predators on the Yakutia taiga

Aivaras Jefanovas — 2024-08-21

This article considers the notion of revenge as an agency of wolves, bears and the master-spirits in the animistic worldview of indigenous Eveny and Sakha hunters and the reindeer herders of the Eveno-Bytantaiskii and Tomponskii ulusy (districts) of North Yakutia. Predators are perceived by hunters and herders as conscious non-human beings that can enter into relations with humans on a reciprocal basis. The possibility that predators may carry out revenge on people can be perceived as showing that there are similarities between humans and non-human predators. This article shows how the notions of reciprocity, similarity and relational symmetry between people and predators are reflected in the narratives and hunting rituals of indigenous hunters and herders. As comparative examples, the blood feud customs that earlier existed among the Tungus, Sakha people and Chukchee clans are also considered here. Although these customs no longer exist in the contemporary societies of the indigenous people of Yakutia, the notions underlying them very much reflect the human-predator relations on the taiga today.

Generational shift

Rūta Petrauskaitė — 2024-08-21

Generational shift

Rūta Petrauskaitė — 2024-08-21