Lithuanian cultural memory in the memoirs of Daiva Markelis and Antanas Sileika

Abstract

The memoirs “The Barefoot Bingo Caller” by Antanas Sileika (born 1953) and “White Field, Black Sheep” by Daiva Markelis (born 1957) chronicle each memoirist’s search for their North American identity while negotiating a Lithuanian diaspora cultural memory inheritance constructed through rituals of memory, society, and culture. These memoirs narrate coming of age experiences set against family historical trauma memories from World War II and Soviet and Nazi occupations of Lithuania. The memoirs are set in the largest Lithuanian diaspora sites, Chicago and Toronto, and document how collective traumas are shaped into cultural memory with the goal of passing on memory.