Character in the Short Stories of Lithuanian Exile Writers Kazimieras Barėnas, Eduardas Cinzas and Algirdas Landsbergis: From Entrapment to Volcanic Breakthrough

Abstract

The aim of this article is to compare the characters in the short stories of Lithuanian exile writers with regard to their internal change from (self-)imprisonment to liberation. In particular, “Ona Karutienė’s mission” by Kazimieras Barėnas (real name Barauskas) (1907–2006), “Trap” by Eduardas Cinzas (real name Čiužas) (1924–1996) and “The writer M. visits the city of N.” by Algirdas Landsbergis (1924–2004) were analysed. Using analytical-descriptive analysis and the method of literary comparativism as well as the theoretical backgrounds of trauma literature, traumatic experience (Cathy Caruth, Kalí Tal), and cognitive psychology (Jeffrey E. Young, Janet S. Klosko), three different models of character thinking and behaviour were distinguished: from passivity and living in the “trap” of reconciliation (Barėnas’s Ona Karutienė); the inner desire to escape the trap, which ends in fiasco (Cinzas’s Jokūbas, Žermena) to a volcanic breakthrough (Landsbergis’s writer M.). It has been found that from the aspect of trap, the protagonists are not merely individualised characters. They can be seen as reflecting a collective traumatic experience and representing typical features of exile writers: insecurity, loneliness, and inability to realize dreams.