Literature as a performative act; Nation as literature. Nineteenth-century Lithuanian literature from a Slavonic perspective

ENThe present paper is, in a way, a synthesis ofseveral years of studies that I have conducted, first on the bilingualism of Lithuanian literature created in 1795-1831, and then on the multilingualism of Lithuanian literature in the whole of the nineteenth century. In terms of study material, it is based primarily on the research work I carried out in 2013-2018, while in terms of methodology I consider it to be the result of meta-reflection that puts the previous detailed findings in order and thus allows me to present a new overall view ofthe importance of nineteenth-century Lithuanian literature. My position in relation to Lithuanian literature was, is, and will remain specific. Firstly, because I am a Slavonic scholar specialising in the history of Polish literature and, secondly, because of my Polish nationality. Hence, at first, I was interested in texts written in Polish, then in Lithuanian, and finally in other languages (such as Latin sermons, Belarusian poems, Russian journalism, etc.). This hierarchy is unlikely to be seen here, but it is important in terms of the origin and structure ofthis study. I intend to show what constitutes the essence ofthe greatness of nineteenth-century Lithuanian literature as viewed from the Polish point of view. This is - I will say it straight away - a very peculiar greatness, as I have not found in this literature a single work that could be called a masterpiece or whose artistic value would make it worthy oftranslation into the leading world languages.Somewhat by the way, I also put forward the thesis that from the perspective ofthe cultural history ofthe nineteenth century (and earlier times), Slavonic literary studies are a violently arbitrary construct in the sense that they do not take into consideration texts written in non-Slavonic languages (Baltic, Jewish, German), even though the latter symbiotically and synergistically coexisted with works written in Polish, Belarusian or Russian and together created a mosaic culture ofLithuanian lands. [Extract, p. 255-256]