Lietuvių egzilio prozos modernėjimo žingsniai : Antanas Škėma, Algirdas Landsbergis, Jonas Mekas

ENThis article concentrates on a comparison of the works of Lithuanian Modernist authors after WWII and investigates their thematic and aesthetic commonalities and differences. The younger generation of Lithuanian writers whose works debuted abroad were greatly influenced by Western literature. Many authors writing in Germany in 1945-1950 were characterized by a search for new forms of expression and a desire to communicate the existential isolation of people and the metaphysical condition of opposition since the usual reference points were lost, and new values had not yet been formalized. The time Antanas Škėma spent in Germany was marked by a period of intense creativity. He wrote short stories and plays and published satirical short stories about the lives of refugees in periodicals. A collection of short stories Nuodėguliai ir kibirkštys [Firebrands and Sparks] was published in 1947 wherein an appropriate form of expression developed a philosophical theme. This book, among all those published, presents the most painful instances of man's confrontation with death, the agony of catastrophic consequences, and the line of demarcation between life and madness. Škėma's works do not reflect factual realities - the hardships of exile, the nostalgia for the homeland left behind; rather, his people inhabit an imminent apocalypse against a background of the unfamiliar and loss. The author portrays the fragility and futility of human existence when faced with the destructive elements of war.And, for this reason, the tragic notes are replaced by irony marked by moments of melodrama and dominated by exaggerated emotion. Algirdas Landsbergis also began his creative life in the DP (Displaced Persons) camps of Germany. His early short stories were unique in their modernist fragmented structure and an existentialist portrayal of a complex reality. Kelionė [Journey], his debut novel published in the United States in 1954, actualized not only a new direction in the author's creative process, but also illustrated changes in the contemporary Lithuanian novel. The author chose the framework of the modern novel. [...] Jonas Mekas wrote poetry and prose in Germany. The central theme in his short stories is the absurdity, futility, and the inanity of life. Mekas's later works, published in the United States, progressed somewhat in clarity and convention, yet retained his characteristic device to merge accidental occurrences and trivia into a symbolic study of feeling and emotion, as though it were a constantly changing mosaic. His short story, "Vilkas" [Wolf] (1956), marked a transition to symbolism. Interest in Western philosophy and literature inspired young Lithuanian authors to experiment. Loss and separation, together with the discovery of new cultural phenomena, served to expand and diversify the Lithuanian literary tradition. For many authors, the cultural foundation for creativity was not an external reality, but internal truth and emotion which was expressed either simplistically or sometimes through abstract or surreal deformation of the artistic image. [text from author]