Amazoniada

ENEven though Mykolas Vaitkus (1883-1973) is not considered to be a classic, he was a well-known priest and writer of interwar Lithuania who experimented with various literary genres. [...] Although Vaitkus published many books and much of his work appeared in the press, for a long time there was little information about his early writing. [...] Recently, however, a significant part of Vaitkus' personal diaries and unpublished manuscripts were uncovered in the archives of the Curia of the Archdiocese of Kaunas. One of the most unexpected discoveries was the play Amazoniada (1923), which to date has been neither published nor performed on stage. [...] Two notebooks of the manuscript of Amazonioda are kept in the archives of the Curia of the Archdiocese of Kaunas. The thinner of the two, full of corrections and visibly edited, contains only part of the play-acts I, II and III; the second notebook that should contain acts VI and V has not been found yet. A textological analysis has concluded that this was the first draft of the play. Even though this rough copy does not cover the entire text, it is immensely valuable: unlike the other surviving manuscript, it holds the record of the title of the play and the date of its writing. The second surviving manuscript is a thick hardcover notebook filled with neat cursive script and only sparse, minor editing. In this final draft Vaitkus penned the whole text, including acts IV and V, and it is considered to be the completed version of the play. Almost all the corrections and expansions made by the writer in the rough copy, as well as some more comprehensive stage directions included to define some details, appear in the second manuscript.While Amazoniada is not particularly accomplished in dramaturgical or stylistic terms, it attracts the attention of literary and culture scholars for the antifeminist dystopia it portrays. [...] Amazoniada [...] is the only known example of an antifeminist dystopia in Lithuanian literature. The play reflects the literary and social processes of the thenWestern world: the intensifying feminist movement, the emerging image of the modern woman, and the gradual change of gender roles in society. [...] The satirical depiction of amazons can be traced to the age of antiquity. At the beginning of the twentieth century it was a popular weapon in the fight against feminism. A comic portrayal of female authority was meant to convey that women were too stupid to be taken seriously. Such a position is promoted in Amazonija (1927-1932) by Vytautas Bičiūnas, a work inspired by Amazoniada by Vaitkus. Bičiūnas refuses to address relevant social issues, making an attempt at comedy instead. [...] The second trend of antifeminist literature that draws on the amazon's image is the antifeminist dystopia. Here civilization collapses as a result of women claiming too much freedom and taking authority into their own hands. Writers created apocalyptic visions of the future and tried to explain why it was necessary to fight against strong women and tame them. Obviously Vaitkus identified with the platoon of men who saw the feminist movement as a threat to society's safety, stability and overall welfare. The drama Amazoniada, while unique in the context of Lithuanian literature, is quite symptomatic of twentieth-century European and American literature.Notably, Vaitkus expressed his idea in the form of a drama which was unusual even for the rich Western literature where utopias usually took the form of novels. In Amazoniada Vaitkus attempts to envisage Lithuania over two centuries into the future (the drama was written in 1923 and is set in 2132). He speculates that the futuristic society of Lithuania will be plagued by hardships mostly caused by the feminist movement and friction between genders. [...] Vaitkus called upon the so-called Catholic feminism which proclaimed that the human value of men and women was equal by nature, but both genders had different purposes to fulfil in life. It is presupposed that men and women should respect each other and compliantly perform the duties bestowed upon them by God; any other course of action would prove disastrous to humanity, just like the social crisis described in Amazoniada. [...] In the context of our modern literature, which was only taking its first timid steps, Vaitkus should be considered brave, innovative and progressive just for bringing up these questions and excused for the limitations of his work. Described as schematic, allegorical and neither original in message nor modern in form, Vaitkus' plays can obviously be reinterpreted in the light of Amazoniada. In this drama Vaitkus emerged as a creator who eagerly responded to relevant realities of the day and did not fear to tread the path of a modern quest. Not only did he depict the catastrophic consequences of the feminist ideology, but he also tried to find a compromise - a common ground between an despotic patriarchy and radical feminism. He attempted to discuss the issue of women's emancipation as opposed to imposing his opinion as correct and unquestionable. Such a position allows us not only to adjust our attitude towards the writer's work, but also to take a fresh look at the formation of (anti)feminist discourse in Lithuanian interwar literature. [From the publication]