Telpas un laika robežas Latvijas pierobežas Saldus novada lietuviešu ikdienas apziņā
ENThe article is based on the study of the interpretations of space and time perception experienced in daily life of Latvian borderland Lithuanians and expressed through biographical narratives. These narratives reveal the importance of culture of their original community, which is left “behind the border”, they also demonstrate ethnic orientations of narrators themselves and of their successors, expressed through memories, evaluations, standpoints, language usage etc. These narratives also reflect feelings of integration into Latvian society, characteristic features of their present identity, their attitudes towards core inhabitants and mutual opinions about the other party. The research also has provided their evaluation of past and present in terms of “then” and “now”, where “then” represents mainly the Soviet period, whereas “now” refers to the period from the restoration of independence of both nations until so-called ethnographic present. Empirical field work materials display a certain character of spontaneity, they are not subject to censorship as in terms of political correctness, so from emotional perspective, thus revealing complexity of mutual attitudes and relations of different ethnic groups residing in one country; this complexity covers really broad spectrum from indifference to admiration, from hatred to full self-identification within another ethnic group or even to unwillingness to recognize one’s own inherited ethnic identity.
