Neo-Romanticism in Lithuanian literature
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Antipozityvizmas; Individualizmas; Literatūra, XX a. pirma pusė; Misticizmas; Modernizmas; Neoromantizmas; Simbolizmas; Anti-positivism; Individualism; Lithuanian literature, first half of 20th century; Misticism; Modernism; Mysticism; Neo-romanticism; Symbolism.
ENThe article reveals that at the beginning of the 20th century Lithuanian literature was permeated and shaped by neo-Romantic consciousness. A major shift took place in Lithuanian neo-Romanticist literature with the move from Positivist social to the anti- Positivist aesthetical individualist art. For the first time, the irrational aesthetical relationship with an environment derived of personal benefit and the alienation of art from everyday pragmatism came to be appreciated in Lithuanian literature. The notion of neo-Romanticism is not equally popular in all European literatures and literature histories. It is usually applied to the anti-Positivist artistic trends of 1890–1920, which opposed Rationalism, Realism and Naturalism. This term is used to define the return by some modernist literature to the values and artistic ideals of Romanticism at the turn of centuries (fin de siècle). In Lithuania neo-Romanticism started with Gabija, the first almanac of Lithuanian literature (1907), compiled by Herbačiauskas, and the polemics with Druskius-Jakštas in it. Neo-Romanticism blossomed during the war years with the publication of Pirmasai baras (Essential Developments, 1915). In the inter-war period, its mission was continued by the generation of post-Avant-Garde writers, who gathered around the journals Pjūvis (Incision, 1929–30) and Naujoji romuva (The New Romuva, 1931–1940). The first period of neo-Romanticism lasted from 1907 to 1922 and the following writers were part of it: Vydūnas, A. J. Herbačiauskas, Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė, Vaižgantas, Vincas Krėvė, Šatrijos Ragana, Balys Sruoga, Mykolaitis-Putinas, Ignas Šeinius, etc. Its own specific genres were cosmic visionism, romances, pastorals, poetic historical dramas, fairy tales and legends with repeating motives of night dreams.This trend encompasses introspection, lyricism, poetisation of rural origins and the beauty of nature, stylisation of folklore, psychological analysis of the feeling of love, idealistic relation to the world and free artistic forms, improvisation, spontaneity, intuitiveness, frequent use of metaphors and symbols, drawing parallels between humans and nature, melodiousness as well as an aroused and intimate style. The second melancholic post-Avant-Garde period lasted from 1922 to 1944. Two ideologues – Petras Juodelis and Juozas Keliuotis – were the key theorists of this period. In his article “Romantic idealism is making a come back…” (1929) Juodelis perceived Romanticism as a comprehensive depressive idealistic worldview of his generation. The writers attributed to the second stage of neo-Romanticism are the following: Jonas Aistis, A. Miškinis Salomėja Nėris, Bernardas Brazdžionis, etc. The tradition of the fairy-tale style and the lyrical Romanticism now acquired more features of pessimism, irony and the sense of a looming catastrophe. Although the synthetic, publicly exhibited sentimentality, abstractness and conservatism of the neo-romanticist art was parodied by avant-gardists, condemned by Marxists as an expression of ‘bourgeoisie nationalism’ and criticised as too sentimental by the generation of žemininkai (the new poet generation in exile), it continued throughout the entire 20th century. The end of the tradition was being reduced to the margins of Kitsch or graphomanic art and marked in the anthology Tretieji Vainikai (Third Wreaths) published 1975 in Chicago. In the Soviet Lithuania this tradition was transformed to the humanized Sovietic literature (E. Mieželaitis, J. Marcinkevičius, P. Širvys) or became a fruitful ground for the so-called archaic Modernism (Martinaitis, Juškaitis, Geda). Only at the end of the 20th century neo-Romanticism devolved and ran completely out of steam. [From the publication]
