Krikščionybė ir šiuolaikinė lietuvių literatūra

LTKolektyvinė monografija nagrinėja krikščioniškųjų nuostatų ir vertybių raišką Nepriklausomos Lietuvos literatūroje (nuo 1990 m.): kokius klausimus šiuolaikinė lietuvių literatūra kelia krikščionybei, kiek šie klausimai yra nulemti tautos istorijos patirties, kuo šiuolaikinės lietuvių literatūros implikuojama krikščioniškoji savimonė yra savita Vakarų literatūros ir kultūros kontekste ir kuo ji šiam kontekstui artima. Knygos autoriai dr. Dalia Čiočytė (sudarytoja), dr. Asta Gustaitienė, dr. Dalia Jakaitė ir dr. Marijus Šidlauskas yra keturių Lietuvos universitetų mokslininkai, tyrinėjantys krikščioniškuosius literatūros kontekstus. Monografija atskleidžia trejetą šiuolaikinės lietuvių literatūros santykio su krikščionybe formų: tai tradicinis santykis (krikščioniškosios literatūros tąsa), ironiškasis santykis (iššūkis krikščionybei arba maištinga dievoieška) ir nauja, dabarčiai būdinga santykio versija – anoniminis krikščioniškumas. Pamatinė teorinė šios monografijos perspektyva yra literatūros teologija. Knyga skiriama visiems, o pirmiausia – tiems, kurie domisi metafiziniu literatūros semantikos lygmeniu ir pasitiki literatūros prasme, įvardyta amerikiečių šiuolaikinės katalikiškosios literatūros tyrėjo Paulo Elie: mes skaitome literatūrą siekdami suprasti save ir savo vietą žemėje. [Anotacija knygoje]

ENThe collective monograph Christianity and Contemporary Lithuanian Literature examines the Christian values and attitudes in the literature of the Independent Lithuania (since 1990). The authors of the collective monograph dr. Dalia Čiočytė (editor), dr. Asta Gustaitienė, dr. Dalia Jakaitė, dr. Marijus Šidlauskas are literary scholars studying the Christian literary contexts and representing four Lithuanian universities. The collective monograph is an extension of D. Čiočytė’s monograph Theological Aspects of Lithuanian Literature (Vilnius University Press, 2013). This previous monograph presents the theoretical perspective of theology of literature and the typology of the theological thought of Lithuanian literature and mainly investigates Lithuanian classics. On the basis of this previous study, a new monograph aims to examine the dialogue with Christianity, tensions and conflicts of the dialogue in contemporary Lithuanian literature. Modern literary relationship with Christianity is highly branched and complex, it provokes a pluralistic critical perspective. The modernization of the Christian worldview in Lithuanian literature is compared with the modernization of the Christian worldview in Western literature and thus the context of Western axiological thought is actualized. The main theoretical perspective of this collective monograph is theology of literature. It is combined with archetypal criticism, New Criticism, personalism, phenomenology, with social and cultural criticism with the aim to investigate the main tendencies of the Christian consciousness in contemporary Lithuanian culture.Theology of literature is the interdisciplinary theory that explains the relationships between literature and theology, combines aesthetical and theological criteria, investigates how literature explores questions of transcendence, investigates the theological context of literature, i.e., theology of literature investigates the Bible’s influence on literature, literary treatment of the various aspects of the Christian doctrine (Christology, Ecclesiology, Eschatology etc.), literary interpretation of Christian ethics, the reception of Christian literature and the existential religious search seen in literary works. Literature interprets and seeks to explain the existential experience of the individual and society. Consequently, the theological thought in literature is a variant of the individual theological quest. The main question raised by literary theological thought is always more concerned with a human being rather than with God, as literature itself is a form of human consciousness. God appears in the context of literary introspection when the artistic thought is seeking for God and meaning. The theology of literature investigates a literary theological insight. It investigates the literary interpretation of the origin and a sense of existence. Literary metaphor creates new modes to refer to deep religious experiences that are impossible to verbalize in concepts. Metaphor performs the opposite function as well as it protects the metaphysical realm from reduction.Theology of literature stresses the importance of the idiosyncrasy of literary theological thinking, its “literariness”. Thus the object of the research are works of contemporary Lithuanian literature that not only demonstrate an intensive dialogue with theological thought, but do this with the artistic strength of literature. The newest investigations of theology of literature present the subtle theoretical dispute with deconstruction, poststructuralism. Valentine Cunningham, a professor of English literature in Oxford university, in his books In the Reading Gaol: Postmodernity, Texts and History (1994) and Reading After Theory (2002) inscribes the principles of Christian criticism in the context of the postmodern thought. The scholar shows the philosophical boundary between Christian and postmodern criticism and the incompatibility of their main philosophical presumptions. Contemporary Western mentality demonstrates the shift from traditional harmonious Christian worldview to ultimate individualism and modern pessimism, and this is a serious challenge to Christian literature. Lithuanian Christian literature has got several additional challenges. One of them is the complication of the dialogue between Christianity and ancient Lithuanian religion. [...]. [From the publication]

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