Upių reikšmė literatūrinei tarpukario Kauno topografijai

LTRemiantis teorine-metodine literatūrinės topografijos prieiga, straipsnyje siekiama parodyti, kaip konkrečios tarpukario Kauno geografinės erdvės ir vietos tampa literatūriniais kraštovaizdžiais. Dėmesys sutelkiamas į didžiąsias ir mažąsias miestą vagojančias upes, atskleidžiant jų kaip Kauno kraštovaizdžio dominančių reikšmę. Rekonstruojant literatūrinį tarpukario Kauno žemėlapį, pirmiausia aptariama upių reikšmė vidinei miesto topografijai, vėliau parodoma, kaip upės išplečia topografinę erdvę už miesto ribų. Vieną ant kito dedant įvairių autorių prozos tekstus, išryškinamos vidinės ir išorinės literatūrinės tarpukario Kauno topografijos ribos, sutankėjimai, judėjimo kryptys, konkrečių vietų, tekstų ir subjektų santykis, nulemiantis tapatybės formavimosi procesus bei skirtingas žiūros perspektyvas. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Geokritika; Kaunas; Literatūrinis kraštovaizdis; Literatūrinė topografija; Tarpukario literatūra; Geocriticism; Interwar literature; Kaunas; Literary landscape; Literary topography.

ENThe paper focuses on how significant the Nemunas and other rivers were for the literary topography of interwar Kaunas. In the works of Sigrida Weigel, Bertrand Westphal, and Barbara Piatti, which are the theoretical-methodological reference point of this study, the literary spaces and locations are understood not as figures or topos, but as actual geographically defined places. The method of literary topography is useful because it facilitates a comparison of works written in different periods. In this way it becomes possible to discuss cartographical descriptions of Kaunas and its environs in literature and to render meaning to one location or another with emphasis on the connections between places, texts, writers, and the characters they create. The analysis of the literary topography of interwar Kaunas reveals the significance of rivers as dominants of the cityscape. Topographic densities brought about by rivers are important both in defining the overall space of Kaunas (boundaries, connections, the harmony of various urban elements) and in pointing out specific features of spaces of individual city areas or suburbs. Since rivers separate the city from the no longer a city / not yet a city, divide parts of the city that are ethnically, culturally and socially different, and exert a physical, emotional, and psychological impact, they should be considered not only passive elements of literary landscapes, but also active factors that shape the identities of literary heroes.Rivers affect the internal literary topography of interwar Kaunas: in some instances they expand this topography by connecting the suburbs and the city’s environs to the urban space. This is especially true in the case of the lower reaches of the Nemunas that are important for trade, passenger transportation and recreation: a steamboat trip to the resorts along the Nemunas was a frequent motif in the texts depicting interwar Kaunas. The literary space of Kaunas is less frequently expanded in the direction of the upper reaches of the Nemunas, of the Neris and the Nevėžis rivers. Nevertheless, the whole of these expansions makes it possible to talk of a general topographical zone of Kaunas by including somewhat distant places of action into the literary landscape of Kaunas. [From the publication]