Reconceptualisation of Lithuanian national identity before the romanticism period in K. Sabaliauskaite's "Silva rerum"

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Tautybė; Tapatybė; Barokas; Valstybingumas; Nationality; Identity; Baroque; Statehood.

ENLithuanian literature has to reconsider the concept of national identity regarding history, which was enriched with the established structure of the Statehood. One of the most famous writers is Dr Kristina Sabaliauskaitė (born 1974), an art historian, cultural researcher and writer, who managed to rediscover the concept of Lithuanian mentality and concentrated on the lives and work of Lithuanian nobility. Family histories of the nobles of the XVIII century are described in her four books "Silva rerum" I-IV (lat. "Forest of Things") in a literary style which fascinates contemporary society. She adopts a flamboyant but genteel classical style, which becomes very relevant after the emptiness left by postmodernism and postromanticism, after frustration with humanity and ideas of Enlightenment. Particularly, it relates to the Baltic states with their experience of historical injustice and enforced ideologies by numerous occupations. K. Sabaliauskaitė’s Silva rerum (written in 2008-2016) leads to a reformation of the concept of Lithuanian identity, and her turn from romantic ethnocentrism to baroque has enriched the versatility of European culture. [From the publication]