Body and soul: controversies of aesthetics of postmodernism in Post-Soviet space

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Antitekstas; Dezinformacija; Dezinformacijal kontekstas; Kontekstas; Kūniškumas; Literatūra; Marius Ivaškevičius; Posmodernizmas; Postmodernizmas; Postsovietizmas; Romanas „Žali“; Simuliacija; Simuliacijos; Anti-text; Context; Corporality; Disinformation; Lithuanian literature; Marius Ivaškevičius; Novel „Žali“ (“The Greens“); Post-Sovietism; Postmodernism; Simulations.

ENThe article discusses the latest discourse of Lithuanian literature and political reality with arisen aesthetical, ethical and historical conflicts. The interplay of the post-Sovietism still reflecting the Soviet interpretation of Empire and Lithuania as part of it and the interaction of postmodernism simulacra in M. Ivaškevičius‘ novel “The Greens” (2001) appears renewed because of the 2018 National Prize of literature awarded to the author. The novel awakes the series of deep wounds in the perception of post-war reality. The painful contradictions arise from the authorʼs voluntaristic simplicity in playing with traumatic history and his lack of research experience in certain problematic areas, in other words, the writerʼs literary superficiality assumes a bullying style. The philosopher Jūratė Baranova remembers in this context Sigmund Freudʼs idea about the infantility of writer as such. At present, this is particularly evident in Lithuania, when it becomes impossible to ignore history, reopened by the latest discoveries made by historians and archaeologists and by long hidden terrible testimonies of the partisan warfare. Therefore, this intersection of the three “post”: post-Sovietism, postmodernism and scholarly research of the past is particularly painful for many people, but relevant and inevitable. Such works, as “The Greens”, can only be understood in this context. [From the publication]