Papasakoti Trakai

LTŠi knyga - apie Trakus, vietą, kuri visiems Lietuvos gyventojams gerai žinoma, bet menkai pažinta. Vietą, kuri vietiniams trakiečiams pirmiausia yra namai, savas kiemas. Kiekvienas lankytojas, atvykęs čia pamatyti Trakų Salos pilies, sykiu atsiduria intymioje atminties ir patirčių prisotintoje erdvėje. Sėslumas, prigimtas ryšys su vieta yra kone svarbiausia sąlyga vietos atminčiai gyvuoti, bendruomenėms rastis, jas vienijantiems pasakojimams sklisti. O jei toje pačioje vietoje gyvena net kelios kartos, jų kultūrinės patirtys tampa neatsiejama kraštovaizdžio savastimi. Iš tiesų Trakai turi tarytum du veidus: vieną jų formuoja Trakų kaip Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės atminties vietos (lieu de mémoire) vaizdiniai, kitą - kasdienis žmonių pasaulis. Tai simbolinė vadinamojo didžiojo tautos pasakojimo vieta, kur patiriamas ryšys su valstybės tapsmo, "didingųjų laikų" etapu. Lietuviškajame nacionaliniame naratyve tai viduramžiai - Gediminaičių valdymo laikai. Žinoma, didysis pasakojimas negimsta savaime. Jis formuojamas istorikų, įtvirtinamas politikų, įsisavinamas minint valstybines šventes, per turizmą ir kitokias atminties kultūros sklaidos formas. Vis dėlto nereikia pervertinti šio pasakojimo įtakos vietos gyventojų savivokai - gerokai didesnį poveikį jai daro kasdienis gyvenimas ir subjektyvios patirtys. Kasdienis pasaulis egzistuoja pagal savo vidinius dėsnius, kuriuos lemia žmonių veikla, buitis, etninė ir religinė tapatybė, pasakojimai. [Iš Įvado]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Trakai; Istorija; Pasakojimai; Atsiminimai; Etnologija; Tautosaka; Lithuania; Trakai; History; Narratives; Memories; Ethnology; Folklore.

ENThis book is about Trakai - a place well known to all of Lithuania, yet few have truly discovered it. A place that to the local inhabitants is, first and foremost, their home and truly their own backyard. Each visitor coming to see Trakai castle at the same time can find themselves in a space full of memories and experiences. To discover it fully, one must first listen to what the locals say, try to look at Trakai through their eyes. A sedentary way of life and an innate connection with a place is one of the key conditions for that place s memory to thrive, for communities to settle, and for the stories that connect them to appear. Moreover, if several generations live in the same place, their cultural experiences become an integral part of the landscape. In truth, Trakai seems to have two faces: one of them formed by imagery of Trakai as the lieu de mėmoire of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL), while the other - by the everyday world of the people. This is the symbolic place of the so-called great national narrative, where a connection with the past is experienced, a past where the nation had thrived in its period of “greatness”. In the Lithuanian national narrative, this would mean the Middle Ages, the period of the rule of the Gediminid dynasty. Of course, the great narrative is not born on its own - it is formed by historians, reinforced by politicians, absorbed through commemoration of national holidays, through tourism and other forms of disseminating the culture of memory. Nevertheless, we should not overestimate the impact of this narrative on the self-identity of the local people. A significantly greater impact is made by daily life and subjective experiences.The everyday world exists in accordance with its own internal laws, which are determined by human activity, daily life, ethnic and religious identity, stories. In truth, it is impacted by some elements of the imagery of Trakai as the location of memory of the GDL: the castles of the grand dukes (first of all, Vytautas the Great) acting as reminders of their great deeds, the church with the image of the Mother of God, hailed as the patron saint of the GDL, and the multi-ethnic variety of the local community. This seems to ensure the continuity of some of the features of the cultural place, which can be noticed when studying the stories told by the people. More and more often, they reflect interpersonal relations, as well as quite significant changes that took place in the 20th c., changes that affected the city’s architectural face, the community. The basis for the book is field studies, during which people were interviewed. The stories of their lives, their testimonies about places, historical events, people, where written down applying the in-depth interview method. This method is combined with participant observation, which is well-known in cultural anthropology - spending time with the people being interviewed, noting the motives for their behaviour, by participating in the life of the community. The ages of the people interviewed ranged from 50 to 94. Some of them were locals, born and raised in Trakai, while others were newcomers, yet had more or less settled down in this place. In total, 60 people were interviewed, of which 46 were quoted in the book. Of all the people who participated in the study, several main contributors were selected. Based on their stories, the main interview questions were formed, which eventually determined the thematic structure of the book. The most important interviewee was Michailas Zajančkovskis. He is the only person presented here with his full name and surname.I am particularly grateful to him for the many hours we spent talking about Trakai. We could say that in the monograph, Michailas’ version of Trakai is reproduced. In the book, he and other interviewees are indicated with their initials, which correspond to the first letters of their name and surname. The list of people, with their birth date and nationality also listed, is presented at the end of the book. On the one hand, such a way of introducing the interviewees protects them from too-direct associations. On the other hand, the people of Trakai are encouraged to sort of play a game, to try and recognise their friends and neighbours from their stories and initials. In a certain sense, this research has been taking place my entire life, as I, the author of this book, am from Trakai myself. When I began to collect the memories of the local people, I realised that Trakai has many places with cultural content that was unknown to me, simply because I am not connected to this town through three generations. I consciously chose to study the stories told by people from the older generation, looking within them for the content that was missing from an entire generation, or even two generations of new settlers, who had come to Trakai in the second half of the 20th c. There are still newcomers even in the 21st c. Therefore, academic literature, such as this monograph, can become practically the only source to present such a portrait of Trakai, the most tangible manifestation of which can be found in the narratives of older-generation people from Trakai. In listening to these stories, I tried to understand how the orally transmitted experiences of other people began to impact mine. The stories that I heard opened up a treasure trove of knowledge about Trakai, which to me was new, but not foreign. [From the publication]

• Etnologija / Ethnology
• Istorija / History