Kultūrišku keliu: Juozo Tumo-Vaižganto laiškai

LTŠi Vaižganto laiškams skirta monografija - pastanga pasigilinti j jo kultūrinio darbo, literatūros ir publicistikos tekstų savitumą, daugiausiai dėmesio skiriant susirašinėjimui su kultūros lauko asmenimis, tačiau tuo neapsiribojant - į tyrimo imtį įtraukiama ir korespondencija su šeima bei kitų žanrų Tumo ir jo amžininkų tekstai. Nors susitelkiama į Vaižganto tekstus ir kultūrinę veiklą, manau, jo laiškų temos, laiškuose modeliuojami kultūriniai santykiai ir net tekstų raiškos pokyčiai gali būti sietini su lietuvių kultūros ir literatūros laukų raida apskritai. Todėl tikiuosi, kad aptardama Tumo epistoliką prisidedu prie kitų XIX a. pabaigos ir XX a. pradžios lietuvių literatūros istorijos tyrimų ir kad ši knyga gali būti įdomi ne tik mėgstantiems Vaižgantą. [Iš Pratarmės]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Vaižgantas; Dokumentai; Katalikų Bažnyčia; Dvasininkija; Rašytojai.

ENThe monograph Kultūrišku keliu: Juozo Tumo-Vaižganto laiškai (In a Cultural Way: The Letters of Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas) deals with one of the largest epistolary legacies in Lithuanian literature - the letters of Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas (1869-1933). Vaižgantas's epistolary discourse is a dynamic phenomenon that chronologically encompasses the period of intense formation of modern Lithuanian culture from national revival at the end of the nineteenth century (the first extant letter is dated 1892) to the early 1930s (Vaižgantas died in 1933). The aspects of the correspondence discussed in the monograph are diverse; they substantiate and expand Vytautas Kavolis's conception of Vaižgantas as 'an independent individual', while epistolary discourse opens a broad outlook on the cultural and literary fields of the late nineteenth-early twentieth century. Vaižgantas maintained intensive correspondence with Catholic public figures and writers-priests of his own generation (Aleksandras Dambrauskas-Adomas Jakštas, Antanas Kaupas, Julijonas Lindė-Dobilas and others), younger figures of the cultural field who shared views similar to his (Marija Pečkauskaitė-Šatrijos Ragana, Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, Kazimieras Jokantas), writers and journalists that held different opinions (Liudas Gira, Kazys Puida, Ona Pleirytė-Puidienė-Vaidilutė, Juozas Kubilius, Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė), and modern writers and critics of that time (Matas Grigonis, Antanas Giedraitis-Giedrius, Petronėlė Orintaitė and others). The letters formulate the relationship of the epistolary self with the addressees, build and assume the cultural identity and models of cultural action, contain the circulation of social, symbolical, and cultural capital, and serve as a 'writing practice'.The main aim of this study is to define epistolary discourse as an original communicative phenomenon relevant to the Lithuanian culture of the late nineteenth-early twentieth century and then examine the nature of Vaižgantas's epistolary discourse, its relation to other discourses, and its functioning in the fields of culture and literature. In the study into this corpus of letters, attention is focused on the agency of epistolary discourse and on the meanings established in the evolving Lithuanian cultural community in general and the history of the writer's works in particular. Since letters have not yet attracted much independent attention in the tradition of Lithuanian literary research, the choice of research methodology was determined by the shortage of studies dealing with this particular subject and the aspiration to approach epistolary discourse as a conceptual textual and communicational whole, taking all aspects of this discursive phenomenon into account. Examination of these letters belongs to the field of sociocultural literary analysis. Insights of New Historicism that substantiate the reading of literary and non-literary discourses as participants in the overall circulation of cultural meanings is central in defining the relation of a letter with other texts and with the cultural and literary context. Based on the premises of New Historicism, the letter is seen as an 'interpreting detail' in the course of history, and this approach assists in the analysis of epistolary discourse through the perception of its fragmentary and uneven nature. At the same time, due to their openness and, frequently, more expressive moments of the subject's self-fashioning compared to other texts, letters are important to the history of ideas.Two essential aspects of the performativity of letters, the mediating force and the prescriptive force (based on Konstantin Dierks), enabled a discussion of the agency of epistolary discourse by imparting meaning to the communication of communities and to self-fashioning and self-expression of each epistolary subject. Analysis of the relations in the emerging network of the cultural and literary fields draw on contemporary sociology of literature, mainly on the works by Pierre Bourdieu. Focus is also placed on the specific textuality of a letter, which is referred to as extravagance (mostly based on Elizabeth J. MacArthur, Extravagant Narratives: Closure and Dynamics in the Epistolary Form, 1990). As fragmentary and balancing between private and public spheres and as threshold texts to be read as intersections of history and a narrative, letters are defined by the matching internal oppositions (history vs narrative, documentary nature vs literary nature, publicity vs privacy, creation vs testimony). The discussion of theoretical and historical aspects in the evolution and genres of letters is followed by the context of epistolary discourse in the Lithuanian cultural field of the late nineteenth-early twentieth century. In different scribal communities of that period (the Philomaths, the Samogitian cultural movement, communication within Antanas Baranauskas's circle, and, later, in the groups of the founders and publishers of the newspapers Aušra and Varpas, and others), letters often performed the function of their formation and cultivation; they were the 'engines' of the (self)establishment of these communities. In such communities, epistolary communication was essential in outlining the individual and collective identity and behavioural models, in communicating a message, maintaining contacts, and the like. [From the publication]