The challenge of Škėma: a hunt for the minotaur

ENThe article deals with the updating of issues in relation to the reception of the biography and creative work of the writer Antanas Škėma, which became particularly important in the recent decade when his works began to be published in the West. The main guidelines for the future research of the writer's genealogy and biography are set, the conflicting traits of his personality coming to light in different memoirist sources are discussed, the correlation between the writer's identifiability choices and the cultural tradition of the time is presented. The significance of the Škėma myth which had established itself in Lithuania in the years of Independence is an important subject of this research. An issue about the demand for alternatives, a lack of independent personalities is raised; it is suggested that Škėma's publicistic texts on the relationship between Lithuanian culture and a global world are read carefully. [From the publication]