Scriptus Manet: Journal of Humanities and Arts

Antigones un Mēdejas ceļi Baltijas teātrī

Jovita Dikmonienė — 2024-12-23

The study compares the development of the reception of three ancient tragedies – Sophocles’ Antigone, Euripides’ Medea and Seneca’s Medea – in the Baltics. The article summarises the results of several previous studies on the reception of ancient tragedy in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. A diachronic study provides an overview of the history of the translation and production of ancient tragedies in the Baltics. The study of the development of reception is complemented by a survey of translated and staged reception texts of the myth from later periods, focusing in greater detail on the most significant productions and their criticism. In order to limit the broad material of later reception texts, only texts of the dramatic genre have been selected for more in-depth analysis.

The reception of ancient texts and the interpretation of myths in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have both common and different features. The similarities are determined by historical and socio-political events shared across all three Baltic states; the differences stem from cultural and linguistic specificities. The chronology of the translation and staging of ancient tragedies and their reception texts reveals the transfer of ideas and the similarities in the directions of interpretation dictated by the zeitgeist and current events.

The example of the reception of Antigone myth demonstrates the convergence of ancient sources and reception texts to form a unified understanding of myth in the cultural space. Moreover, this development of the reception of Antigone myth took place throughout the Baltics. Later texts, in particular, were decisive in shaping the reception of the Medea myth. Although the reception texts and their popularity in the theatre differ among each of the Baltic states, the interpretations of the Medea myth in the Baltic cultural space are largely similar.

No Lāčplēša raizēm līdz Tāravas Anniņas priekiem: pagrieziens tulkojumā – pirmā latviešu prozas antoloģija latviešu valodā

Māra Grudule — 2024-12-23

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, due to the rise of democratization trends, the Latvian Awakening movement, and the increasing level of education, interest in Latvian culture grows among the Baltic German intellectuals, along with the number of translations of Latvian literature. Latvian songs, folklore, and poetry are translated into German. In 1910, the first collection of Latvian short stories in German, “From the Baltics” (Aus dem Baltenlande), is published in Regensburg, Germany. In the introduction, the editor and translator Hanny Brentano (1872–1940) describes the history of the Baltic region and modern Latvian prose. The collection includes works by three Latvian authors – Andrievs Niedra (1871–1942), Augusts Saulietis (real name Augusts Plikausis, 1869–1933) un Jānis Poruks (1871–1911) – as well as one story by an unidentified K. Liepiņš. Together, these works provide a multifaceted portrayal of the era, focusing mainly on family relationships, generational conflict, and the inner world of children. The texts chosen by Brentano do not address the colonial past or local German and Latvian relationship. Stylistically, the book represents modern Latvian prose quite well. Translations of several stories have been shortened and supplemented with phrases not present in the original; at times, plot twists have been altered, and instead of a dramatic or even tragic ending, an optimistic resolution is offered. Brentano’s translation principles are revealed through a comparison of Niedra’s story “The Fault of Women” (Bābu vaina) in the original and its translated version “My Friend Berger” (Mein Freund Berger). The aim of the article is to hypothesize an explanation for the shift toward sentimentality and the glorification of a patriarchal family model in the translations by examining the translator’s biography, her views, as well as briefly characterizing the historical context and the Baltic German society's ambivalent attitude toward Latvian emancipation and the flourishing of national culture. Brentano’s freely translated anthology of Latvian literature can be regarded as an early and unique contribution to the promotion of Latvian literature within the German cultural sphere. The article employs a postcolonial approach and is grounded in the insights of translation theory.

Kazdangas genius loci jeb vietas gars nemateriālā kultūras mantojuma elementos

Ieva Vītola — 2024-12-23

The aim of this article is to explore the relationship between the spirit of place, or genius loci, place identity, and intangible cultural heritage, with a particular focus on the village of Kazdanga in the South Kurzeme Region. This study identifies the elements of Kazdanga’s intangible cultural heritage that reveal the place identity of its inhabitants. The research employs a qualitative methodology, utilising in-depth, semi-structured interviews, cultural heritage site surveys, and ethnographic observation.

The concept of genius loci encompasses a place’s tangible and intangible elements. It is intrinsically linked to individuals’ experiences and memories, transmitted through generations, fostering a shared sense of belonging. Genius loci includes the invisible experiences embedded in people’s minds, encompassing the intangible cultural heritage of a place – such as oral traditions, rituals, customs, and crafts.

This paper examines how the intangible cultural heritage of Kazdanga shapes the place identity of its residents by analysing four dimensions of place identity connected to cultural heritage: distinctiveness, self-esteem, continuity, and familiarity. The practices and knowledge that constitute the intangible cultural heritage of Kazdanga enhance the inhabitants’ connection to their locale, thereby creating a unique place identity. The intangible cultural heritage of Kazdanga is fundamental to the identity of its people, forming the genius loci of Kazdanga.

Publiskā telpa un dzimte. Teorētiskie un pētnieciskie aspekti. Uzvaras parka pārstāstīšanas piemērs

Marita Zitmane — 2024-12-23

Public space is a complex and multi-layered concept, combining social, cultural and political dimensions. The article explores the interaction between gender and public space through theoretical and research perspectives, focusing on the example of Uzvaras Park in Riga re-storying. The dismantling of the Uzvaras Park monument in 2022 provided an opportunity to create a new public space that could be inclusive and meet the needs of all citizens. Gender equality is an essential factor in urban design as it ensures that spaces are accessible and safe for everybody, taking into account the needs of different groups. The interaction between space and environment is examined through the perspectives of feminist geography, urbanism and gender, as well as gender mainstreaming. Feminist geography aims to explore the intersection of gender and space. It critiques traditional geographical perspectives that have often neglected or marginalised women’s experiences and perspectives. Feminist urbanism argues that the construction of urban spaces results from social patriarchal structures that impose barriers to the use and enjoyment of both functional and urban public spaces. Feminist urbanism research shows that women’s needs and demands are not considered as much as men’s when it comes to the urban environment. The gender mainstreaming approach offers practical tools for planning and designing a gender-sensitive city. Public space and gender are closely linked concepts that influence our perceptions, experiences and lifestyles. Understanding this relationship and integrating gender equality into urban planning can contribute to a more inclusive and equitable society. The example of Uzvaras Park shows how historical and political changes can create opportunities to transform public space in a gender-sensitive way. The transformation of the space in Uzvaras Park reflects the role of gender in public space.

Interfrontes mītiņu Uzvaras laukumā reprezentācija presē 1989. gada februārī

Laura Ardava-Āboliņa — 2024-12-23

The year 1989 in the history of Latvia is considered one of the most significant years of the independence restoration period. However, the very beginning of this year is characterised by the formation of counterforces to the idea of independence. In January, the International Front of the Working People of the Latvian SSR (Interfront) was founded; on February 23, coinciding with the Day of the Soviet Army, the Interfront organised its first public mass event – a demonstration and march in the centre of Riga. Additionally, on February 25, 1989, a meeting against granting state language status to the Latvian language was held at the Uzvaras Park organised by the Interfront. The aim of the study is to analyse the representation of two Interfront meetings in the press of that time (in the newspapers Padomju Jaunatne, Sovetskaja Latvija, Cīņa, Latvian Popular Front bulletin Atmoda and the Interfront newspaper Jedinstvo), using the media event classical approach and the discourse-historical method. The classical theory of media event developed by media theorists Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz can be successfully applied to the analysis of press publications. The fundamental contribution of this approach to communication theory has not lost its relevance till nowadays. The study’s results reveal the emotionally saturated communication tendencies in the media during the restoration of independence, which corresponds to the conquest scenario, analysed from the perspective of the media event theory. The results also demonstrate the practice of ‘coronation’ of the Soviet values and the broader discourse of the involved actors’ struggle for influence. The results of the research are also reflected in the interdiscursivity figure, which characterises the discourse-historical method.

Melanholijas motīvu aktualitāte latviešu literatūrā – latviešu rakstnieču piemēru apskats

Iluta Dzene — 2024-12-23

The meaning and representation of melancholy in culture have changed from ancient times, when the ideas of ancient Greek philosophers about the four humours, the connection of black bile with the spleen, were dominant. These approaches developed and improved in the Renaissance and Enlightenment until the beginning of the 20th century, when the rapid development of psychoanalysis included new premises, significantly reconstructing the values and beliefs of previous eras. Melancholy is successively connected with the divine spark of creativity, loneliness and sadness, evil spirits and the “acedia” disease. The difference between the sexes should be evaluated as an important aspect: the analysis of research sources allows us to conclude that creative and writing women have historically often been excluded from the discourse of melancholy. According to the historically dominant view, a loss connected to a man’s world could be perceived as more special and significant than a loss affecting a woman and her world and successively reduced to a banal and irrelevant ‘mourning’.

Therefore, the purpose of the article is to characterise the interpretation of melancholy in Western culture, particularly from the perspective of psychoanalysis, while defining the distinguishing features of the concepts of melancholy and mourning, as well as to identify the presence and relevance of melancholy motifs in Latvian women’s writing. The following works by Latvian women writers have been selected for analysis: Sabīne Košeļeva’s story collection “Ministry of Loneliness” (Vientulības ministrija, 2019), Krista Anna Belševica’s story collection “Grey Dog Dreams of Goldfish” (Pelēks suns sapņo par zelta zivtiņām, 2021), Laura Vinogradova’s long story “River” (Upe, 2020). The research approaches chosen for conducting the study and analysing the literature included psychoanalysis, narratology, and feminism.

The analysis of the prose texts allows us to establish that melancholy, in general, can be evaluated as a topical motif in the analysed works. At the same time, it can be concluded that all texts are also united by the motif of (real and/or imaginary) loss, which often acts as a transforming force, thus helping to stimulate and/or solve the problems of the heroes’ growth. A unifying element is also the depiction of the traumatic experience, often related to parental inaction (the concept of “parental sins”) and the heroes’ expectations regarding the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of family models/roles accepted in society.

Word and Life: Marija Pečkauskaitė a Writer, Translator and Educator

Audronė Raškauskienė — 2024-12-23

The present article aims to discuss the impact a word can have on a person’s life choices and aspirations. The life of Marija Pečkauskaitė, Lithuanian writer, translator and educator, can be an example. Coming from a family of impoverished Lithuanian nobility, Marija Pečkauskaitė (1877–1930), the pen name Šatrijos Ragana (‘The Witch of Mount Šatrija’) was brought up in the spirit of Polish culture at her parents’ home in Labūnava (later Užventis), where she was taught music and foreign languages. Influenced by Povilas Višinskis (1875–1906), a Lithuanian cultural and political activist during the Lithuanian National Revival who tutored her brother, she became involved in the Lithuanian National Revival movement, learned the Lithuanian language and started writing fiction in Polish and later in Lithuanian. Her patriotism was permeated with deep religious feelings, humanism and the aim to serve society; this became the basis of her life and work. Marija Pečkauskaitė was one of the most educated women of her time: in 1896, she graduated from beekeeping courses in Warsaw, and from 1905 to 1906, she studied in Switzerland and listened to lectures on pedagogy, ethics, philosophy, etc. Meeting the German educator, philosopher and sociologist Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster (1869–1966) and attending his lectures at the University of Zurich was a turning point in Pečkauskaitė’s life. After returning to Lithuania, she became an educator and translated Foerster’s most prominent works into Lithuanian. In 1909–1915, she worked as a teacher at the Marijampolė Grammar School for girls. In 1915, Pečkauskaitė settled in a small town, Židikiai and became involved in the community’s social life and Christian charity, caring for the underprivileged children, the sick and the poor until her death.

Translation Procedures Accompanying Phrasemes in the “Gray Rhino”

Laszlo Laszloczki — 2024-12-23

This research aims to investigate the translation procedures accompanying phrasemes, as few studies have been published on the subject. I focused my research on a book written in a very popular genre today. Because of their colloquial styles, self-help books today sell in large numbers and reach a wide range of readers. One reason may be that authors (and, therefore, translators) use phraseology in many cases in the text.

For the analysis, Michele Wucker’s “The Gray Rhino – Why We Keep Missing the Most Obvious Threats and How We Can Get Out of Their Way” and its Hungarian translation were chosen. I used contrastive text analysis to analyse the English source text and the Hungarian target texts (unrevised and revised version): after analysing the source text, I compared it with the unrevised target text and later, as a third step, the already revised target text with the previous two texts. I identified four main phraseme-matching procedures: use of equivalence, circumlocution, omission and creative solution. In looking for these procedures, I sought to find out which procedures were preferred and which were least preferred by the translators. Going one step further, I also looked at whether the revisor approved or overruled the translator’s decision, thus also seeking to identify and formulate revisor phraseme-matching operations.

I summarised my results in a table (a small database). I have illustrated with graphs and quantified what happened to the phrasemes in the source text, the unrevised target text and the revised target text. The phrasemes highlighted with context from each work are referred to as linguistic examples.

I have found that both national and international researchers agree that constructing a comprehensive characterisation of phrasemes is an extremely difficult task. Several attempts have been made to define a phraseme, but defining it is as challenging as defining exactly where the boundary between phraseme and non-phraseme lies. Categorising phrases is just as difficult. On the basis of the researchers’ opinions, I have found that there is no clear boundary between groups of fixed phrases; it is not clear that a given phrase can be, for example, definitely a saying or a proverb.

The important conclusion of the study is that the knowledge and use of translation techniques imply that this skill needs to be constantly updated due to the slow but constant change of languages. This means that knowledge of the latest, fashionable words and linguistic turns (and their varied occurrences, for example, the ‘modernisation’ of a saying) is a minimum requirement in the translation process. In the future, more far-reaching conclusions could be drawn by examining a larger corpus to provide an even more nuanced picture of the correspondence of phrasemes.