VIOLETA MEILIŪNAITĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

ABOUT NEW AND REDISCOVERED INTERSECTIONS OF LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

The diversity of languages and cultures in an increasingly globalized world is one of the essential preconditions for the survival of a unique identity. Lingua franca English and an increasingly uniform cultural landscape pose important and urgent challenges for researchers. It is especially important to focus on fostering an understanding that, although the world is integrated, it nevertheless remains diverse in the history, culture, language, national character, and so forth of its individual parts. The Association of Researchers of the Dialogue of European Languages and Cultures, founded in 2010, accordingly set itself the goal of studying, disseminating, and strengthening linguistic and cultural diversity.

Clearly, only a completely isolated culture can avoid the influence of other cultures and experiences. In other words, the dialogue between languages and cultures is an ongoing process. It is true that some of its aspects and some works are forgotten and, for various reasons, receive less attention. One of the Association’s activity groups is dedicated to rediscovering them and bringing them into scholarly circulation. Other activities include research into contemporary and recent manifestations of this dialogue.

To present the latest scholarly research and the most recent archival discoveries, the Association began publishing the series Archives of Intersections of Languages and Cultures. So far, the series can be considered a tetralogy: four books have been published. It is the result of the project, co-financed by the European Union’s structural funds, Strengthening and Development of the Association of Researchers of the Dialogue of European Languages and Cultures (project No. VP1-3.1-ŠMM-05-K-01-010). Under the project’s terms, the series was published in a relatively small print run; it was not sold, but distributed only through libraries, so it is worthwhile to briefly review it and introduce it to readers.

The first book, Minutes of Vilnius Gymnasium (1915–1940 and 1953–1955)¹, is a publication of a cultural heritage source, accompanied by scholarly commentary. It was prepared in collaboration with the Vilnius Vytautas the Great Gymnasium and presents the school’s minutes from 1915 to 1940 (facsimiles are provided, as well as the minutes from 1953–1955 on a CD).

¹ Minutes of the Vilnius Vytautas the Great Gymnasium (1915–1940 and 1953–1955) (Archives of Intersections of Languages and Cultures 1), ed. Danutė Bronė Puchovičienė, Irena Raščiuvienė, Jolanta Zabarskaitė. Vilnius: Association of Researchers of the Dialogue of European Languages and Cultures, 2011.

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Vilnius Vytautas the Great Gymnasium operated during a complex period in Vilnius’s history and reflects the cultural specificities of Vilnius at that time. Although these documents had until now been little accessible to researchers, the Vytautas the Great Gymnasium community itself greatly wanted them to be available “to all pupils, teachers, and other members of the community, so that linguists and education scholars, education specialists and politicians could study them, and so that they would be accessible to the whole public” (p. 18). Rita Miliūnaitė notes that “when we look at the language of the minutes of the first [...] gymnasium meetings through the eyes of the present day [...] we can see the very youth of the modern standard Lithuanian language [...]” (p. 59). She traces how the standard Lithuanian language changed and took shape throughout the period covered by the minutes. Language is spoken by a particular society. In Darius Kuolys’s view, the minutes present “a portrait of a dignified, self-aware, cohesive and organized national community, deliberately shaping its own life” (p. 10). Nevertheless, this society existed under the influence of specific historical circumstances. Libertas Klimka directs a closer look to these circumstances and to the multi-ethnic character of Vilnius culture. Bronius Dobrovolskis, a long-time author of Lithuanian-language textbooks, discusses pedagogical principles from 1915 to 1939. He observes that the minutes show “much attention and care for the pupil’s personality, academic ability and behavioral culture, for engaging pupils in activity and fostering independence, for broadening their cultural horizons and social maturity, and for the psychological aspects of teaching and education in general” (p. 40). In other words, the aim of shaping a well-rounded, independent-minded individual is evident. If the year were not given with the quotation, we could easily imagine it in the context of education in the 21st century as well.

The scholarly publications presented in this volume provide new data for current research into the standard language, cultural identity, the development of pedagogical thought, and the emergence of the nation-state, while bringing to light certain aspects that have so far received less attention. The facsimiles of the minutes themselves are equally important, since they are an invaluable resource for researchers seeking to explore the details of Vilnius’s character in the first half of the 20th century.

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Antrasis tomas – Knygnešys, leidėjas, publicistas Petras Mikolainis (1868–1934) laiškuose ir atsiminimuose² – skirtas lietuviškos knygnešystės istorijai. Šioje knygoje pirmą kartą plačiau apžvelgiamas ir komentuojamas knygnešio ir įtakingo kultūros veikėjo gyvenimas ir veikla. Be to, čia gausu jo ir jam rašytų žinomų to meto žmonių laiškų, pateikiamas pluoštelis paties Petro Mikolainio (1868–1934) atsiminimų. Kitaip tariant, knygoje skelbiami archyviniai dokumentai, kurie buvo menkai prieinami moksliniams tyrimams. Danguolės Mikulėnienės ir Valdo Selenio studijoje parodomas visas pluoštas Mikolainio veiklų: „knygnešys, leidėjas, publicistas, vadovėlių autorius, lietuviškų laikraščių redaktorius“. Vis dėlto tenka pastebėti, kad iki šiol vieno mokslinio darbo (monografijos, studijos ar pan.), kuriame ši asmenybė būtų aprašoma, nebuvo. Juo labiau nebuvo prieinami jo laiškai ir atsiminimai. Kaip tik korespondencijoje prabyla daug to meto Lietuvos kultūros veikėjų, naujai atsiskleidžia jų darbai, nuostatos, tikslai, asmenybės.

This book already has continuity encoded within it. Having described the cultural context and introduced Mikolainis and his achievements, it opens up the prospect of taking a closer look at the interests of cultural figures of the time, the subjects of their correspondence, the formation of the Lithuanian language and Lithuanian orthography, and so on. In Selenis’s words, the correspondence “reveals not only the circumstances surrounding the publication and distribution of various publications, newspapers and journals of the period, including Var pas, Ūkininkas, Vienybė Lietuvininkų, and others, and the problems involved in editing articles, but also the particular features of the activities of Lithuanian organizations in the USA, the social network, relationships, ideological positions, and creative plans of figures in the Lithuanian national revival and publishers of the press” (p. 58). Thus the second volume of the tetralogy will be an excellent springboard for a curious mind exploring the context of the early 20th century, which in time shaped the formation of contemporary society as well.

² Knygnešys, leidėjas, publicistas Petras Mikolainis (1868–1934) laiškuose ir atsiminimuose (Kalbų ir kultūrų sankirtų archyvai 2), sud. Danguolė Mikulėnienė. Vilnius: Europos kalbų ir kultūrų dialogo tyrėjų asociacija, 2012.

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The fate of Lithuania Minor and the contribution of its cultural workers to the formation of Greater Lithuania are inexhaustible subjects. Lithuania Minor: Studies in Borderland Culture³ is the third volume in the series. It is a collection of articles devoted to discussing issues in the history and contemporary culture of Prussian Lithuania. It is no coincidence that the author of the foreword, Nijolė Strakauskaitė, asks: “Why is Prussian Lithuania important for contemporary cultural identity?” (p. 9). Clearly, the answer cannot be brief or one-dimensional. Each of the published articles might offer a partial answer. New facts about cultural figures who seem already well known—Jonas Bretkūnas, Friedrich Kurschat, and Adalbert Bezzenberger; research on a Lithuanian–German dictionary by Friedrich Haack, little known until now (its authorship needs to be reliably established); an analysis of the problematic nature of Prussian Lithuanian identity; and presentations of cultural artifacts from Prussian Lithuania—all are efforts to show that this was not an isolated and simple region. Culturally, economically, politically, and in other respects, it is particularly complex and for that very reason endlessly fascinating. Grasil da Blažienė analyzes and publishes a 1633 document held in the Secret State Archives’ “Prussian Cultural Heritage” collection, revealing new information about Bretkūnas’s family. This could be the first step toward making more documentary material about Bretkūnas’s life available to the public. Ilja Lemeškin presents for the first time an 18th-century manuscript monument of East Prussian lexicography—a Lithuanian–German dictionary—which is especially important because it offers a striking account of the communication and collaboration among 19th-century linguists. Vincentas Drotvinas’s comprehensive article is devoted to an analysis of Kurschat’s lexicographic method.

The region’s cultural self-awareness in different periods and its formation are discussed in articles by Strakauskaitė, Arūnas Baublys, and Ilja Dementjevas. “The particular attention paid to preserving the ethnocultural heritage of Prussian Lithuanians in East Prussia in the last decades of the 19th century—

Mažoji Lietuva: paribio kultūros tyrimai (Kalbų ir kultūrų sankirtų archyvai 3), sud. Grasil da Blažienė, Nadežda Morozova, Jolanta Zabarskaitė. Vilnius: Europos kalbų ir kultūrų dialogo tyrėjų asociacija, 2012.

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—in the final decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century should be linked to the context of German nationalism and trends toward strengthening local identity,” Strakauskaitė concludes (p. 108). Situated on both sides of the Lithuanian state border, the region has always been influenced by several cultures—German and Soviet, German and Baltic, etc. Dementjevas describes the cultural and self-awareness changes prompted by this region’s distinctive character: what influence did the interaction of German, Soviet, and Baltic cultural strata have on identity? Baublys notes that the history of Klaipėda and the Klaipėda Region, “which began in the ethnic Baltic lands, developed beyond the borders of the former Lithuanian state; therefore, studies of the historical and cultural development of the Baltic ethnic group, its linguistic and cultural identity, its search for identity, survival, and adaptation” could provide an excellent parallel to globalization today (p. 232).

Lithuania Minor has always been home to many figures of Lithuanian culture. The articles by Danguolė Mikulėnienė and Jolanta Zabarskaitė offer a better understanding of Bezzenberger’s (1851–1922) life and work. Roman Širouchov’s and Jurijus Kostiašovas’s articles frame, in a way, the entire history of Lithuania Minor, moving from archaeological finds to an analysis of the region’s Sovietization.

The subject matter of the fourth volume, the collection of articles Recent Research on Languages and Cultures⁴, cannot be brought under a single umbrella. That was not the intention. The aim of this book is to survey the Association’s main activities in 2010–2012 and present its most significant accomplishments. It is something like the Association’s three-year report: it presents what has also been found in foreign archives, what ideas have been gathered, and so on. The intention was to show the full spectrum—from the writings of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to language changes at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century.

Lithuania has never been homogeneous: since ancient times, a whole range of peoples and cultures have coexisted and interacted within it. Each brings its own understanding of culture, and these inevitably influence one another. For example, Galina Miškinienė introduces readers to a collection of Lithuanian Tatar manuscripts held in Ukraine, while Dovilė Troskovaitė shares her insights into the national narrative of the Lithuanian Karaites.

Naujausi kalbų ir kultūrų tyrimai (Kalbų ir kultūrų sankirtų archyvai 4), sud. Violeta Meiliūnaitė, Nadežda Morozova. Vilnius: Europos kalbų ir kultūrų dialogo tyrėjų asociacija, 2012.

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Marina Chistyakova’s articles reveal the characteristics of the paraliturgical literature of the Orthodox Christians of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). One of the most interesting recent discoveries in the GDL’s Cyrillic writings, attesting to contacts between Christian and Jewish cultures in the GDL—a textbook and glossary of Old Hebrew intended for Christians and written in Cyrillic script—is published and analyzed in Sergei Temchin’s article.

Articles by Violeta Meiliūnaitė, Asta Leskauskaitė, Mari Mets, and Giedrius Tamaševičius are devoted to the analysis of social, stylistic, and geographical language varieties. They discuss research methodologies and compare experiences in Lithuania and abroad. For example, Tamaševičius notes that “viewers and listeners listen with greater interest to the spontaneous, improvised speech of programme hosts and participants than to speech that has been scripted in advance” (p. 248). Mets explores how language innovations spread depending on the strength of people’s social ties—who carries innovations from one dialect to another, from one sociolect to another? Having delved into textual analysis, Vaida Buivydienė and Laura Laurušaitė reveal how the emergence of language and the identity of the speaker / writer are reflected in a text.

Considering all four publications as a single body of work, it must be said that the range of the Association’s activities is indeed very broad and difficult to exhaust. Therefore, the series, launched as one of the project’s activities, should be continued. One of the nearest prospects is a book by journalist Petras Mankacevas on the life and work of Jonas Basanavičius in Bulgaria. This would open another page in our own culture. It is hoped that more works representing the interaction of cultures will be published—for Lithuanian / Baltic culture both in Lithuania and beyond its borders is influenced by other cultures and constantly influences them in turn.

Received on January 21, 1913.

VIOLETA MEILIŪNAITĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

5 Petro Vileišio St., LT-10308 Vilnius, Lithuania

[email protected]

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