About the Website
The Website aims to present scientific works along with other kinds of Baltistics and Latvian research conducted by a small group of Baltistics scholars (who have been working at the Department of Modern Literature in the Institute of the Lithuanian Literature and Folklore for over a dozen years); to inform about the previous and the upcoming events (conferences, seminars, etc.) organized by the mentioned group.
The main rally point of the literary Baltistics scholars is long-term comparative studies of the Baltic (i.e. Lithuanian and Latvian) literatures.
A fundamental work “Relations Between Lithuanian and Latvian Literatures” (1971) by Kęstutis Nastopka should be considered the beginning of literary Baltistics as a separate field of comparative literature in Lithuania. Later, Silvestras Gaižiūnas developed the field further and opened its new perspectives. In the preface of his book “Cultural Traditions in Baltic Literatures. Parallels and Contacts of the 20th Century” (1989) he wrote that the book ‘was conceived as an introduction to the literary Baltistics, marking the main perspectives and directions of the field’.
The work of Nastopka was published by “Vaga Publishung House” together with the at that time called Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature. The Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore is a successor and a continuer of scientific literary research of the latter. Currently, literary Baltistics are developed most systematically and inclusively here.
* * *
The main aims of the literary Baltistics scholars:
The Website aims to present scientific works along with other kinds of Baltistics and Latvian research conducted by a small group of Baltistics scholars (who have been working at the Department of Modern Literature in the Institute of the Lithuanian Literature and Folklore for over a dozen years); to inform about the previous and the upcoming events (conferences, seminars, etc.) organized by the mentioned group.
The main rally point of the literary Baltistics scholars is long-term comparative studies of the Baltic (i.e. Lithuanian and Latvian) literatures.
A fundamental work “Relations Between Lithuanian and Latvian Literatures” (1971) by Kęstutis Nastopka should be considered the beginning of literary Baltistics as a separate field of comparative literature in Lithuania. Later, Silvestras Gaižiūnas developed the field further and opened its new perspectives. In the preface of his book “Cultural Traditions in Baltic Literatures. Parallels and Contacts of the 20th Century” (1989) he wrote that the book ‘was conceived as an introduction to the literary Baltistics, marking the main perspectives and directions of the field’.
The work of Nastopka was published by “Vaga Publishung House” together with the at that time called Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature. The Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore is a successor and a continuer of scientific literary research of the latter. Currently, literary Baltistics are developed most systematically and inclusively here.
* * *
The main aims of the literary Baltistics scholars:
- to carry out researches on variety, distinctiveness and versatility of the Baltic and national consciousness in Lithuanian and Latvian literatures, changes of self-awareness in the Baltic (e)migration literature;
- to develop imagological research of the Lithuanian and Latvian literature aiming to reveal their in between reception and the way other countries and cultures are perceived in the Baltic literatures;
- to develop fundamental comparative typological researches, aiming to highlight the main common features of development of Lithuanian and Latvian literatures and their idiosyncrasies, various relation tendencies between both Baltic literatures, actualizing relations between literary traditions of other countries, especially the Baltic region countries.
