The Historical Contexts and Aesthetic Self-Reflexiveness of Nineteenth-Century Latvian Literary Realism
The Historical Contexts and Aesthetic Self-Reflexiveness of Nineteenth-Century Latvian Literary Realism

Summary/Abstract: This article traces the trajectory of nineteenth-century Latvian literature in comparative historical and aesthetic contexts. The investigation focuses on the ways nineteenth-century social changes preconditioned the importance of literature and literary communication more generally, on the relevance of literary realism and its thematic as well as poetic innovations, and on the role realist literary efforts played in stimulating the self-reflexiveness of literature in response to the challenges of modernity. The main tasks of nineteenth-century literature can be defined as the necessity to legitimize literary efforts, to pay attention to previously underrepresented spheres of experience such as the ordinary, to look for and find an adequate poetic form, and to render literary texts both attractive and serious as intellectual work, this resulting in self-reflexiveness stimulated by writing and reading alike. The article emphasizes the role of Latvian literary realism in shaping the contours of nineteenth-century literature.

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