‘A SPATIALLY SCATTERED BEING’: IMAGINING SPACE IN BALTIC EXILE LIFE WRITING
‘A SPATIALLY SCATTERED BEING’: IMAGINING SPACE IN BALTIC EXILE LIFE WRITING

Summary/Abstract: The current article focuses on two works of life writing by Baltic exiles: Geography and the Art of Life (2004) by Edmunds Valdemārs Bunkše and Otsekui tõlkes. Teema variatsioonidega [As if in translation. A theme with variations] (2005) by Käbi Laretei. In both works the construction of subjectivity relies, to an important extent, on acts of self-emplacement that proceed via an engagement with different places, landscapes and trajectories of movement that include attempts to create spaces of belonging and of being at home. Rather than being anchored in a firm referential basis, such spaces are often envisioned as imaginative textual constructions elaborated, e.g. via reflections around the concept of home or mediation of the continuous process of seeking a(n ideal) home. In Otsekui tõlkes, Laretei explores the position of an exile through a scrutiny of personal and professional relationships unraveling against the backdrop of a multitude of places and trajectories of travel, as well as the role of music in finding her place in life. Bunkše’s Geography and the Art of Life that is both a memoir and a theoretical reflection in the field of cultural geography reflects upon ways in which spatial imagination guides the formation of (exilic) identity that is premised on the dichotomy of the home and the road in both the figurative and literal sense.

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