A lív költészet nyomában

Author(s): Péter Pomozi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 05/2017

This short study evokes a Baltic Finnic language that is now almost extinct, i.e. Livonian. After offering basic information on the medieval Livonian language area and the former dialectal distribution, the article focuses upon the linguistic heritage of the Salaca Livonian groups, who once lived along the seabanks of the Riga gulf and the Salaca and Svētupe rivers. The Livonians’ history does not end with their ancestors’ death. Curland Livonian has been revitalised, a standard grammar, vocabulary and spelling have been developed. This language is spoken in many places and on many forums, e.g. at summer courses and universities. Two remarkable volumes of poetry, containing the poems of Ķempi Kārl, were also published recently. The second part of the study is dedicated to the lyrical world of Ķempi Kārl, who experiments in his work with the poetical infinity of Salaca Livonian.

A Wife who Writes: Aesthetic and Social Aspects of Self-reflection in Women’s Diaries

Author(s): Eva Eglāja-Kristsone / Language(s): English / Issue: 72/2019

The focus of the article1 is to look at diaries kept by women before WWII who were wives of popular and/or important men of the time. The two authors and their diaries I use for a case study have in common the fact that the husbands were in some way ideological leaders of their time while the diaries show differences in structure, regularity, and message. Marija Eglīte (1878–1926) was the wife and a muse of the poet Viktors Eglītis, who in the early 20th century aggressively introduced modernist and decadent poetics to Latvia. Lidija Gulbe (1899–?), the wife of the poet Fridrihs Gulbis, was also a modernist but part of a later sort of modernism that formed in the 1920s and 1930s, when a group of young artists and writers established a society and a journal entitled “Green Crow” (Zaļā Vārna). The time period which is essential because of great social and political changes (modernization, Europeanization, WWI, the establishment of an independent state, etc.) is mostly reflected through the eyes and autobiographical narratives written by males but most of the women’s diaries as testimonies are not yet transcribed and published, although there are some important initiatives and situation changes coming about in Latvia.

ANNA/ASJA LACIS AND THE MULTILINGUALITY OF THE OTHER

Author(s): Susan Ingram / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

The article discusses the multilingual nature of Anna/Asja Lācis’s own works as well as those devoted to her. When Anna Lācis’s memoirs were published in German in 1971, the editor Hildegard Brenner pointed out that the name Asja Lācis should appear more often in the research on Walter Benjamin and the cultural scene of Weimar. Asja Lācis did not receive well-deserved acclaim over the subsequent decades either. The conference, which is devoted to Asja Lācis and her work in the context of proletarian theatre and the ideas of leftism, indicates that the situation has changed under the influence of geopolitical and technological circumstances. The article analyses the influence of changes in the world on approaches to translation in culture and ensures an insight into Walter Benjamin’s translation work before meeting Asja Lācis in Capri. The goal of the paper is to analyse the efficiency of such work in order to understand both the difficulties in their relationships and the reception of their literary heritage, which are closely intertwined, as well as to facilitate the dialogue between this reception and leftism, which juxtaposes it to Antonio Gramsci’s works about translatability.

Annas Brigaderes publicistika

Author(s): Ieva Kalniņa / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 1/2006

Anna Brigadere (1861-1933) is not only a dramatist, a poetess, and a prose writer well-known in Latvian culture, but also a publicist who has worked in editorial offices of newspapers. In 1908-1909, A. Brigadere was the chief of the Literary supplement and of the satirical supplement "Skaidiena" Wood-yard) of newspaper "Latvija," in 1920 she' wrote editorials for newspaper "Latvijas Vēstnesis" (The Messenger of Later) and since 1916 for many years she was the compiler and editor of Daugavas kalendārs" ((The Calendar of the Daugava) later "Daugavas gadagrā-mela {The Year-book of the Daugava)). There are several basic topics close to A. Brigadere's heart about literary, ethical, social, or political issues that she discusses in her articles. The first group of articles contains the defence and explanations of her own works (about the of fairy play "Sprīdītis," about plays "Raudupiete," "Uga," "Pastari," Suvejas sapnis" (The Dream of a Dressmaker)). The second group of articles consists of essays and reminiscences about mil standing social and cultural figures of Latvia (Rūdolfs Blaumanis, Reinhold-Veics, Jānis Rozentāls, Jānis Ziemeļnieks and others). The third theme includes two issues - alcoholism and family life. A. Hit gadere compares alcohol to the Devil, and pub to hell. She claims that drinking was introduced and supported by German gentry. Woman is the victim in lilt aspect, however, it will depend on woman if alcoholism will be controlled Therefore in the 20s of the 20th century A. Brigadere brings up a necessity for new type of woman who would be able to defend her children and herself, wlv is aware of her feminine responsibility in the family, but mainly who has sell respect (article "Piezīmes par laulības problēmām" (Notes about the problem:' a married life)). During the time of the Republic of Latvia A. Brigadere emphasizes in hr articles that the real independence of the state will be achieved by the nation* selfesteem of each individual, culture, and the ideology of the country. 'I I* writer defends Latvian cultural values and their significance in the life of Ik nation (articles "Cīņa par garīgo Latviju" (Struggle for Spiritual Latvia), "IMi robežai" (Across the Border), and others). The most valuable contribution of A. Brigadere in Latvian publicistics are ll* notes of 1917-1918 "Dzelzs dūre" (Iron fist), that tell about this complicated III* torical time in Latvia, and especially in Riga. The works of A. Brigadere is , important historical evidence and an artistically powerful work of publicistics.

ARVIS VIGULS (1987)

Author(s): Arvis Viguls / Language(s): English,Serbian / Issue: 55-56/2017

Arvis Viguls (1987) is a Latvian poet, literary critic and translator from English, Russian and Serbo-Croatian. In Latvian literary press, he has published several selections from Serbian poetry, including work of I.V. Lalić, Alexandar Ristović, M. Todorović. His first two poetry collections, “Istaba” (Room, 2009) and “5:00” (2012), were published to great critical acclaim and won him several prizes, including award for the best debut of the year and award for best poetry collection of the year. Manuscript of Viguls’ third book "Grāmata" (Book) has already won him a prominent grant in his homeland and is planned to be published in 2017 in Latvian and is a base for his selected poems in Croatian and Spanish to be published this year. His poems have appeared in anthologies and literature magazines in more than fourteen languages. In 2017 Viguls was chosen as one of the ten authors for “New voices from Europe” — a Literature Across Frontiers’ project that focuses on promoting work of ten emerging European writers.

Augalų vardų darybos būdai Janilo Ilsterio publikacijose

Author(s): Linda Kurmiņa / Language(s): English / Issue: 19/2012

The initial stages of botany terminology formation have been dealt with in numerous works (Vīksna 2002; Vimba 2001; Piete 2008) and its first achievements have most frequently been attributed to the botanist, teacher and poet Jānis Ilsters (1851–1889), who in 1883 published the first botany book in Latvian Botānika tautas skolām un pašmācībai (Botany for folk schools and self-instruction) (Ilsters 1883). This work only contained rather few most widespread names of plants, accompanied by more detailed descriptions.

Augusts Saulietis un viņa "Kēninš Zauls" - traģiskais un pretrunīgais

Author(s): Zane Šiliņa / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 1/1998

Ak, brīži - Kad lielāks, nekā dzīvot, prieks ir mirt!.. ’ Šādu epigrāfu savai apjomīgākajai lugai - traģēdijai “Ķēniņš Zauls” - izvēlējies Augusts Saulietis (1863.-1933.). Kā liecina nosaukums, lugas fabula aizgūta no Bībeles, Pirmās Samuēla grāmatas, kas iezīmē soģu laikmeta beigas un ķēniņu valdīšanas sākumu, tātad būtisku pavērsiena punktu, kad sakrālo, t.i., priestera, varu nomaina laicīgs valdnieks - karavadonis. A.Saulieša traģēdijas galvenais varonis Izraēla pirmais ķēniņš Zauls pieder šīm abām pasaulēm — viņš ir Dieva izraudzīts valdnieks, bet tai pašā laikā šo izraudzīšanu pieprasījusi tauta. (Zīmīgi, ka A.Saulieša lugā par ķēniņu kļūst tautā jau iecienīts, slavas oreola apvīts varonis, lai gan no Bībeles teksta noprotams, ka karavadoņa slavu Zauls gūst tikai, būdams ķēniņš.) Šī ap Zaulu savijusies pretruna izraisa arī viņa iekšējo traģēdiju, jo, kā lugas pēcvārdā raksta tās autors, “kaut ar vienu savu pusi Zauls tiecas uz jaunu dzīvi, it kā ārā no Zamueļa reliģiski-fanatiskās pasaules, ar otru pusi tas paliek pilnīgi viņas varā un tad arī zem viņam uzkrautā Jachvē's lāsta, un viņam jākaro pret to, kas stiprāks nekā cilvēki” [...]

Authors, Publishers and Readers of Popular Literature in Latvia in the Late 1980s and Early 1990s

Author(s): Jana Dreimane / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

The purpose of the present article is to determine changes in book publication and reading habits in Latvia from the end of the 1980s onwards – a period characterized by the gradual shrinkage of the dictate of state authorities and political censorship, Latvia regaining independence in 1990 and the first years of the independent republic (up to 1995) involving the transition from the centrally planned economy to the free market economy, when the publishing houses which were established in Soviet times made attempts to pursue new development paths, whereas the newly-established ones tried to put down their roots in the publishing business.

Blaumanis divu kultūru krustpunktā

Author(s): Zanda Gutmane / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 41/2020

Review of: "Rūdolfs Blaumanis (1863–1908). Lettische Moderne und deutschsprachige Literatur",Füllmann, Rolf, Johanning-Radžienė, Antje, Kalnačs, Benedikts, Kaulen, Heinrich. (Hrsg.)(2019)., Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag. 313 S.

Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum

Frequency: 1 issues / Country: Bulgaria

Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum is published by Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and edited by the literary scholars of the Balkan Studies Masters and Doctoral Studies Program (Department of General, Indo-European, and Balkan Linguistics with the Faculty of Slavic Studies). This journal aims to encourage the study of Comparative Literature. The similarities and overlaps between less popular literatures and the well-researched canonical phenomena remain rather unexplored. Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum wants to give priority to such issues; to reconsider the clichéd notions of centres and peripheries, of one-way influences, temporary delays and topic deficiencies. It makes sense to seek the meaning of common affinities and trends, in other words – to look at what is positive, stimulating, and creative about the communication between literary and cultural phenomena. In fact, the Balkans are home to just a small share of the less researched literatures in the field of Comparative Literature. In Europe, we often know too little about our neighbours, unless they happen to be the French, German or British literatures.

Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum expresses itself in three languages: Bulgarian, French and English. It provides new opportunities for communication between scholars of Comparative Literature with the aim of a complete, conceptual and terminological understanding of new ideas within our field of research.

Crossroads of Global and Local Identity in Contemporary Latvian Migrant Literature: Reflections on the Novel Stroika with a London View by W. B. Foreignerski (V. Lācītis)

Author(s): Ojārs Lāms / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2019

This paper deals with the contemporary migration experience as seen through the subjective lens of a literary text. The analysis focuses on the novel Stroika with a London View by the Latvian diaspora writer William B. Foreignerski (Vilis Lācītis in the Latvian version). Foreignerski combines the portrayal of proletarians’ survival with entertaining and comical scenes from daily life. In the novel the story is told from the perspective of the narrator in the first person singular, thus the different relationships between the protagonist and the surrounding environment are already defined by this choice. In the novel the image of London is of great significance as a metropolis and multicultural city in which most of the events described in the novel occur. London is the key determinant for the poetics of intercultural literature in the novel – London can be a labyrinth, an initiation, a trap or a springboard. London as a city that can provide everything that life can offer gives one a chance not only to break away from the economic limitations at home but also from the ideological narrowness of the protagonist’s homeland as it is depicted in the novel. The start of the quest for a new life at the beginning of the novel is to a certain extent traumatic as it is characteristically in traditional emigrant literature. However, with the intercultural approach used by Foreignerski, the migration experience results in the freedom to accept new ideas and in gaining new horizons for the protagonist as well as for the reader.

DAŽAS RIETUMU MARKSISTU IDEJAS, ALBERTA BELA PROZA UN LITERĀRAIS KINEMATOGRĀFISKUMS

Author(s): Jūlija Dibovska / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 2/2015

The Latvian writer Alberts Bels (b. 1938) uses elements of literary cinematography in his prose. Although the number of these elements is not large, they testify to the fact that there is nothing unintentional in the writer’s prose. One of the ways how to establish the semantic load of elements of literary cinematography is to examine the context in which these elements are used following the views of the 20th century Marxist leaders. Thus, as an aesthetic value, literary cinematography in Alberts Bels’s writings can be seen as a compromise between traditional culture, which according to Walter Benjamin requires an aura and active experience of the reader, and the new art which was created on the basis of traditional art. If literature takes over the patterns of narrative cinema and uses them to create new, yet non-radical forms and structures, literary cinematography can be regarded as a favourable result of what Benjamin calls the loss of aura in a reproduced work of art.

Dažu vācu muzikālo tradīciju pārnese latviešu kultūrtelpā 18. gadsimta otrajā pusē

Author(s): Māra Grudule / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 41/2020

The article gives insight into a specific component of the work of Baltic enlightener Gotthard Friedrich Stender (1714–1796) that has heretofore been almost unexplored – the transfer of German musical traditions to the Latvian cultural space. Even though there are no sources that claim that Stender was a composer himself, and none of his books contain musical notation, the texts that had been translated by Stender and published in the collections Jaunas ziņģes (New popular songs, 1774) and Ziņģu lustes (The Joy of singing, 1785, 1789) were meant for singing and, possibly, also for solo singing with the accompaniment of some musical instrument. This is suggested, first, by how the form of the translation corresponds to the original’s form; second, by the directions, oftentimes attached to the text, that indicate the melody; and third, by the genres of the German originals cantata and song. Stender translated several compositions into Latvian including the text of the religious cantata Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus, 1755) by composer Karl Heinrich Graun (1754–1759); songs by various composers that were widely known in German society; as well as a collection of songs by the composer Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741–1801) that, in its original form, was published together with notation and was intended for solo-singing (female vocals) with the accompaniment of a piano. This article reveals the context of German musical life in the second half of the 18th century and explains the role of music as an instrument of education in Baltic-German and Latvian societies.

Dinner with Mock Faustus: Multilingual Cuisine Cooks the Identity

Author(s): Mārtiņš Laizāns / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2021

Phenomena related to gastronomy form an important part of both individual and collective identities. The gastronomical dimensions of literature can often be perceived as a commentary on the political, historical and societal, going beyond just the food. As cuisines are becoming more mixed globally, languages describing gastronomical scenes in literature are also becoming more multilingual. The novel Mock Faustus (1973), by the Latvian writer Marģers Zariņš, fuses the gastronomical and the multilingual to the extreme, producing a utopian linguistic hybrid of the Latvian language to which a mix of foreign languages and countless intertextual references are added. This is achieved by the gastronomical vocabulary and imagery omnipresent in the narrative of writing a fictional cookbook. The depiction of gastronomical phenomena allows Zariņš to indirectly comment on Latvian history from the 1930s to 1945 and the confused and fragmented identities of these times.

Dissenting Voices: Women’s Autobiographical Writing in Post-Soviet Latvia of the 1990s

Author(s): Sandra Mešková / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Taking into account the urge to rethink history and reconstruct cultural tradition in East-Central Europe, it should perhaps come as no surprise that, in the 1990s, autobiographical writing in this region has been a prominent factor in the change of the socio-cultural and literary paradigm. This is certainly true of Latvian literature in the 1990s, an era which marked a radical and decisive break with Soviet culture. The personal accounts of World War II - the central event of twentieth century European history that established a clear-cut division between East and West in Europe - produced the new vision of this turning point in Latvian history. Many of these narratives were written by women authors of the World War II generation. These women remembered the time before the war when Latvia was a newly established independent state, as the time of their childhood. They witnessed the beginning of World War II and the Soviet-German-Soviet occupation of Latvia at the beginning of the 1940s, as well as the end of half a century of Soviet occupation at the end of 1980s and the reconstruction of Latvian statehood at the beginning of the 1990s.

Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma folkloristikā

Author(s): Rita Treija,Beatrise Reidzāne,,Māra Vīksna / Language(s): Latvian / Issue: 8/2017

Baltic philologist Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma (1901–1983) worked both in linguistics and in the field of folkloristics. Being still a student of the University of Latvia, she started work at the Archives of Latvian Folklore where her duties from 1927 until 1936 were to organize collecting of regional words and place-names. In her folklore collection, LFK [714], there are 478 folklore units altogether recorded in Kroņvircava, Liezēre, Mēdzūla, Riga, and Auleja. Part of the material is written in a phonetic transcription. After the World War II, Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma lived in Germany. Her scientific experience both in linguistics and folkloristics was well-known in society, and it led her to a new stage of work life which was very noteworthy for Latvian culture. She was asked to join the editorial team of the new edition of Latvian folk songs, „Latviešu tautas dziesmas” (Copenhagen: Imanta, 1952–1956, Vol. I–XII). She was the linguistic editor of the volumes who proofread both literary and various dialectal texts of Latvian folk songs. The complicated edition required four years of intensive work, still, the published volumes were of great importance for Latvian diaspora since they provided easier access and research opportunities to a part of riches of Latvian folk songs. In exile, Edīte Hauzenberga-Šturma devoted herself to educational work with university students. First at the Baltic University in Hamburg and Pinneberg (1946–1949), and later at the University of Bonn, besides the Baltic languages she taught the stylistics of Latvian folk songs. She also carried out several studies on the linguistic issues of Latvian folk songs.

Elektroniczny historyczny słownik łotewski oparty na korpusie wczesnych tekstów łotewskich

Author(s): Everita Andronova,Renāte Siliņa-Piņķe,Anta Trumpa,Pēteris Vanags / Language(s): English / Issue: 40/2016

This article deals with the development of the Electronic Historical Latvian Dictionary (http://www.tezaurs.lv/lvvv) based on the Corpus of Early Written Latvian Texts (http://www.korpuss.lv/senie/). Some issues concerning the compilation and processing of the corpus data are discussed and the main sources added to the Corpus during the four-year project are described: the 16th c. Lord’s Prayers, 17th c. dictionaries, texts of oaths and laws, religious texts and so-called dedication poetry. The aim of the project is to compile a pilot electronic dictionary of 16th–17th century Latvian where all parts of speech are represented among the entries. This dictionary will contain ca. 1,200 entries,including both proper names and common nouns.The main emphasis is on the description of the dictionary entries supplied with relevant practical and theoretical observations. Each part of the dictionary entry is discussed, followed by comments on various issues pertaining to that part(e.g., the choice of headword and the representation of spelling versions) and how these were resolved. Special attention is paid to the head of entry, explanation of meaning deduced from the examples found in the corpus, different types of collocations and their representation in the dictionary, as well as etymological information. Finally we present a brief review of the dictionary writing software TLex 2013 based on our experience with this tool.

Exile and Liminality: Experience between Cultures and Identities

Author(s): Eva Eglāja-Kristsone / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

To describe the exilic condition, many scholars have made use of the concept of liminality. Being neither here (Great Britain as a place of exile) nor there (Latvian exile society as a substitute of a nation) characterizes the life of one of the best Latvian existentialist prose writers – Guntis Zariņš (1926–1965). In Zariņš’ life and work he negotiated several liminal areas – from his war and professional experience, literary presentation to his standing in the Latvian exile community. Whether it is voluntary/involuntary or internal/external, the process of exile is one where an individual is removed from a place of origin (a homeland) therefore one of the crucial questions to solve is a relationship between the experience of cultural displacement and the construction of cultural identity. The time when Guntis Zariņš became prominent in Latvian exile literature, coincided with the time when the change of generations had started. Guntis Zariņš was one of the first exile writers who visited Soviet Latvia in order to personally meet colleagues-writers from the other side of Iron Curtain and cooperate with them in the field of literature but he was trapped between two powers – Britain and Soviet secret services that eventually led to his mental instability and suicide. Zariņš’ case is an example of an individual and undesired exile where prolonged liminal phase and inability to integrate neither into the host society nor to establish apolitical and cultural contacts with homeland resulted in an excellent existentialist prose on the one hand and ruined individuality on the other.

Female Experience and Language in Monta Kroma’s poetry

Author(s): Anna Auziņa / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

Monta Kroma (1919–94) is one of the key female representatives of Latvian poetry in the 1960s–80s. She is one of the most uncommon Latvian poets of this time as well – a brilliant modernist, whose poetics are different from the mainstream in both subject and form. Kroma started writing in the 1940s composing stanzas of socialist realism. From the 1960s onward, after completing her studies in Moscow, she mostly writes in vers libre, revealing the inner worlds of women living in the city, which, in the context of the Soviet ideology, makes her poetry unique and not always officially sanctioned. The focus of the paper is the poetics of Monta Kroma from the viewpoint of feminist theories. The main purpose is to explore the feminine features of her poetics, analysing the female subject and writing in accordance with gynocriticism and post-structuralist French feminism, paying attention to the language and means of expression. Though a feminine or masculine way of writing exists apart from the author’s gender, Kroma’s poetry can be viewed in the light of a specifically female language, an alternative to patriarchal discourse. Such a way of writing – the so-called écriture féminine is emphasised as a concept and also demonstrated in the works of poststructuralist feminists Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray. As écriture féminine is deeply related with the body and sexuality, Kroma’s sensuous poetics with its semiotic elements presents a fruitful field of research in the context of these ideas.

Folkloorist kirjandusse ehk variatsioonid Rainisega läti ja eesti kultuuris

Author(s): Anneli Mihkelev / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 75/2019

Rainis (Jānis Pliekšāns, 1865–1929) was a very famous Latvian modernist writer of the beginning of the 20th century. His literary works are connected with Estonian culture via different motifs. Rainis’ texts, translated into Estonian, contain indications of double cultural translation, and thus constitute a very interesting case in European culture. The article analyses Rainis’ plays “Uguns un nakts” (Fire and Night, 1905), “Zelta zirgs” (The Golden Steed, 1909), “Pūt, vējiņi!” (Blow, Wind! 1914), and “Jāzeps un viņa brāļi” (Joseph and His Brothers, 1919). According to Latvian and Estonian researchers, Rainis’ play titled “The Golden Steed” drew on Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald’s fairy tale about a princess who slept for seven years. On the other hand, a story about a princess who slept on a glass mountain is well known in Northern Europe. Rainis also used motifs from the Estonian epic “Kalevipoeg” (Kalev’s Son) and the mythological story “Koit ja Hämarik” (Dawn and Dusk). The motif he used in his drama “Blow, Wind!” is the orphan motif from “Kalevipoeg”. Both the slave girl from the latter and Baiba from Rainis’ drama were orphans and had to work hard for their stepfamily. The orphan motif certainly points to several variants of the Cinderella story which have spread all over the world. The myth of Dawn and Dusk is a story by an Estonian writer, Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (1798–1850), which inspired both sculptor August Weizenberg and Rainis in the creation of their characters. The personification of the motifs of sunrise and sunset are repeated several times in Rainis’ play “Blow, Wind!”. There is a situation involving Baiba and Uldis, in which their passion becomes stronger and stronger, while it all ends with a farewell kiss from Baiba and her jumping into the water. Estonian writer Johannes Semper has analysed folk motifs in the “Kalevipoeg” and he sees its parallels with the Finnish epic “Kalevala” in this regard: the motif of the maiden who commits suicide by drowning is repeated several times in the latter. This reminds us of the story of Kullervo, who met a nice maiden on his travels and raped her. Next day it turned out that the girl was Kullervo’s sister, and the maiden drowned herself. According to Semper there were more tragic stories which implicate the epics: the story of Kalevipoeg and Saarepiiga in the epic “Kalevipoeg” and the story of Väinämöinen and Aino in the epic “Kalevala”. All these motifs are well known in Europe and have existed in national literatures for a very long time (cf. Ophelia in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”). Rainis’ drama “Fire and Night” (1905), based on the Latvian epic “Lāčplēsis” (Bear Slayer, 1888), is probably the most significant symbolic work in Latvian literature. The drama demonstrates how literary symbols work in culture where the fundamentally new is created, and it is a process which contains the moment of explosion according to semiotician and literary scholar Yuri Lotman. All these symbols are dynamic, and it depends on the context and on the readers how these literary figures and texts are interpreted. Rainis’ symbols are polysemantic and one and the same symbol can change meanings several times within a play. The drama “Joseph and His Brothers” (1919) is based on a biblical myth and it is a neo-mythological literary work and also a cultural translation and transformation. The Bible functions as a metatext in Rainis’ text and in Latvian culture describing, via auto-communication, the Latvian culture itself. The Estonian translation functions in a similar way in Estonian culture because Latvian and Estonian cultural contexts are similar.