Läti rahvalaulud Johann Gottfried Herderi kogus

Author(s): Beata Paškevica / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 65/2016

The handwritten Latvian folk songs in Johann Gottfried Herder’s manuscripts collection at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Manuscript Department of the Berlin State Library (also known as “Livonian collection”, as titled by Leonid Arbusow) are a testimony of the folk songs collection campaign at Herder’s request in 1777 and 1778. The authors who responded to Herder’s request and collected, commented, and translated Latvian folk songs have been identified in some cases, but there are also manuscripts of unidentified authorship; the identity of their authors has been widely discussed in previous studies. In the present study, handwritings in documents held at the National Library of Latvia, the Academic Library of the University of Latvia, the National Archive of Latvia, and the Historical Archive of Latvia have been compared and all collectors of Latvian folk songs in Herder’s personal archives have been identified. It has been found that the unidentified handwritings belong to Heinrich Baumann, Gustav Bergmann, Jakob Benjamin Fischer, and August Wilhelm Hupel. It has been discovered that manuscripts No. 50 and No. 53.1 of Herder’s personal archives were written by Gustav Bergmann; manuscript No. 51 was written by Jakob Benjamin Fischer (it includes texts from the 50th manuscript by Baumann and the 52nd manuscript by Bergmann as well as some original texts which were missing in both Baumann’s and Bergmann’s manuscripts); manuscript No. 52 was written by Gustav Bergmann, and manuscript No. 53.2 was written by August Wilhelm Hupel. Herder selected parts of manuscripts No. 50, 51, and 52 to publish them in a separate section titled “Fragments of Latvian Songs” (Fragmente lettischer Lieder) in his collection “Folk Songs” (1778/1779). Encompassing six texts, “Fragments of Latvian Songs” is the first set of Latvian folk songs in Herder’s volume. There is also a second collection, titled “The Song of the Spring” (Frühlingslied) in which five texts are included. The original handwritten texts of “The Song of the Spring” have not been found in Herder’s personal archives in the Berlin State Library; therefore it must be assumed that Herder received yet another handwritten collection of folk songs which has been lost. For this reason, the number of songs in the lost collection remains unknown as well. Considering that “Fragments of Latvian Songs” were selected from eighty submitted texts (which included different variations of the same song), we can assume that “The Song of the Spring” has been similarly selected from a wider amount of texts according to rigid principles known only to Herder himself. Thanks to the cooperation of Livonian authors, Herder had a broad collection of Latvian folk songs in his possession.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Latvian Moravian Manuscripts: Historical Overview and Research Perspectives

Author(s): Pauls Daija,Beata Paškevica / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The article explores Moravian manuscripts as a source of literary and social history, focusing on the Latvian part of Livland with the aim of providing an overview of Latvian manuscript literature and highlighting the most significant research perspectives. Written and rewritten in the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, Moravian manuscripts build a heterogenous body of texts, including religious speeches, hymns, biographical writings, historical treatises, letters, and devotional literature. The development of the tradition of Moravian handwritten literature has been viewed in the article from the point of view of literary history by focusing special attention on historical texts and life stories. The effects of Moravian manuscripts have been analysed within the context of social change and emancipating trends brought about by the Moravian movement.

Latviešu literatūras vēstures recepcija no 1945. līdz 2015. gadam

Author(s): Māra Grudule,Benedikts Kalnačs / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 40/2019

This article focuses on the reception of Latvian literary history in the period between 1945 and 2015. The authors pay attention to the following aspects: a) the beginnings of Latvian literary history in the 19th and early 20th centuries; b) the role of Soviet ideology in the aftermath of WWII; c) literary history writing in exile; d) new trends in literary history at the turn of the century; e) the development of regional literatures and comparative aspects of literary history. Following a rather modest initial phase in the 19th century, the histories of Latvian literature matured during the period of independence in the 1920s and 1930s. A major achievement was marked by the publication of the three-volume history by Teodors Zeiferts, Latviešu rakstniecības vēsture (Latvian Literary History; 1922–1925), which summarized the earlier literary history writing focusing on texts in Latvian from a comparative perspective. During the authoritarian regime in Latvia established in 1934, great emphasis was put on a detailed description of national features in the literary process and close observations of a particular author’s biography. Attention was also drawn to the discussion of specific literary texts that might fit into the literary canon. To this aim, a six-volume history edited by Ludis Bērziņš “Latviešu literatūras vesture” (Latvian Literary History; 1935–1937) was created. Alongside it many other state-supported activities promoted the unique qualities of Latvian letters. However, it must be kept in mind that these descriptions were made against the background of extensive studies of other literary cultures. The outbreak of WWII and the occupation of Latvia marked the beginning of a new phase. Research of Latvian literature in Soviet Latvia was strongly influenced by the ideological pressure of the regime. The presence of ideology was also considered to be an overarching principle of literary history writing. The most representative text of this new era was “Latviešu literatūras vesture” in 6 volumes (Latvian Literary History; 1956–1962), created by a research team at the Soviet Latvian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Ēvalds Sokols. This publication alongside others manifested an almost complete omission of the comparative approach to any literary phenomena beyond the possible exception of proletarian literature. The idea of literary history as a process through which a certain nation establishes its values and identity, while at the same time constantly remaining in contact with other literary cultures, was completely abandoned. Only gradually within the following decades a certain recovery of the complexity of interpretation of literary processes became possible. Literary history writing in exile was initially focused on the practical needs to provide school textbooks. The most brilliant publication on literary history during this period was Andrejs Johansons’s monograph, “Latviešu literatūra” (Latvian Literature; 1953–1954), published in Sweden. In this as well as in his other publications Johansons exemplified the comparative approach of exile scholars to demonstrate deep affinities between Latvian and European cultural history and creative thought. Only gradually research trends in exile and in Latvia became mutually comprehensive as exemplified by the publications of literary and book historian Aleksejs Apīnis. A new wave of literary history writing intensified at the end of the 20th century with the publication of the 1999 monograph “Latviešu literatūras vesture” (Latvian Literary History) by Guntis Berelis, as well as the collective monograph on the history of Latvian literature in three volumes (1998–2001) where researchers from Latvia and exile co-operated under the guidance of Viktors Hausmanis and Valters Nollendorfs. A new tradition is currently being developed by a new series of individual monographs that so far have covered the period up to the mid-19th century. Publications in exile also paid close attention to the cultural specificity of the development of a literary tradition in Latgale, the Roman Catholic region of Latvia. Current research is continuing the evaluation of this tradition, alongside other investigations that pay attention to comparative contexts of Latvian literature. The article is concluded with an evaluation of the importance of case studies and relevant methodology for the development of the 21st-century literary history writing.

Wiersz "Do przyjaciółki" ze zbioru "Carmina Rivipullensia" – głos w dyskusji o przekładach średniowiecznej poezji łacińskiej

Author(s): Maria Judyta Woźniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

The article is a voice in the discussion on contemporary translations of medieval Latin poetry: accepted and possible ways of translating Latin poetry for todayʼs readers, situated within the field of translation studies and poetics – it is part of the research on the reception of the ancient tradition, of which translations are a particular manifestation. The subject of interest is a poem from the medieval collection Carmina Rivipullensia: the only existing collection of Latin love lyric of the Middle Ages from Spain. It testifies to the very lively presence of the Latin poetic tradition in the Iberian Peninsula at that time.This article presents a translatorʼs proposal, accompanied by a commentary, in which arguments for the chosen solutions are indicated. The aim of the article is to present the translatorʼs ideas, mainly concerning the chosen strategy for the translation of the rhymes in Latin medieval poetry, which are an important feature of the Songs.

Friedebert Tuglase sõnavõtt läti kirjanike päeval riias läti seltsi saalis 31. Mail 1940

Author(s): / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 03/2016

1938. aasta 16. detsembril avati Riia Läti Seltsi ruumes Läti Kirjanduse- ja Kunstikoda. See oli üks organisatsioon nn Läti kodade süsteemist, mis loodi K!rlis Ulmanise valitsemise (1936-1940) ajal ning mille eesmärk oli läti kultuuri edendamine.

Burvju apļa vilinājums

Author(s): Ieva Kalniņa / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 35/2017

Review of: Anita Rožkalne. Kārļa Zariņa burvju aplis. Rīga: Latvijas Universitātes Literatūras, folkloras un mākslas institūts, 2016. 511 lpp.

Latviešu Nacionālā fonda publikācijas un padomju dezinformācija

Author(s): Viesturs Zanders / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 50/2023

Collecting and disseminating of information was the most important field of work for Latvian National Fund (further in text – LNF), founded in Stockholm in 1947. For almost 50 years LNF has published books and brochures in different languages telling about the occupied Latvia and the Baltic states overall. This article sheds light on how the publications by LNF were prepared and what resonance they had in Western democracies. It should be noted that the article uses protocols of the LNF board which are kept in the Academic Library of the University of Latvia. The article provides information not found in other sources concerning the editors (translators) of some of the LNF’s publications as well as about the circulation numbers of the publications and distribution channels. The article examines the first publication in 1951 providing the list of persons deported by the Soviets – These Names Accuse – and the making of the reference book Latvia: Country and People (1967). LNF prepared several publications objecting the biased depiction of soldiers from the Baltics interned in Sweden in the novel The Legionnaires (Legionärerna, 1968) by the Swedish writer Per Olov Enquist (1934–2020). Starting in the 1950s and up to the 1980s LNF published – using cover names – several texts of authors living in the occupied Latvia which revealed the truth about the repressions carried out by the Soviet occupation regime and the degraded environment in Latvia. Among these texts the collection of descriptions and photo evidence, The Diary of Occupied Latvia(1976, 1980), by Žanis Skudra (1924–1994) gained a significant resonance.

Laikmetīgi par Blaumani

Author(s): Ivars Ījabs / Language(s): Latvian Issue: 50/2023

Review of: Benedikts Kalnačs. Pavērsiens. Rūdolfs Blaumanis latviešu un Eiropas literatūrā. Rīga: LU Literatūras, folkloras un mākslas institūts, 2022.

The Transition from Song to Poetry in Latvian Literature in the Second Half of the 19th Century

Author(s): Māra Grudule / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The Latvian nation is a singing nation. The Singing Revolution and similar song- and singing-related references are traditionally associated with the image of Latvians. The origins of written Latvian are also related to song: the oldest known Christian song in Latvian, dating from 1530, is also one of the oldest examples of Latvian-language text. In the second half of the 18th century, as a result of transferring from a German to a Latvian cultural space, a new genre of song was created by the German pastor Gotthard Friedrich Stender, the secular, didactic and sentimental ziņģe (a term coined from the German verb singen, ‘to sing’). As the level of education among Latvians was low and most information spread by word of mouth, the German pastors and the first generation of Latvian poets made use of ziņges as an informative tool. Around the middle of the 19th century, the Latvian national revival began. Without denying the importance of Latvian folk songs in the creation of national culture, the main focus of this article is on the secular ziņģes that were adopted from the German literary tradition, which up until the second half of the 19th century were a favourite tool for entertainment (singing) and spreading information orally. As the level of literacy among Latvians rose, the ziņģes receded to the periphery of the literary landscape, paving the way for a new concept for denoting a rhythmic text that was for the first time not melody-bound: dzeja, or ‘poetry’. The emergence of the new concept in 1869, which was related to the Latvian national revival and the formation of a national literary culture, at the same time also marked a turning point from orality to literacy in Latvian society

De vita, studiis laboreque Professoris Sbignei Danek, czyli rzecz o Profesorze Zbigniewie Danku

Author(s): Sylwia Krukowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

Sofistyczna antylogika – wprowadzenie w problematykę

Author(s): Zbigniew Nerczuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

The article discusses the sophistic method of “antilogic” (“double arguments”, “contrasting arguments”, “opposed speeches”, “two-fold arguments”). The main goal is to show that it is a method that, in the light of the doctrine presented in Plato’s Theaetetus, is based on philosophical foundations. The work of G.B. Kerferd was crucial for the research on the art of antilogic, as it broke with the unequivocally negative understanding of this method adopted by the earlier research tradition. Late testimonies of Diogenes Laertius, Clement of Alexandria, Seneca and Eudoxus point to Protagoras of Abdera as the creator and promoter of the antilogic. These testimonies are confirmed by references to the method of “opposed speeches” contained in the comedies of Aristophanes, in the tragedies of Euripides and in the anonymous treatise Dialexeis. Plato’s report on the doctrine attributed to Protagoras in the Theaetetus reveals the philosophical context of the antilogic. The so-called “secret doctrine”, based on the acceptance of appearances and of the privacy of perceptions (man-measure doctrine), the rejection of truth and falsehood, and acceptance of the contradictory judgments results from the new vision of reality in flux. Therefore, the “secret doctrine” presents a consistent and coherent project leading to a new concept of logic and language and lays the foundations for the method of “double arguments”.

Problem winy i odpowiedzialności za zbrodnię w Orestesie Eurypidesa

Author(s): Jadwiga Czerwińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

The myth of Orestes provides an excellent opportunity to trace the issue of guilt, and thus responsibility for the crime of matricide. This theme was taken up in their dramas by all three greatest Greek tragedians: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The subject of consideration in the article will be Euripides’ Orestes and the way the poet highlights the relationship between the personal motivation of the play’s protagonist and the divine command. The main issue will be an attempt to answer the question whether the protagonist’s actions in Euripides’ play were autonomous in nature or caused by divine determinism. Apart from Orestes, the analysis will be supplemented by commentaries by scholastics and their way of explaining and interpreting the issues outlined in the article.

O prawdzie – II hermetyczny fragment Stobajosa. Przekład i komentarz

Author(s): Aneta Tylak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

Stobaeus’s Anthology contains – among others – the Hermetic fragments attributed to Hermes Trismegistos. In the twentieth century French scholar, A.-J. Festugière added 29 Hermetic excerpts of Stobaeus in the Corpus Hermeticum. The Article is a translation of excerpt II of Stobaeus with commentary.

Sic undique fulgor percussit. Ekfraza w VII eklodze Kalpurniusza Sykulusa

Author(s): Eryka Gryksa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

The aim of the article is to propose a new Polish translation of the ekphrastic passage of the VII Eclogue (vv. 23-72) by Calpurnius Siculus. It will be preceded by a short commentary, in which special emphasis will be placed on the means of artistic expression used by the poet. The 50-line ekphrastic passage is a story told by Corydon, who recalls his visit to Rome. It is the longest description of this type preserved in pastoral poetry. A shepherd, who wants to leave the countryside and go to the city to start a real literary career there, describes with delight the breathtaking amphitheatre. He is impressed by the splendour, rich ornamentation, as well as the animals exhibited in the arena. In addition to hares, horned boars, elk and bulls, Corydon could also admire sea monsters. All of them fit in with the tradition of locus horridus, which is in opposition to the topos of loci amoeni, i.e. an idyllic, safe place away from the hustle and bustle of the city (topos, which is well known from bucolic poetry).

Augustyn i Jan Kasjan o dopuszczalności kłamstwa, które jest bezwzględnym grzechem

Author(s): Przemysław Nehring / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2023

The author of the article analyzes the similarities and differences in Augustine’s and John Cassian’s approaches to both the nature of lying as a sin and its possible permissibility or at least its pardonability in strictly defined situations. He argues for the position that it is impossible to say unequivocally whether Cassian undertook a conscious polemic with the Bishop of Hippo on this issue or even whether he was at all familiar with both or any of his treatises on lying. The fundamental difference between them regarding the issue of accepting intentionality in committing this absolute sin stems from the nature of the writings in which they articulated their views, their rhetorical context and the anthropological perspective of both authors.

Arbërisht Literature as an Example of Preserving a Cultural Identity Abroad

Author(s): Artur J. Katolo / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the origins of the literature of the Arbëreshë people and its impact on the survival of the language outside the country of origin. The cultural identity of the Italo-Albanians is marked by Byzantine influences: religion, economy, culture and military. The centuries-long, harsh Turkish occupation of Albania contributed to the cultural stagnation. Albanians in the territory of the Ottoman Empire were deprived of all rights, including the right to use their own language and profess their faith. The teaching of the Albanian language, as well as teaching in that language, and all publications were banned. Groups of Albanian refugees were welcomed in southern Italy as heroes and defenders of the faith. The few Albanian humanists were the descendants of immigrants educated in Ragusa, Padua or other Italian centres of research and education.