| Abstract [eng] |
This dissertation examines the institutional network of young writers’ (self)education in Soviet Lithuania, focusing on the cultural and literary activities of its significant segment, i.e., institutional structures. Here, institutional structures are understood as literary circles/groups that operated during the Soviet era in literary and scientific institutions (e.g., the Writers’ Union of the LSSR and schools of higher education) and brought young writers together. The dissertation concentrates on the young writers’ sections that harboured the majority of writers (as well as critics and translators) who later established themselves both in literary history (or were excluded from it) and in literary circles that operated at higher education institutions, primarily that at Vilnius University, due to its being the most significant and best representation of such gatherings. Even though such institutional structures are generally viewed quite sceptically and with doubts as to their significance in the history of Lithuanian literature (whereas romanticising bohemia and informal groups now comes more naturally), this dissertation has served to show that these structures were indeed significant during the processes of writers’ initiation and entry into the literary field. What is more, apart from playing a role in writers’ advancing through the literary hierarchy or legitimising the status of a given writer, these structures assisted writers in developing creative as well as critical skills, cultivating relationships, and creating smaller circles of friends and like-minded persons. For newcomers, the practices established in the institutional structures helped in developing a feel for the game and in understanding the rules dominant in the field – the nomos – while likewise affecting the illusio (inspiring or terminating it). |
