| Abstract [eng] |
This dissertation, by applying the postulates of 20th century theories (of Mikhail Bakhtin, Northrop Frye, Roland Barthes, and Julia Kristeva) to the prose of Bronius Radzevičius, Ričardas Gavelis, and Jurgis Kunčinas, constructs a new way of reading Lithuanian novels of the last decades of the 20th century. It opens a discussion with the dominant Romantic attitude towards the novel and literary tradition in general, and argues that the selected novels show clear signs implying that the concept of tradition as “the continuing existence of literature” (Viktorija Daujutytė) or “the nation’s defensive wall” (Vytautas Kubilius) is incapable of understanding literature as a diversity of writings. Through the categories of writing and transgredience, an alternative way of reading the abovementioned authors is presented, one that finds the organizing principle of the aesthetic whole within the text—and the practice of writing that created it. This analytical perspective makes it clear that tradition is not a stable, language-external ideological dimension that regulates representation, but a storehouse of diverse writings located within the language itself. |
