| Abstract [eng] |
The topic of the doctoral dissertation: Liūnė Sutema: on the Path of Her Life and Creation. The dissertation investigates the life and works of Liūnė Sutema (Zinaida Vera Nagytė Katiliškienė), from her debut collection Tebūnie tarytum pasakoj (1955) till the last Tebūnie (2006). The aim of the dissertation is to explore the worldview of Liūnė Sutema (Zinaida Nagytė-Katiliškienė) as reflected in her works with reference to the departure from the homeland; to indicate poorly attested biographical facts; to analyse the works of the poetess with special emphasis on the essential motifs, stylistic devices as well as to highlight the transformation of a Lithuanian word brought into a strange land by a creator-woman. In order to reveal the life of Liūnės Sutema and analyse the works of the poetess in great detail, various methods of research, which allowed for the discovery of focused and sufficient ways of collecting, analysing and presenting the data have been applied, i.e. historical-descriptive and analytical-interpretative. The former is grounded on the principles of New Historicism that embraces the biographical as well as poetic settings, which comprise a unified whole. The latter, i.e. analytical-interpretative, pertains to the hermeneutical analysis of the meaning of Liūnė Sutema poetic texts. Historical-chronological analysis is applied to poetic texts with emphasis on the biographical plane/setting, which reveals the distinct character of her poetic works. It is for the first time in Lithuanian literary history that the dissertation joins the study of expression of Liūnė Sutema as a creator-woman with the peculiarities of biographical and hermeneutical discourse. In the course of analysis of the poetess’s life and works, a substantial amount of printed and archival data, which was poorly realised in the Lithuanian academic discourse, has been considered/investigated: diaries, letters, notes, and memories. Significant comments and remarks were provided by the creator of the poetic texts herself, while the author of the dissertation was staying in Lemont, the USA. It is the neglected archival collection of Liūnė Sutema that sheds light on the biographies of the close friends of the poetess in connection with her own life and works (Algimantas Mackus, Julius Kaupas, Henrikas Nagys, Marius Katiliškis). Both the archival data and testimonies not only pertain to Lithuanian literary context, but also highlight the peculiarities of the cultural and literary life in the strange land. The research is thought to be beneficial for both educational and scientific purposes. The dissertation is of importance for Lithuanian literary study inasmuch as it introduces the life and works of a poorly known, yet highly talented emigrant poetess in a methodologically grounded and systematic way, i.e. based on the historical facts and archival data. |
