| Abstract [eng] |
This paper testifies the oeuvre of Jurgis Kunčinas (a collection of short stories “Laba diena, pone Enrike!” and five novels – “Glisono kilpa“, “Tūla“, “Blanchisserie, arba Žvėrynas–Užupis“, “Kilnojamosios Röntgeno stotys“, “Bilė ir kiti“), one of the most prominent writers of the late XX century, who significantly contributed to the rise of urban prose and who topically elucidated town life in prose of the Lithuanian literature which are ranked as a project of witness literature. The principles of culture sociology, Michel Foucault, Walter Benjamin‘s and other works of theorists are invoked. Repressive (madhouse, Drunkards‘ prison) and alternative (surroundings of cafeterias, private lodgings, tramps‘ night locations) heterotopic spaces are discussed in detail. Alongside particular subcultures as those of madhouse patients, drunkard artists, bohema, drug addicts and tramps‘ are described. Differences and peculiarities of those spaces are highlighted. Kunčinas discloses repressive medical institutions and reveals subcultural lifestyle. The paper not only records what is narrated about Vilnius in late Soviet times but also explains the aim of this witnessing and the intentions the writer has while writing such texts. Analysing the specification of Kunčinas prose style the difference between traditional witness literature and the writer‘s postmodern stylistics and the object of witnessing are observed – not Holocaust or Gulag martyrs but subcultures of Soviet times Vilnius and the fates of its participants. Despite marginalia, pictured in prose, seeked to live freely and authentically, they are not pictured as heroic, their addictions and weaknesses are depicted as well. Rather often tragic and complicated fates of the characters are represented from the point of view of sensibility and compassion. The writer strives to retrieve the manner of subcultural lifestyle and points such people to have been talented, creative, curious who failed to adjust to Soviet reality and who found themselves in spiritual deadlock. |
