| Abstract [eng] |
Marius Ivaškevičius’ (b. 1973) novel History from a Cloud (1998) has received ambiguous evaluations from critics because it surprised everybody by its unexpected attitude towards Lithuania and its history. Having defined his novel as “a road of sadness in two parts”, the author creates an unusual story. He relates the idea of sadness with rain, while the road in two parts reminds of two stages of Lithuanian history – before it rained from the cloud and after, when it thinks about coming back to the cloud. The novel consists of three parts: the author’s narrative about his writing a detective story, interspersed with “Extracts from a Bigger One. An Internal Book” and letters from the location D to the author’s late grandmother. The whole book is conceived as a post-modern game, where various epochs, historical events and personalities, fairy-tale giants and imaginary characters mix together. The author creates the mythology of the name of Lithuania, first of all, on the basis of the search for its identity. He links it with legends and sagas, various natural phenomena, painful moments in its history, footwear, etc. The author not only “overthrows” the myth, but tries to get to the sources of Lithuania’s origins. Also, by this novel he demystifies certain moments in Lithuanian history. |
