| Abstract [eng] |
The article examines the semantics of stone in the poetry of Lithuanian classical poetess Janina Degutytė (1928–1990). The research subject is Degutytė’s Selected Writings (Rinktiniai raštai), published in1988, and poems about stone from other collections. The author employed the method of interpretation. A negative semantic field of stone clearly predominates in Degutytė’s poetry. The stone is a mute witness of history, an attribute of death and cemetery. It is quiet and speechless; the metaphor of a silent stone is employed to express existential tensions of the creator, the inability to either keep silent or to speak. The stone is often conceived as a burden, an obstacle, a wall, which has to be passed by, overcome. Rarely the stone has the function of a landscape; Degutytė’s poetry is not unnecessarily decorative. Three poems stand out in this context, they are of paramount importance, because their central metaphor is a stone: “Monologas akmeniui” (A Monologue to the Stone), “Akmenėlio prašymas”, (The Plea of a Small Stone) and “Sizife savo brolį sutikau…” (I met my brother in Sisyphus...). The last poem presents an original interpretation of the myth of Sisyphus. Cultural contexts (mythological, folk-lore, historic, fine art) are also typical of Degutytė’s stone metaphors. Degutytė remains faithful to the image of a grey Lithuanian stone, other stones (marble, mica) are exceptionally rare, while precious stones are hardly mentioned at all. |
