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Solveiga Daugirdaitė Women's Literature and Its Readings

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Solveiga Daugirdaitė Women's Literature and Its Readings Solveiga Daugirdaitė Women's Literature and Its Readings 7%e /bMotwng ar(kfe Aaf (wo aiww; (o preienf fi(era(wre wnffe» o/fgr ippo and dkcwM ik recepfion among cn'dcj. The (Ag aJvaMcemeMf o/ women :» fi(era(wre because (Ae $(a(w* 0/ cAawgeJ - fAey /oif (Ae pw((ge awpporW by (Ag aw(Aorf(y. TAe nafwrg 0/ fzferafwrg ike//" aüo cAanged"; popwfar fikrafwrg /ZowröAeJ. So/veiga Dawgirtfaife coMff«fer$/wrga /vamaw^aife, wAo bafcMceJ on (fie boundary 6e(weeM "A(gA"an«f "]popw(ar"7;(gra(wr%, and wAo« novef Ragana ir lietus (TAe tVfkA and (Ac J(ain. ippj^ wa$ taMned/rom safe a( 6ooJü(ore* by (Ae d(y 0/ Mfnfiw mwnkfpaN(y on (Ae cAarge o/pomogmpA); (o k (Ae *ymW o/(A:$ (mnfi(ionafperfoa'. TA» wMpreWen(ed fnda"en(symbof(zed (Ae^naf (fe/ėa( o/cewor;Afp. AkAowgA, Sofveiga DawgfmfafM befiev« (Aa( a"«p((e (Ae/äc( (Aa( (Aepercen(age o/work; wn((en by women m vanow; rwe <n (Ae fa$( (wo decade*,/ėmafe aw(Aor:yind i( di^cw/( (0 move "A(gA H(era(wfr," wAi'cA k con^rmed in (ng f(a(k(&3 o/H(erary awards TAe aw(Aor 0/ (Ae ardcfe con^iWeM Mk(ori/a Daw/o(y(ė& boot Parašyta moterų fWn((em b/ Wbrne», 200JJ a vafidaMon 0/ women wrifera and beffev« (W, af(Aow#A no( iWen(i/ied a; fwcA on (Ar (i(7e page, (Ae book may be con^iWered a Ak(ory o/Lf(Awan:an womenk ff(em(Mre. The Peaks of Hierarchy - for the Fortunate Few One of the most complex and essentially unsolvable tensions of feminism and postmodernism is the attitude towards subjectivity: feminism strives to return subjectivity to those groups, women, for example, to whom it has been historically denied; while postmodernism strives to erase it. "But ironically, just at the time when different voices were being heard [...] the Author's death denied authorship precisely to those who had only recently been empowered to claim it."' Therefore, feminist 178 Solveiga Daugirdaitė criticism, in questioning "the authors authority," is still inclined to leave the authorship to "those subjects to whom subjectivity had, historically and traditionally, been denied."' Post-Soviet reasoning on gender is reminiscent of postmodernist thought: even in academia, every time "female writers" or "women's literature" is mentioned, one is forced to consider why the topic discussed is not "simply good literature." Feminism of the 1970s did not successfully penetrate the Iron Curtain; consequently, post-Soviet societies had to acquire such concepts as feminism and gender identity very quickly in order to integrate into the European Union. As a result, equal opportunity was perceived as imported "from Brussels" by a large portion of society (analogous to the concepts imported "from Moscow" during the Soviet regime). In 1992, the only woman among the eight authors included in the Lithuanian prose anthology Come mfo My Time; Lifbwnm'a m Pro^e Fiction, wo-po compiled by emigrant scholar Violeta Kelertas was Birutė Baltrušaitytė (1940-1996). Kelertas explained this as the "current sorry state of women's fiction writing in Lithuania [...] poetry by women is more abundant and of high quality."' Women's prose "ha[s] been thematically and technically less daring than those of their male counterparts."* Kelertas maintained that "the hardships that Soviet life presents for women are usually cited as reasons for their lack of output in longer, more demanding literary forms,"* beyond this, she did not provide her personal critical opinion. The anthology, published at the very beginning of the period of independence, set out simply to present English translations of the best examples of Lithuanian prose, rather than an analysis of social issues and implications. A decade later, in 2002, Laima Sruoginis included $ female writers (out of 13 authors)* in another anthology of Lithuanian prose, The Earfk RemabM. A poetry anthology she later translated featured works of 4 women* among a total of 14 authors. Although Lithuanian cultural media claims that interest in women's literature is a temporary trend, the role of women's literature in contemporary literature becomes increasingly evident. This trend, in opposition to Soviet literature, is characterized by the growing number of women's texts within Eastern and Central Europe. WOMEN'S IITEKATUKE AND ITS READINGS 179 There have always been women in the top ranks of Lithuanian litera- ture: Lithuanian prose of the late ig* century was shaped by women. The female poet Salomėja Nėris (1904-1945) is considered the unrivaled forerunner of musical poetry. During the Soviet era, female poets, such as Janina Degutytė and Judita Vaičiūnaitė, were viewed as classics. The prose writer Bitė Vilimaitė (b. 1943) is still considered the most refined creator of a short novel that captures quotidian pain. She was awarded Lithuania's most prestigious National Prize for Literature and Art in 2003 for Paparf/my MW# (Fernery Sun). Since its establishment in 1989, this prize has been awarded to 36 male and 8 female writers. The statistics highlight inequalities in artistic self-expression and the devaluation of women's literature, but in doing so, they do not reveal its spontaneity.* Though the names of classical female writers firmly established in the literary canon are most often cited to argue for the importance of Lithuanian female writers, active contemporary feminist critics frequently quote Janina Degutytė (1928-1990). Degutytė is perceived as one of the most subtle poets and is one who, in contrast to the male writers of her generation, never deferred to the Soviet authorities: "If a woman achieves the same as a man does, it means she had twice as much talent, will, and spiritual energy."* Although during the Soviet era (emale writers gradually increased in number, they account for only one in seven of the authors discussed in TaryWniy /iefwvi'% raJĮyfo/y aufofpiogra/į/of (Autobiographies of Lithuanian Soviet Writers, 1989), notwithstanding the so-called Soviet policy of gender equality. It would be even more difficult to calculate the number of female writers active today, when membership in the Writers' Union is no longer considered a goal in itself since it does not grant societal privileges as it did during the Soviet era. The simple fact is: the number of books written by women is increasing in all Reids of writing. The declaration of independence in 1990 is not just a formal historical and political point of demarcation. The effect of the dissolution of the socialist state on women throughout all of Eastern and Central Europe is multi-dimensional: the dictates of the socialist state were replaced by conservative ideologies; political compulsion gave way to less obvious economic issues. The so-called transitional period did not have a decisive effect on the consciousnessand social position ofwomen. Western feminists 180 Solveiga Daugirdaitė saw the regression of emancipation and the deterioration of women's issues in post-Soviet countries not only in the trends that emerged in 1989 (the developing nationalism, the influence of conservative churches) but in forms already present in the ideology of the Gorbachev's peresfroi&a, for example, in longer maternity leave: "Perestroika meant returning women to 'their purely womanly mission."" The year 2000 was not just an advertising spin. It marked the end of the first decade of the State's existence, whose naive optimism, flights of imagination, absurd mistakes, and peaks and valleys, will probably not reoccur soon. The social and economic changes can be given many names: a crisis, a revolution, a time of public and economic transition (from planned economy to the free market). Without oversimplifying the link between reality and art, it can be said that the changes in societal and economic life had a direct effect on literature as well as the individual lives of writers (including new textual strategies and the realities of time and place). The first decade of independence was crowned with an 854-page history of women's literature Pamiyfa mofery (Written by Women), prepared by Viktorija Daujotytė (b. 1945), the first female laureate of the National Prize (1993). The creative works of women contained signs of intimacy, anticipa- tion and visions of the new millennium, for example: in the collection of short stories by prose writer Jolita Skablauskaitė, Trefkwk fwWaMfmefk (The Third Millennium, 2000), the last poetry collection of Vaičiūnaitė, De6#% arta (An Arch of Clouds, 2001), the novel by Jurga Ivanauskaitė, Sapny MwWoWH (Gone with the Dreams, 2000). It is conceivable that the millennial transition, not unlike crossing a certain threshold, is related to the cyclical sense of time, astrology and other "popular esoteric domains" in women's pop culture, especially in women's popular magazines. What did women want to achieve in literature as they entered the 21" century? The Phenomenon of Jurga Ivanauskaitė The most prominent Lithuanian female writer of the post-Soviet period was Jurga Ivanauskaitė (1961-2007), a prose writer, essayist, playwright, poet, painter, photographer, and traveler. She was a charismatic person, WOMEN! IITEHATUKE AND ITS HEADINGS 181 admired by the media (which she used to her advantage). Despite her rapidly progressing cancer, she remained so during the last years of her life. Her interviews charmed even those who did not like her novels. Ivanauskaitė was herself a gifted interviewer, as evidenced in her book Śve/nw$ fardymm (Gentle Interrogations, 2005), in which she interviewed national celebrities (including one foreigner, the Russian musician Boris Grebenshchikov). Ivanauskaitė published her first book of short stories in 1985, as the oppressive atmosphere in the USSR was beginning to recede. The apolitical, pessimistic, asocial, and destructive characters in Ivanauskaitės first book, PaWnwny mefm (The Years of the Lilies of the Valley, 1985), "the fiesta of the disappointed," was not well-received by critics or by her colleagues," though her early works became bestsellers among young readers.
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