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culture, particularly the heroic tradition of its diplomatic service, is carried out out carried is service, diplomatic its of tradition heroic the particularly culture,

by Emilija Pundziūtė-Gallois, for example. Her study of ’s diplomatic diplomatic Lithuania’s of study Her example. for Pundziūtė-Gallois, Emilija by

the continuity between the humanitarian and the social sciences, as championed championed as sciences, social the and humanitarian the between continuity the

orientation, laying bare the interdisciplinary line of of line interdisciplinary the bare laying orientation, ; specifically, specifically, ; Deeds and Days and Deeds

volume is its anthropological and sociological sociological and anthropological its is volume 75 the of feature Another

th

lee volume. lee

- jubi this of part monographic emigration-related the reinforces weightily diaspora

the official and personal connections between Soviet-occupied Lithuania and the the and Lithuania Soviet-occupied between connections personal and official the

century history of Lithuanian music and on on and music Lithuanian of history century 20 the on treatise two-volume a of

th

cussed as their presentation in various genres. Even Mykolas Jurgis Drunga’s review review Drunga’s Jurgis Mykolas Even genres. various in presentation their as cussed

sought after in the belief that nothing reveals so well the nature of the issues dis issues the of nature the well so reveals nothing that belief the in after sought -

record of Arūnas Sverdiolas’ remarks presented at a conference, were consciously consciously were conference, a at presented remarks Sverdiolas’ Arūnas of record

llonian ones. These texts continuing the monographic part, just like the written written the like just part, monographic the continuing texts These ones. llonian

reminiscences about Vytautas Kavolis are supplemented by a new batch of Apo of batch new a by supplemented are Kavolis Vytautas about reminiscences -

diptych authored by Violeta Kelertas in which her previously published Dionysian Dionysian published previously her which in Kelertas Violeta by authored diptych

introduces some letters Vytautas Kavolis wrote to Kostas Ostrauskas but also a a also but Ostrauskas Kostas to wrote Kavolis Vytautas letters some introduces

tions and containing not only archival material prepared by Daiva Dapkutė that that Dapkutė Daiva by prepared material archival only not containing and tions

to be a jubilee volume), then followed by texts named Discoveries and Retrospec and Discoveries named texts by followed then volume), jubilee a be to -

to Vytautas Kavolis’s birthday (thus really celebrating a jubilee in what turns out out turns what in jubilee a celebrating really (thus birthday Kavolis’s Vytautas to

broad section of acadenic papers making up the monographic part and devoted devoted and part monographic the up making papers acadenic of section broad

usual; its parts are connected by evident but not immediately recognizible ties. A A ties. recognizible immediately not but evident by connected are parts its usual;

Even a cursory glance at this volume shows it to be more fragmented than is is than fragmented more be to it shows volume this at glance cursory a Even

festive jubilee of a deserving personality, institution, event, or publication. publication. or event, institution, personality, deserving a of jubilee festive

something that rises up in an otherwise evenly flowing stream of information – the the – information of stream flowing evenly otherwise an in up rises that something

their appreciation of jubilees. It is just this that allows attention to be directed at at directed be to attention allows that this just is It jubilees. of appreciation their

stand out because of a jubilee. After all, Lithuanians the world over are famous for for famous are over world the Lithuanians all, After jubilee. a of because out stand

an ocean in which everything is unrecognizably submerged unless it happens to to happens it unless submerged unrecognizably is everything which in ocean an

bodies of water yet to come. Ceaselessly a profusion of various texts flows into into flows texts various of profusion a Ceaselessly come. to yet water of bodies

Every day an immense current of information carries us into who knows what what knows who into us carries information of current immense an day Every

2021. 75 2021.

https://doi.org/10.7220/2335-8769.75

internetinis) ( 2335-8769 ISSN

spausdintas) ( 1392-0588 ISSN

D JUBILEE 75 THE

TH D EDITOR THE FROM by applying ethnographic methods, i.e., partially structured qualitative interviews and theoretical sociological approaches, to daily practice. In a similar way social realities – power relationships among language editors, authors of texts, and other actors in the field of language standartization – are investigated from the point of view of sociolinguistics by Eglė Jankauskaitė. Both of these studies correspond to Kavolis’s humanist practice of enriching the chosen subject with insights from other disciplines. But it is up to the readers of the entire volume to judge whether this jubilee volume succeeds in approaching the ideal of Deeds and Days to be a publication having a monographic part with a conceptual, unified, interdiscipli- nary, and firm backbone. For it is only such a journal that justifies its name, since individual articles on various subjects without regard to the context may be found in any collection of academic texts. Returning once more to the essential theme of this volume, the necessity to devote the monographic part of Deeds and Days to the 90th anniversary of the sociologist, scholar of comparative civilizations, and champion of Lithuanian cul- tural liberalism, is dictated by the current hunger for noble ideas and the feeling of losing the mission of the humanities. As Kavolis wrote long ago, more than six decades before today, in the foreword to his edited book Lietuviškas liberalizmas [Lithuanian liberalism]: “remembering a human being means bringing to life his or her essential idea.” But this, according to Kavolis, is not “an imitation that has put many to sleep, but a discovery of the same faith in different circumstances and in an authentic experience of oneself.”1 In later years Kavolis looked critically at the elevation of jubilees to a comman- ding importance that they did not deserve. He was especially bitter not toward persons but toward universities preoccupied with their anniversaries. In Kavolis’s view, this only showed the degree to which culture was paralyzed. Hence the Lithu- anian Emigration Institute of Vytautas Magnus University in the pandemic year of 2020 organized a conference2 in which the professor was remembered without the necessary live interaction among participants and the pathos appropriate for the occasion. Now the content of the journal’s monographic part is in fact a reflection of the conference’s work. This collection of articles (like the conference program) was not intended to call to memory all of the ideas that Kavolis raised on various occasions and developed in dozens of books in English and Lithuanian – this would have been a mission impossible. The papers published here spontaneously

1 Lietuviškas liberalizmas. Edited by Vytautas Kavolis. Chicago: Santara-Šviesa, 1959. 2 The conference called Footsteps of Vytautas Kavolis on the intellectual map of Lithuanians was organized in on December 17, 2020 by Vytautas Magnus University’s Emigration Institute and the Library of President in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the diaspora philosopher, sociologist, and historian of culture Vytautas Kavolis.

12 give access to one or another field of this scholar’s interest and remind us of what already has become a creation of academic folk art or folklore. By their texts the authors of the monographic part expose their deepest concern and further Kavolis’s intentions independently of any jubilee toasts. This collection of very different texts brings to mind an attitude that was very important to Kavolis himself: for the sake of cultural history and the need to strengthen a nation’s men- tal condition, the intellectual biographies of the most significant thinkers are of supreme value. It is to be more than hoped that the authors here assembled would feel sincerely happy if their efforts contributed at least a little to the appearance of such a biography of Vytautas Kavolis.

Rūta Petrauskaitė Editor-in-chief of Deeds and Days

Egidijus Aleksandravičius Co-editor of Volume 75

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