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Lädt ... Balta drobule: Romanas (Skatiniu serija) (1999. Auflage)von Antanas Skema
Werk-InformationenWhite Shroud von Antanas Skema
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White Shroud (Balta drobul?, 1958) is considered by many as the most important work of modernist fiction in Lithuanian. Drawing heavily on the author's own refugee and immigrant experience, this psychological, stream-of-consciousness work tells the story of an ?migr? poet working as an elevator operator in a large New York hotel during the mid-1950s. Using multiple narrative voices and streams, the novel moves through sharply contrasting settings and stages in the narrator's life in Lithuania before and during World War II, returning always to New York and the recent immigrant's struggle to adapt to a completely different, and indifferent, modern world. Strong characters and evocative utterances convey how historical context shapes language and consciousness, breaking down any stable sense of self. As in other major modernist works, ?k?ma uses language and allusion to destabilize. Narrative, voice and language shift continuously, capturing the anti-hero's psychological and cultural disorientation - the complexity of experience in a modern world where, in Yeats' words, "the center cannot hold." Like the author's, Gar?va's frame of reference is vast - quotes from French arias, Kafka and American culture collide with visceral memories of archaic Lithuanian folk song. Gar?va's use of poignant and comical ?migr? slang in his interactions captures the ironies and absurdities of the immigrant's situation. By the end of the novel, further grammatical and linguistic disarray mirrors the final unravelling of Gar?va's mind as he descends into madness. Like all powerful fiction, this novel draws the reader into an intimate, culturally and historically specific world to explore universal human themes of selfhood, alienation, creativity and cultural difference. This English translation promises to appeal to various audiences: readers of modernist and world literature, scholars of Baltic literature and refugee studies, and members of the Lithuanian diaspora unable to access this novel in Lithuanian. Written from the perspective of a newcomer to an Anglophone country, White Shroud encourages readers to better understand the complexities of immigrant life. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)891.9233Literature Literature of other languages Literature of east Indo-European and Celtic languages Baltic and other Indo-European languages Lithuanian Lithuanian fiction 1900–1990Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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I found this first-time English translation of the Lithuanian émigré writer's best known work to be quite approachable and not far removed from my own family experience & background of post-World War II Baltic immigrants to North America. An additional quirky coincidence is that my first-ever job as a teenager was as an elevator operator in an era when such jobs still existed, although not for very much longer. That did make the cross-hatched pattern of the trellis on the book cover easily identifiable as that of an elevator guard rail whereas most would likely view it as that of a prison or other barrier (which it is also likely meant to suggest).
Škėma's lead character Antanas Garšva is a proxy for all émigrés and refugees who may come from skilled backgrounds and trades in their home country but who are forced to take menial work in their new homeland to survive. The sometime poet is working as an elevator operator in a huge New York City hotel while avoiding dealing with a health condition and juggling an on-again/off-again affair with another man's wife. Alternating chapters take us back and forth from this present world to his early life in Lithuania before and during the Soviet and Nazi occupations of WWII.
Although the synopsis for the book stresses its occasional stream-of-consciousness writing and somewhat experimental nature for its time of 1958, it was not at all difficult to follow in terms of its two interweaving plotlines. The very thorough background information and Lithuanian folk text translations and reference explanations in the footnotes were especially helpful in this new edition published by Scotland's Vagabond Voices who have been producing an excellent translation series with their Changelings imprint. ( )