Gitana Vanagaitė

Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore

Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas: The Manifestation of the ‘I’ between Aesthetic and Life Reality

The life and work of the Lithuanian literary classic Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas (1893– 1967) are marked by his belonging to different political eras: the era of independent Lithuania and the periods of the German and two Soviet occupations. Additionally, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas wrote in almost all genres of the egodocumentary literature: memoirs, autobiography, diary, autobiographical novel, and letters. This presentation will explore the concept of the ‘I’ formed in these ego-documentary works by focusing on the periods of the German occupation and the second Soviet occupation, as well as the aesthetic reflection of that time in the wartime poetry collection Rūsčios dienos. The poems from this collection circulated in transcripts during the German and the second Soviet occupations and served as evidence in cases of imprisonment. The prisoners who suffered under Soviet repression had ambivalent feelings toward Mykolaitis-Putinas’ attitude, ranging from condemnation to testimonies about his various forms of help, particularly regarding the significant supportive value of his poetry. The presentation will attempt to reveal how these different dimensions of Mykolaitis-Putinas’ thought (aesthetics) and life (egodocumentary) are interconnected, while correcting/complementing each other, and how they can be integrated with the memories of other people.