Preserving Cultural Memory Through Life-Writing

• In Event: Issues in Transformation and Preservation of Language

Abstract

World War II Lithuanian Displaced Persons and the second and third generations born to them abroad feared Lithuanian language and culture would erode under the Soviet occupation of Lithuania (1944–1991). Thus, maintaining Lithuanian language and culture in the diaspora was prioritized. The activities of the diaspora provided a sense of belonging to something greater than mainstream American culture and held in check the natural process of cultural assimilation. Through strict societal codes and collective cultural memory, Lithuanian values were passed down through three and four generations in the United States and Canada. Over the past 20 years, Lithuanian-American women have produced both commercially published and self-published memoirs that depict families living through war and displacement and building a new life in North America. With the narrowing of publishing opportunities in the United States, many have chosen to self-publish these family histories. Through the theoretical perspective of life-writing, this paper analyzes self-published historical memoirs by four Lithuanian diaspora women writers: Escaping Stalin’s Grasp, Nida Dauknys, 2022; Flight: A Memoir of Loss and Discovery by an Aviator’s Daughter, Rasa Gustaitis, 2021; Springtime in Lithuania: Youthful Memories: 1920-1940, Hypatia Yčas, 2000; On the Way to America, Aleksandra Kasuba. This paper explores how each memoir seeks to rebuild a fragmented family narrative and grapples with what is lost through emigration. By identifying trauma in literature by Lithuanian diaspora women writers and writing about it, this paper opens a dialog on how unrecognized collective trauma impacts society, families, individuals.

Short Bio

Laima Vincė Sruoginis, PhD, is the author of the academic monograph, Vanished Lands: Memory and Postmemory in North American Lithuanian Diaspora Literature (Peter Lang) and the translator of the poetry and diary of the Lithuanian Jewish poet, Matilda Olkinaitė, published as The Cerulean Bird: Matilda Olkinaitė (Arc Publications). Her books, articles, essays, and interviews have been published in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe. She writes and publishes both in Lithuanian and English and divides her time between Vilnius and Maine. Among her books written and published in Lithuanian are Apie anuos nepamirštamus laikus: Juozo Lukšos-Daumanto ir Nijolės Bražėnaitės susirašinėjimas (Institute of Lithuanian Literature), Mūsų nepalaužė (Alma Littera) and Karantino Dienoraštis (Dominicus Lituanus). She is a recipient of two Fulbright grants in Creative Writing, a National Endowment for the Arts Award in Literature, a PEN Translation Fund grant, and other honors. She earned a PhD in Humanities from Vilnius University, an MFA in Writing (Poetry) from Columbia University, an MFA in Nonfiction from the University of New Hampshire, and a BA in English and German Literature from Rutgers University. For more about Laima Vincė’s work please see her website: www.Laimavince.com

Author

• Laima Vince Sruoginis, University of Southern Maine