War, Child and Wartime Holidays in Latvian Writers' Childhood Memory Narratives

• In Event: Language, Culture, and Identity in Latvian Literature

Abstract

Autobiographical memory narratives reveal not only subjective perceptions of reality, individual or family history and recollections, but also function as historical evidence that provides an overview of the shifts in public discourse, political objectives, and cultural paradigms. The paper focuses on the depictions of World War II as seen through the lens of a child in childhood memory narratives written by Latvian writers born at the end of the 1920s–1930s. The research is aimed at analysing the representations of celebrating festivities during turbulent times of the war on the territory of Latvia and the ways they impact the dynamics of children and adolescents' sense of (in)security. In the selected authors’ (A. Stankevičs, D. S. Varslavāne, etc.) prose works, literary portrayals of wartime holidays are presented in the context of both nostalgia, longings for the past, and survival in the dramatic events of the present; celebrations in such circumstances function as attempts for restoring “normality” and the means for heightening children’s feeling of safety and psychological wellbeing. Literary texts of war memories may be studied in conjunction with factual historical documents and life story interviews to get a holistic picture of the traumatic events, experiences, and resilience of the so-called “fatherless generation”.

Short Bio

Ilze Kačāne, Dr. philol., is a senior researcher at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Daugavpils University (Latvia) and Acting Head of the Department of Languages and Literature at Daugavpils University Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Ilze Kačāne’s methodological expertise lies in comparative literature; she obtained her Doctor of Philology (Dr. philol.) degree in Literary Studies (sub-branch of Comparative Literary Studies) in 2007; she is the editor of the “Journal of Comparative Studies”. She has broad experience in the implementation of international research projects on youth and their wellbeing, cultural literacy education, memory and identity, including in the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (FP7, Horizon 2020), e.g. “Cultural Heritage and Identities of Europe’s Future” (2018–2021) where she focused on the research on intergenerational dynamics of cultural socialization.

Author

• Ilze Kačāne, Daugavpils University