LITHUANIAN LITERARY PROGRAMME
Organized by Books from Lithuania
in cooperation with the Lithuanian Institute, the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Sweden, Göteborg book fair.
The programme is financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.
For the whole programme see below
29 September 2005, 09.15-10.00, The Big Scene at the International Square, Hall H, Floor 2
Lithuanian literary breakfast
with participation of the Lithuanian authors Neringa Abrutytė, Vytautas V. Landsbergis, Kornelijus Platelis, Agnė Žagrakalytė, and musicians Vytautas Labutis (sax), Valerijus Ramoška (trumpet) and Andrė Pabarčiūtė (voice).
Moderated by Liana Ruokytė and Leonidas Donskis
Language: Swedish/English
In cooperation with The Secret Garden 29 September 2005, 10.00-10.45 Kod To10.1
Three Seconds of Heaven
A well-known Lithuanian poet, dramatist, and essay writer Sigitas Parulskis published in 2002 his first novel Three Seconds of Heaven (Tre sekunder av himmel). The hero of the novel is a former landing soldier who served in the Soviet Armed Forces Unit deployed in the territory of the former German Democratic Republic. After being put into this sobering station, the hero suffers from unpleasant feelings, as if his service has not yet been finished: he is constantly forced to serve his country, God, a woman, and alcohol. Merciless everyday existence of airborne troops, destructive ways of the Soviet Army, grotesque encounters with Eastern Germans, – these are the details that are composed into an intriguing narrative; yet the other narrative off-shoot takes us into Lithuania, which is already experiencing the turmoil of political changes. The episodes of bohemian life, of unrequited love, of search for ultimate values are interwoven into an open and painful, sensitive yet ironic narrative. Literary critics have already titled the novel, which is in some sense the life story of the author himself, as the cult-book of his generation.
Sigitas Parulskis talks about his novel and experiences in the Soviet Army, about how man can be distorted by a system built upon humiliation, and what, nevertheless, remains of humanity in the end with Staffan Skott, Swedish journalist and Soviet Union expert and Jonas Öhman, the translator.
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
In co-operation with Ariel Publishers 29 September 2005, 11.00
Swedish Publishers present Lithuanian literature
Literary critics Laimantas Jonušys and the translator Jonas Öhman talk about the novel Tula (Författarhuset Publishing House) by Jurgis Kunčinas.
Language: English
In cooperation with Författarhuset Publishing House
29 September 2005, 11.00-11.45 Kod To11.1
Poison to treat poison
Herkus Kunčius, born in 1965, belongs to the most prolific prose writers of his generation. Outrageous, blasphemous and obscene he remains the most consistent provocateur and most warm-hearted cynic in contemporary Lithuanian writing. Always unpredictable, and always with his targets in focus and in range, he has written a series of novels, short stories, and plays which turn Lithuania's self-understanding inside out and upside down. Literary critic Leonidas Donskis sees him, in the context of post-communist reality, as a black humorist with an almost therapeutical role: it takes poison to treat poison.
Here Herkus Kunčius and Leonidas Donskis talk about the Kunčius’ essay De försvunna texterna (The Lost Texts) and about his authorship in general.
Language: English/Lithuanian
In co-operation with Ariel Publishers
29 September 2005, 13.00
Swedish Publishers present Lithuanian literature
Ariel Publishing House presents Lithuanian prose’ books in discussion with Lithuanian authors Sigitas Parulskis and Herkus Kunčius.
Moderated by Mikael Nydahl
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
In co-operation with Ariel Publishing House
29 September 2005, 13.00-13.45 Kod To13.3
State Visit from the Republic of Children!
Ulf Stark, Kęstutis Urba, Janina Orlov, Maria Nikolajeva talk about children‘s and youth‘s literature in Sweden, Finland and Lithuania.
In co-operation with FILI-Finish Literature Information Centre 29 September 2005, 14.00-15.00, Room for poetry, Hall J, Floor 2
hosting the Lithuanian poets Agnė Žagrakalytė,Sigitas Parulskis and Neringa Abrutytė.
Moderated by Juris Kronbergs
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian 29 September 2005, 15.00-16.30 Göteborg University, Vasaparken, Hall 10
Academic seminar Lithuania: Still In Between East and West?
Leonidas Donskis and Egidijus Aleksandravicius
The seminar focuses on cultural and political reasons that guided the choices of Lithuanian regional politics since 1990. The traditional East-West divide needs critical assessment and problematization because its meaning has been substantially changing in the context of the EU enlargement. Hence the discussion concentrates on to what extent contemporary Lithuanian politics can be understood through traditional geopolitical concepts.
29 September 2005, 15.30-16.00 The Small Scene at the International Square, Hall H, Floor2
A man with many strings.
With participation of professor Kęstutis Urba and Vytautas V. Landsbergis, author, musician, filmproducer.
Language: Swedish/English
In cooperation with the Secret Garden
29 September 2005, 17.00-18.00 Kod To17.1
Sea, Earth and Sky
in the Baltic and Nordic contemporary literatures
The Baltic Sea has become an Inland Sea of the European Union, a Mare Nostrum of the North. What meaning does the sea have in the literature of countries washed by its waves? What relationship does the sea have to other elements of nature, earth and sky? Can we talk about Sea People and Land People in the Twentyfirst century?
Literary critics Laimantas Jonušys (Lithuania), Ieva Kolmane (Latvia), Märt Väljataga (Estonia), and Soila Lehtonen (Finland) come together to discuss sea, earth and sky in the national literature of their countries today, to look for similarities and differences, and to comment on new trends.
Moderator: Ingrid Elam, cultural journalist(Sweden).
Language: English
In co-operation with the Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania 29 September 2005, 19.00, Göteborg City library, Götaplatsen, Göteborg
Written by women
with participation of the Lithuanian authors Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė, Jurga Ivanauskaitė and Vanda Juknaitė.
Moderated by Eva Mattsson
In co-operation with the Göteborg City library 29 September 2005, 19.30, Jazz Club ‘Nefertiti’, Hvitfeldtsplatsen 6, Göteborg www.nefertiti.se
Jazz and Poetry from Lithuania
Poets Neringa Abrutytė, Gintaras Grajauskas, Antanas A. Jonynas and Agnė Žagarkalytė.
Musicians Leonidas Šinkarenko (bass guitar), Vytautas Labutis (sax), Arvydas Joffė (percussion), Valerijus Ramoška (trumpet), Andrė Pabarčiūtė (voice), Jacob Karlzon (piano, Sweden).
In co-operation with the Jazz Club ‘Nefertiti’
30 September 2005, 09.00-09.45 Kod Fr09.2
Children’s literature in Lithuania
Literature for children often reflects the views and ideas of the surrounding society, but it also can have a questionable and disturbing effect. What does the history of children’s literature in Lithuania look like? What’s there for children and young adults to read today, what was there before? Are there any influences from other countries and cultures? What is possible for us in Sweden to take part of? What more ought there to be?
These questions will be discussed between one of the best critics for children’s literature in Lithuania, docent Kęstutis Urba, two representatives for the newest trends in Lithuanian children’s literature Vytautas V. Landsbergis and Sigutė Ach, and the Swedish author Anna-Karin Eurelius. The discussion will be moderated by Uno Nilsson, chief librarian at the county of Tjörn.
Language: English
In co-operation with Nätverket Den hemliga trädgården and the Lithuanian Embassy in Stockholm
30 September 2005, 10.30-10.50,Children’s Square, Floor 1
Nothing serious and wings
Workshop for children with the Lithuanian children’s book illustrator Sigutė Ach.
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
In cooperation with The Secret Garden 30 September 2005, 11.00-11.45 Kod Fr11.2
Jurgis Kunčinas
My city – my love
Jurgis Kunčinas (1947–2002) started publishing novels in the early 1990s and belongs to the so called "big three" of Lithuanian prose authors who have been writing after the restoration of Lithuania's independence. Most would agree that his best novel is Tula. It is confessional in nature, its humour overlaid with sadness. The narrator’s love for the woman with the peculiar name Tula gets interrupted and confused by the flow of events and by his own weaknesses. The novel is distinguished by some memorable characters and, most impressively, by a mesmerizing mood of nostalgia and poetic images, and by the strange, often bleak, atmosphere of Vilnius, especially its dilapidated and outlandish district of Užupis – which reminds one of Söder in Stockholm.
Literary critic Laimantas Jonušys and author and critic Magnus Haglund talk about the city as a source of literary inspiration and introduce the audience to the poetic, ironic and psychological love story Tula by Jurgis Kunčinas.
Language: English
In co-operation with Författarhuset Publishers 30 September 2005, 11.00
Swedish Publishers present Lithuanian literature
Litauen berättar: Att avregistrera ett spöke. Presentation of the prose’ anthology and the novel Häxan och regnet by Jurga Ivanauskaitė with participation of the Lithuanian authors Jurga Ivanauskaitė, Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė, Markas Zingeris, Vanda Juknaitė and the compiler Loreta Mačianskaitė.
Moderated by Styrbjörn Gustafsson
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
In cooperation with Tranan Publishing House 30 September 2005, 13.00
Swedish Publishers present Lithuanian literature
Ariel Publishing House presents Lithuanian poetry. With participation of the Lithuanian authors Sigitas Parulskis, Sigitas Geda and Gintaras Grajauskas.
Moderated by Mikael Nydahl
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
In cooperation with Ariel Publishing House 30 September 2005, 13.00-13.45 Kod Fr13.6
Lithuania Tells
Swedish readers are invited to acquaint themselves with the liveliest representatives of the last 15 years of Lithuanian short prose in a newly-published anthology Lithuania tells. The anthology’s compilers attempted to avoid two extremes – either to allow suffering to dominate or to be absent from the text. Stories written by authors from different generations span various experiences of spiritual life, from the losses of the Soviet period and the deformations of reality in post-Soviet times in the works of authors from older generations to the play of cultural, historical, and sexual meanings in the writing of young people not burdened by Soviet oppression. The traditional novella has been outrivaled recently by the essay, which was born in democracy and freedom of the press. But which literary genre these texts can be categorised into is not important – such is the Lithuanian message about the cost and lessons of freedom.
Literary critic Eva Mattsson talks with Loreta Mačianskaitė, the compiler of the anthology, Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė and Markas Zingeris, both authors of stories published in the anthology.
Language: English
In co-operation with Tranan Publishers
30 September 2005, 14.00-14.20 Kod Fr1400.4
Oh Nature!
The Lithuanian poet Sigitas Parulskis, born in 1965, appears to be one of the more uncompromising poets of his generation. Ever since his debut in the early nineties his poetry has portrayed man against the background of an emphatically contemporary landscape, as it would have been drawed by Hieronymus Bosch, with wrath, despair and uncanny humour. In 2002 Sigitas Parulskis was first introduced to the Swedish audience. Now The Marble Dog provides the Swedish – and Norwegian – readers with a more substantial selection of his poetry.
Discussions and readings with Sigitas Parulskis, Gunnar Waerness, Norwegian poet, and Mikael Nydahl, Publisher.
Language: Lithuanian/Swedish/Norwegian
In co-operation with Ariel Publishers
30 September 2005, 14.00-14.45 Kod Fr14.6
Do You Believe in Angels?
Poetry in Translation
Sigitas Geda, born in 1943, is one of the most prominent writers in Lithuania. The creative world of Geda is a distinctive and interesting. He is the most unconventional, the least predictable Lithuanian poet; his every book denies the previous one and this is the only regular feature of his poetry. Thus there is no wonder the poet has tried out many genres of poetry – from classical sonnet to Japanese haiku, to syllabotonic and Dadaism –, putting them into Lithuanian context. In 1995 he was found worthy of the National Award and in 1998 Geda was decorated by the Order of Duke Gediminas and became recipient of the Baltic Assembly Award the same year.
Ulf Eriksson, born in 1958, published his first collection of poetry in 1982. Since then 21 literary works in print. Besides the works of literary creation in prose and poetry, Eriksson has developed a career as literary critic in Dagens Nyheter and Göteborgs-Posten.
Ulf Eriksson and Sigitas Geda met in 2000 in the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Visby. Ulf Eriksson participated in the innovative translating workshop where a group of Swedish speaking translators and poets produced a „collective translation“ of Geda’s poetry into Swedish wich resulted in the book by Ariel Publishers.
In this seminar the poets will present their poetry translations and discuss with Gunilla Forsén, the first director of the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Visby and after Cultural attaché of Sweden in Latvia & Lithuania, the experiences, pros and cons of the collective method in translating poetry.
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
30 September 2005, 14.00-15.00, Room for poetry, Hall J, Floor 2
hosting the Lithuanian poets Kornelijus Platelis, Antanas A. Jonynas and Gintaras Grajauskas.
Moderated by Håkan Bravinger
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
30 September 2005, 16.30-16.50,Children’s Square Floor 1
Nothing serious and wings
Workshop for children with the Lithuanian children’s book illustrator Sigutė Ach.
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
In co-operation with The Secret Garden 1 October 2005, 09.30-09.50 Kod Lö0930.5
Miniseminar: From lithuanian to swedish, make translator visible
Discussion with transaltors Mikael Nydahl and Jonas Ellerström.
In co-operation with Translators Centre 1 October 2005, 10.30-10.50 Kod Lö1030.5
Miniseminar: Don Quixot400 years
Juan Marsé, Antonio Gamoneda, Ken Benson, Jens Nordenhök, Leonidas Donskis
How come that a four centuries old novel is being read like never before? The first modern novel of our times is constantly of immediate interest.
Language: Spanish and English
In co-operation with Instituto Cervantes and Lithuanian embassy in Stockholm 1 October 2005, 10.30-11.00, International Square, Hall A02:60
Reading and discussion with Lithuanian poet Kornelijus Platelis.
Moderated by Håkan Bravinger
Language: English
In cooperation with The Swedish Writers Union 1 October 2005, 11.00
Swedish Publishers present Lithuanian literature
Nijolė Bražėnaitė and the translator Jonas Öhman present the book Skogsbröder by Juozas Lukša.
Moderated by Jonas Öhman
Language: English
In cooperation with Bäckströms Publishing House 1 October 2005, 11.00-11.20 Kod Lö1100.1
About faith, love and sex
Writer and artist Jurga Ivanauskaitė, born in 1961, who looks for inspiration to Oriental philosophy and reinterpreted Christianity, borrows from the Beat Generation and hippie subculture and is not alien to the ideas of the feminist movement. The author of six novels, two books of essays, collection of short stories, books for children, etc. became famous, you could say, over night with the novel The Witch and the Rain, a love story told by three women – a bohemian outsider of today, a medieval witch and Mary Magdalene. When first published, the book caused quite a scandal. The national Ethics Commission failed to recognize the characters of the book as passionate searchers for God, and to understand the deeper meaning in some of the drastic scenes of the book. It was banned as allegedly pornographic and anti-Christian. The novel has been translated into several languages.
Writer and literary critic Eva Mattsson meets Jurga Ivanauskaitė, newly introduced in Swedish.
Language: English
In co-operation with Tranan Publishers
1 October 2005, 11.00-11.45 Kod Lö11.5
Children from the street
Neglect and solitude of the contemporary child; children without homes, without bread, and without love – these are themes that touch our society. In Lithuania as well as Sweden, there are people who can give homeless children more than just a mouthful of bread. Vanda Juknaitė, one of the strongest Lithuanian female prose writers of today, worked with a group of like-minded people in a camp for street children and wrote down her experience in the book My Voice Betrays Me. The author writes about what hurts, scares, and angers. The suggestive, psychologically nuanced, and publicly unrelenting narrative opens up a social problem born from post-Communist freedom – vulnerable and solitary people. Juknaitė states a painful truth: times of change harm the weakest of society. Charlotte Gornitzka, director of Save the Children in Stockholm, attests that there is no lack of children’s tears even in „stable“ societies. Vanda Juknaitė and Charlotte Petri Gornitzka share their experience about working with homeless children in Lithuania and Sweden and examine if it is enough to give children bread without giving them love.
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian 1 October 2005, 11.30-11.50 Kod Lö1130.3
Tomas Venclova – hope and despair in the 21st century
Born in 1937 in Lithuania, and having left the USSR in 1977, Tomas Venclova has always dealt with two major subjects. At one hand the fate of Vilnius, in which the whole complexity and tragedy of the ethnic and national relations of Eastern Europe are present. At the other hand, the response from Eastern European authors to the totalitarian challenge. His work as a poet and as an essayist is heavily marked by the 20th century experiences; how are these experiences to be used, in poetry and in the attempts to understand the contemporary situation?
Tomas Venclova in discussion with his Swedish publisher, Mikael Nydahl.
Language: English
In co-operation with Ariel Publishers 1 October 2005, 13.00
Swedish Publishers present Lithuanian literature
Litauen diktar: Möte i gryningen. 26 samtida poeter. Poetry’ anthology presentation with participation of the Lithuanian authors Kornelijus Platelis, Sigitas Geda, Eugenijus Ališanka, Aidas Marčėnas and Dovilė Zelčiūtė
Moderated by Juris Kronbergs.
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
In cooperation with Tranan Publishing House 1 October 2005, 14.00-15.00, Room for poetry, Hall J, Floor 2
hosting the Lithuanian poets Tomas Venclova and Sigitas Geda.
Moderated by Gunilla Forsén
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
1 October 2005, 14.30-15.00, The International Square, Hall H05:29
About faith, love and sex
Reading and discussion with Lithuanian writer Jurga Ivanauskaitė.
Moderated by Swedish writer and literary critic Eva Mattsson
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian
In cooperation with The Swedish Institute 1 October 2005, 16.00-17.00 Kod Lö16.3
Historical Geographies & Poetical Stoicism
Tomas Venclova, born in 1937, belongs to the narrow circle of the great East European exiles of the century, poets of such stature as Joseph Brodsky or Czesław Miłosz who have influenced world poetry. He left Lithuania in 1977, because of his attitude, and he became a professor of the Slavonic literature at the University of Yale in 1980.
He is the author of several poetry volumes, works of literary criticism, essays and articles. Published in Swedish for instance Samtal vintertid: dikter 1956-2000 and Former av hopp, 2001.
He received the Lithuanian National Award in 2000.
Gunnar D. Hansson, Swedish author, born in 1945, teaches literature at Göteborg University. He has published ten volumes of poetry, and translations of Old English and Hungarian poetry.
Meet the two poets in a co-reading and discussion. Tomas Venclova and Gunnar D. Hansson will focus on the themes: the landscape of poetical resistance and the change of cultural and historical geographies.
Moderator: Håkan Bravinger, writer, translator, editor and Secretary of the Swedish Writers’ Union.
Language: English.
In co-operation with the Swedish Writers’ Union 1 October 2005, 16.30-17.00,The Small Scene at the International Square, Hall H, Floor 2
Very serious nonsense
Conversation between Vytautas V. Landsbergis and Sigutė Ach about their cooperation.
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian/English
In cooperation with The Secret Garden 1 October 2005, 19.00, Konsthögskolan Valand, Göteborgs universitet, Vasagatan 50, Göteborg
Poets from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden and Norway read their poetry.
Doris Kareva, Asko Künnap, Karl-Martin Sinijärv (Estonia),
Inese Zandere, Liana Langa, Juris Kronbergs (Latvia),
Dovilė Zelčiūtė, Eugenijus Ališanka,Aidas Marčėnas (Lithuania),
Jenny Tunedal, Hanna Hallgren (Sweden),
Gunnar Waerness (Norway).
Accompanied by the Lithuanian Jazz: Vytautas Labutis (sax), Leonidas Šinkarenko (bass guitar), and Arvydas Joffė (percussion).
In cooperation with the Nordic Council of Ministers Office, the Latvian Literature Centre, the Estonian Literature Information Centre, Konsthögskolan Valand (GU), Per Bergström 2 October 2005, 14.00-15.00, Room for poetry, Hall J, Floor 2
hosting the Lithuanian poets Eugenijus Ališanka, Dovilė Zelčiūtė and Aidas Marčėnas.
Moderated by Juris Kronbergs
Language: Swedish/Lithuanian 2 October 2005, 15.00-17.00, Room 22,Floor 2
Johnny and Gretchen
A film for the whole family introduced by the filmdirector and scriptwriter Vytautas V. Landsbergis.
Language: English
In cooperation with The Secret Garden 3 October 2005, 10.30-12.00, Swedish Institute for Children’s Books, Odengatan 61, Stockholm
Seminar about literature for children in Lithuania. With participation of Sigutė Ach, Vytautas V. Landsbergis and Kęstutis Urba
In cooperation with The Secret Garden and the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books |
