As the author confessed indirectly to his doctor and friend Julius Kaupas, Škėma’s creative work is autobiographical it is deeply rooted in its era and depicts it without decoration, without sugarcoating, without the author polishing it to the extent of degrading it to the level of banner headlines about preserving national values. Controversy was guaranteed in the sixties, and now? What’s so interesting and attractive about this text, (written in the US and Canada in 1952–1954 and published in 1958) which will turn 70 in 2018? What does it offer and why is it still read and so well-liked, often cited by Lithuanians as their all-time favorite novel?įirst we should establish the context. Born in 1910 in Łódź, Poland, Antanas Škėma is seen by Lithuanians as something between a teen idol (the decadently smoldering cigarette in his hand, ironically crooked smile, elegantly crumpled neckerchief) and a classic writer put on a pedestal by academics for expanding Lithuanian literature for its introduction of stream of consciousness and its blunt depiction of madness and sex, existentialism, and even nihilism.
The novel White Shroud will be published by Glasgow based independent publishing house Vagabond Voces.įollowing the publication of Antanas Škėma’s Balta drobulė (The White Shroud) in Germany and high praise from publications like Spiegel magazine, an English translation of the novel, by Karla Gruodis, is soon to be published by Vagabond Voices (Glasgow).
0 kommentar(er)
