Scholarly record
REPRESENTATION OF MODERNITY AT THE OUTSET OF LATVIAN WOMENS WRITING: THE CASE OF ASPAZIJA
Abstract
Aspazija (Elza Rozenberga, 19651943) is a founder of Latvian womens writing. She had an essential role in the formation of Latvian contemporary literature in the late 19th early 20th centuries. At that time, it was modernity that determined social and economic processes in the world. That time was characterized by the deconstruction of the patriarchal model of life and the stratification of the society. Industrialization and urbanization determined the overlap, transformation and hybridization of ethnic and social identities. Aspazija addressed these topics also in her public presentations in periodicals. In 1897 she married J?nis Pliek?ns, who soon became famous under his pseudonym Rainis (18651929). The article will focus on the modernity markers represented in Aspazijas texts and public views: the replacement of rural identity by urban identity, inhabitants mass migration to towns and their complicated integration into the urban space overtaken by rapid industrial development, the deconstruction of patriarchal life order, womens multiple roles in the society. Aspazija was among the first writers who understood her time as a period of significant political and cultural transformations. Her early works incited major controversies around women's rights, poverty, Latvian national independence etc. In her texts she reveals how in literary works of that time a woman from the object becomes a subject quiding the action.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References7
Burima M., Ibsens Latvijā, Rīga: Norden AB, p. 10, 2007;
Cimdiņa, A., Aspazijas izaicinājums zinātnei un tēvzemei, Aspazija and Modernity. Gender, Nation, Creativity, Rīga: Zinātne, p. 30, 2016;
Rudzītis, V., Aspazijas sieviete starp matriarhālo un patriarhālo. Aspazija and Modernity. Gender, Nation, Creativity, Rīga: Zinātne, p. 244, 2016;
Here and below the cited pages of this issue are indicated in brackets. Aspazija, Zaudētas tiesības. Zeltīte. Lugas. Pirmais sējums, Rīga: Liesma, 1968;
A priest of Liezere ev. Lutheran parish Johann Leberecht Ehregott Punschel (born in 1778 in Ehrenfriedersdorf, Saxony; died in 1849 in Liezere);
‘Bauri’ – a word used by Germans in Latvia to denote a layer of Latvian peasants having low education level and social status; the lexeme has no translation though carries a negative connotation;
Kļaviņa, I, Aspazijas un Raiņa lugu 19.–20. gs. mijas iestudējumu nozīme latviešu profesionālā teātra attīstībā. Aspazija – Rainis. Dzīvā dzīve. Kolektīvā monogrāfija. [Sast. un zin. red. Maija Burima], Rīga: Zinātne, pp. 88–89, 2017.
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
