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LATVIAN SEGMENT IN DAVID BEZMOZGIS'S LITERARY SPACE
Abstract
The given article addresses the issue of Jewish text in the literary production of a contemporary Canadian writer of Latvian origin - David Bezmozgis – focusing on representation of Latvian segment in the collection of his short stories Natasha and Other Stories (2004). Publication of the said collection alongside with his other works (The Free World (2011), The Betrayers (2014)) has aroused great interest among common readers and literary scholars, who in their critical notes consider his works mainly through the lens of cosmopolitanism, diaspora questions, identity, migration etc. Although his stories are set in the so-called New World, David Bezmozgis builds up his characters and constructs his literary space by providing constant references to the Latvian/Baltic background. Studying these references in the context of his text, it was possible to reconstruct Bezmozgis’s unique vision on Latvia and evaluate the effect it produced in the process of shaping his characters and their environment. In Latvian literature and culture Jewish segment has always occupied a special place. A literary image of Jews in Latvian literature at different historical points has been shaped by the socio-political situation in the state that might have shaped the artistic world view of a certain period and the way writers depicted the surrounding world. In her recent research, a Latvian scholar Elina Vasiljeva highlights the key points in the development of Jewish text in Latvian literature, both synchronically and diachronically. With reference to her findings, it was challenging to consider the stories of David Bezmozgis, a Toronto-based writer with then Soviet-Latvian background, and juxtapose his treatment of the theme with the patterns created by Latvian writers.
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References11
Dāvids Bezmozgis "Nataša un citi stāsti", TVNET, izdevniecība “Atēna”, 24.03.2019. https://www.tvnet.lv/6174040/davids-bezmozgis-natasa-un-citi-stasti/
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VasiДјjeva E., Ebreju teksts latvieЕЎu literatЕ«rДЃ, Daugavpils: Saule, p.10, 2018.
VasiДјjeva E., Ebreju teksts latvieЕЎu literatЕ«rДЃ, Daugavpils: Saule, p.265, 2018.
VasiДјjeva E., Ebreju teksts latvieЕЎu literatЕ«rДЃ, Daugavpils: Saule, p.267, 2018.
VasiДјjeva E., Ebreju teksts latvieЕЎu literatЕ«rДЃ, Daugavpils: Saule, p.270, 2018.
Bezmozgis, D., Natasha: And Other Stories, Macmillan Publishers, 2010.
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