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URBAN CULTURAL PRACTICES AS A MIRROR OF THE MODERNIZATION OF LATE 19TH CENTURY SOCIETY AND LIFESTYLE IN AUGUSTS DEGLAVS’ NOVEL “RIGA”
Abstract
The study focuses on the late 19th century city as an equivalent of the formation of a modern society. In fiction, especially in novels, the depiction of the 19th/20th century city has always attracted attention as a reflection of the formation of modern society through portrayals of both daily life and the development trends of the era's ideas. Writer, publicist, social activist Augusts Deglavs (1862–1922) created a unique portrait of the modernization of the city in Latvian literature with his novel “Riga” (“Riga”) (part 1 in 1912, part 2 in 1921). The novel demonstrates the awakening of Latvians and their formation as a cultural nation in a multicultural society in the conditions of double colonialism in the second half of the 19th century. One of the focal points of the novel is the diverse spectrum of cultural practices in an emerging industrial and multicultural society. The novel shows that cultural practices are determined by power hegemony and confrontation, various social experiences, ethnic, professional, religious affiliations, ideologies, behavioural norms and mass cultural emancipation. The research was conducted in a culture-oriented perspective, involving the social sciences and the current interdisciplinary approach. The approach of Cultural Studies and New Historicism method are used, with which it is possible to discover how Augusts Deglavs’ novel is rooted in the cultural practices, circulation of ideas and historical developments of the era. New Historicism looks at literature as one of the voices in the polyphony of history or an era, a voice which can sound just as powerful in content as the voice of history and culture itself, because literature is one of the links in the chain of cultural processes.
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