Scholarly record

THE MUNDANE AND SPIRITUAL DIMENSION IN REGIONAL CULTURE: REMEMBERED STORIES AND REMINISCENCES

Jelena Korolova, Ilze Kacane, Zans Badins, Inese Valtere, Jana Butane-Zarjuta

Abstract

Region is a territory united by common features that differentiate the concrete area from other neighbouring territories. It is characterized by persistent and stable cultural models, which have formed and continue shaping in the course of history and which determine its pace and direction of development. The cultural space in its essence cannot be viewed only horizontally, it should be viewed also vertically as a depository of intangible values. The mundane or traditional that is concerned with the worldly matters is opposed to the spiritual dimension. Contemporary science focuses on a complex investigation of regions. For this reason the space of a borderzone region requires synthetic poly-segmental research that combines the study of history (including oral history), national and cultural memory, religious and cultural (linguistic and literary) peculiarities. The stories told and textual reminiscences help discovering the mundane and the spiritual dimension, as well as the specifics of linguistic and social experience of the epoch that supplement historical and structural approaches in the study of the region. The paper deals with the in-depth investigation of the mundane and the spiritual dimension in the south-eastern Latvian region Latgale and interrelatedness of its features, focussing on such aspects of borderland space as history, oral history, ethnography, language, ethnolinguistics, and literature – all of them constitute the cultural heritage of a multicultural society.

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