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This course serves as an introduction to the field of comparative literature and cultural studies, and offers a look at contemporary societies in the Baltic region through the lens of literary and artistic (film, critical art) commentaries on the social realities that shape them. In the first part of the course, the focus will be on 20th-century literature (particularly poetry) created by prominent writers from several countries and linguistic traditions of the Baltic Region (Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, Germany). Taking as our starting point the perspective of literary geography, geopoetics, and imagology, we will attempt to answer the question of how—if at all—regional literature can be defined in relation to this area, highlighting the literary dialogues among writers, shared biographical elements and experiences expressed in their works, as well as the thematic and worldview choices that unite them. The basis for identifying and comparing the works of interest to us is the issue of memory (especially the memory of 20th-century history, war, and the post-Yalta division of Europe) and the significance of the object as a carrier of memory; therefore, the course will also include an introduction to the fundamentals of memory studies and object studies within the field of literary studies. On the margins of these considerations, issues related to official culture and the politics of memory—expressed, among other things, through monuments and their literary descriptions—will also be addressed. In the second part of the course, we will move from the topic of history and its presence in the poetry of the Baltic Region to an analysis of literary and artistic works that are closely linked to the current situation in this part of the world and its specific social issues. Questions about history here no longer take the form of direct inquiries into memory, its distortions, and its conditioning, but rather involve reflection on how the past is visible (and invisible) in the present. We will be interested in issues such as the situation of ethnic minorities (indigenous and immigrant communities), changes in religion and processes of secularization, freedom of speech and artistic expression—as commented on by writers, documentary filmmakers, and visual artists. |
