1. science
2. social science
3. linguistics

THE CENTRE OF THE BALTIC STUDIES
THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
KLAIPEDA UNIVERSITY
The 3rd International Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference
Harmony of Tradition and Modernity:
Concept of the SEA in Language and Culture
ANNOTATIONS
Klaipeda
November 20–21, 2014
NOVEMBER 20, THURSDAY
10.00 Aloyzas Gudavičius (Šiauliai)
The Concept SEA in Conceptual Metaphors
Conceptual metaphors are treated as a strategy of thinking, when we think about some
things as about other. Things that we think about, that we perceive are called target domain,
while what we ground on, what images, patterns or structures we actualise, source domain. Most
often (but not always) source domains are concepts of subjects or phenomena that are concrete,
perceived by senses, better known and which serve us as a basis when we are thinking about
abstract, vague concepts with no clear limits and structure. Source domain is the concept which
we use in order to more clearly imagine, model and structure the cogitative content. For example,
thinking and speaking about morality, we ground on certain space characteristics, perceived by
certain senses (high, low morality), while the very features of space are perceived directly, not
grounding on another experience (high house, low table).
One of the aims of investigating conceptual metaphors is the analysis of diversity and
efficacy of concepts of source domains. Prevalence of particular source domains in conceptual
metaphors demonstrates both their significance in the linguistic community and certain
preferences and value approaches of speakers.
Based on The Dictionary of Conceptual Metaphors, prepared by the group of researchers
(Aina Budvytyte-Gudiene, Aloyzas Gudavicius, Nedas Jurgaitis, Silvija Papaurelytė-Kloviene,
Reda Toleikiene. Conceptual Metaphors in Public Discourse. 2014), the paper will review usage
of the concept SEA in conceptual metaphors. It is a little surprising that the concept which is
seemingly so important in the Lithuanian worldview is almost not reflected in conceptual
metaphors used in discourses on politics, economics, health and sports.
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10.25 Darius Daunys (Klaipėda)
Developments in the concept of the sea in marine sciences
It is widely accepted that sea is highly important in lives of many people. For instance,
approximately 43% of Europe‘s population are living in coastal areas, nearly 5.4 mill. people are
employed in marine economy sectors and 1.8 thous. of ships are recorded in the Baltic sea only
at every moment in average. Understanding of the sea cannot be detached from the type of
involvement and generated new knowledge about the sea. Approx. 1 billion Euros are spent
annually by central governance for surveillance of marine environment, navigation safety,
coastal protection measures, fishery regulations and other sectors, which generate and use the
new knowledge about the sea. On the other hand, economic sectors and their generated knew
knowledge themselves actively shape the concept of the sea. Four major marine and coastal
ecosystem services are distinguished based on the knowledge accumulated during the last
decades in marine sciences – provisioning (e.g. fish stocks), regulating (e.g. climate regulation),
cultural (e.g. esthetic value) and supporting (e.g. nutrient cycling) services. Although pricing of
some of these services is possible by valuation techniques, pricing is generally assumed to be
directly dependent on the extent and quality of marine environment. This presentation is aimed at
short review on how marine sciences define and valuate the meaning of the sea today and how
economic value can be important in development of the concept of the sea.
10.50 Romualdas Apanavičius (Kaunas)
Water and water inhabitans did the influence to the origin of the musical
instruments of the mankind
Shapes of the ethnic musical instruments of the nations of the Baltic region like to the
relic fishes, the immages of the water fowles are noticeable in the bodies of the instruments of
the Siberia, Transcaucasia and Middle East. String instruments of the Baltic, Western Siberia,
Far East and Central Africa regions are very closed to the forms of the archaic wooden canoes.
The features of the sea cultere as well reflects in the immages of the musical instruments.
Bodies of the instruments of the nations of the Mideterrania and Middle East are closed to the
sea boats and the ships, preserving to the current time all the elements of its constructions,
including the masts and sails. It is characterictic for the harps of the Mesopotamia, Ancient
Egypt, Greece and Shumerians. These same elements of the sea ships are evident as well in the
archeological fossils of the musical instruments of these mention regions of the 3rd – 2nd mill. B.
C.
The immages of the musical instruments of the nations of the Baltic region not reflects
any elements of the former sea culture. The presumption can be proposed that the forms of the
ancinet economy of these nations, most probably, not connected to the sea culture.
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11.15 Varvara Dobrovolskaja (Moscow)
The sea in the folklore prose of Center Russian
The report considers perception of the sea in folklore of people who have never seen the
sea in real life. The Russians of Central Russia don’t see the sea in threir everyday life, contrary
to the population of the Russian North, Baltic and Black Sea regions, the Volga region and the
Far East. However, the image of the sea is present in the folklore of the area and has a number of
features that are not met in the folklore of "maritime" regions of Russia. Here the sea is, above
all , dangerous and " scary" territory populated by fantastical creatures, dangerous for humans .
Wonderful and magical sea wonders which can be used for the treatment of or damage to the
person are often mentioned. The sea is dangerous mainly for the men. At the same time images
of the " magic", dangerous or men-friendly women are linked to the sea. The report will treat the
image of the sea in fairy tales, spells and some other folklore prose genres, we’ll present
comparative analysis of the elements forming the image of the sea in a particular genre and list
speech patterns used to characterize the sea and behavioral norms associated with the sea.
11.40 Olesya Cherkhava (Lviv)
Мetaphorization of concept WATER/SEA as the representation of kernel basic concept
"Inclination to Christian faith through Biblical religious knowledge" in religious popular
discourse
Within recent scientific researches concept “SEA” have been analyzed as1) linguistic
cultural concept in Russian mythological language view of the world , 2) lexical means of
concept “Sea” objectiveness in English, 3) segment of Russian speaking view of the world with
lexical semantic field that includes “Sea - Water”, “Sea - Earth ”, “Sea - Person”, “Sea –
Ship/Boat” sense components of the concept, 4) in phraseology of concept “Water” attributes
(based on Ukrainian, Russian, Belorussian and Polish language). Metaphoric naval natural
universals concepts are united by associational sequences into methaphoric measures (term of G.
Lacoff
and
M.
Johnson)
such
as
WAVE
(landscape),
TEAR(emotional),
BLOOD(antropomorphemic), that in its turn include kernel concepts (life is water, death is
water, time is water, love is water, hope is water, tear is water, blood is liquid) and a set of
periphery concepts to each kernel one. Such structure of metaphoric field may be variable in
different contexts, and at the same time may unite one particular type. Fore example, religious
type of institutional discourse, that in the previous researches was presented as the combination
of missionary, prophetic, sermon and religious popular discourse varieties, may represent kernel
concept BELIEF IN KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBLE (aspectual religious knowledge of
Lord/God spirit) as smth. essential to life on earth and leads to eternal life / DIE
BIBLEKENNTNIS (Gottes Geist) − fuer das Ewige Leben auf der Erde unverzichtbar ist.
Periphery metaphoric concept in religious popular discourse is viewed as 1) BLESSING (the
river whose waters give life)/ reinen Strom vom Wasser des Lebens; 2) SOURSE of truthful
knowledge(stream)/Lebt immer mehr aus der Gnade; 3) VIRGIN LOVE to let smb.drink a little
water from smb’s jar; 4) ENTRANCE TO PARADISE; 5)TIMELESSNESS (ETERNITY)
(sea/ocean/sky/clouds)/deine Treue bis zu den Wolken; 6) GOG’S POWER (Raging Sea, waters
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roar); 7) PUNISHMENT FOR COMMITING SINS (water for impurity); 8) NO DOUBT (wave
of the sea); 9) PASSING THROUGH DIFFICULTIES (Water-Fire danger)/durch Strome gehen.
12.05 Albinas Drukteinis, Jūratė Lubienė (Klaipėda)
Maritime terminology systematisation issue as a drop in the ocean of linguistic headaches
in the maritime area
World culture is sometimes divided into continental and maritime. A port city is part of the
maritime culture and the tool of its shaping. The mission of Klaipėda University (KU) is related
to the needs of Lithuania as a maritime state. KU priority research cover the issues of diversified
sustainable development of the Baltic Region, including the areas of economic, political,
cultural, and linguistic developments.
A seemingly minor issue, however, relevant for the representatives of the maritime
professions and for linguists, is the systematisation of the Lithuanian maritime terminology. The
presentation will introduce a database of the use of maritime terms which presently boasts
around 26,000 entries. The annotation of the included linguistic terms by different linguistic
characteristics alows researcher to select the necessary research material, and the specialist of the
area, to check specific terms in accordance with the characteristics.
Beside the maritime terminology, linguists face other hardly studied maritime areas, such as,
e.g., the opportunities of lexical and phraseological expression of the conceptual sea field or
comparative research of the linguistic sea worldview. The presentation promotes an idea of the
necessity of monolingual or multilingual systemic dictionaries of common and proper words on
the maritime themes for cultural needs that would help to develop the linguomaritime culture of
the seaside landscape.
Lunch 12:30 to 13:30
13.30 Aidas Jurkštas (Palanga)
Anno 1684. KLAIPĖDA LIGHTHOUSE. Memel. The history of Klaipėda
lighthouse
During the report, will be reviewed Klaipėda lighthouse's position in global history of
lighthouses, and Baltic sea's lighthouses context. Comments about wrong view into Klaipėda
lighthouse's origin date. Disclosed information vacuum formed and circulated factual mistakes.
Deeply introduced architectural changes during 330 years. Lighthouse's purpose for city's and
country's context. Present and future of lighthouse, in time of new technologies in navigation
sphere.
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WORKSHOP 1
(Faculty of the Humanities, Room 312)
Moderators: Marina Valentsova, Audronė Kaukienė
14.00 Audronė Kaukienė, Dalia Jakulytė (Klaipėda)
„Stonais po leipen Ʒaidiantē“
The presentation deals with an old handwritten text found in the book Logica parva,
published in 1440 in Canea, a city of Crete (presently, Chania). After the overview of the
version of reading and translation proposed by Stephan Kessler and Stephen Mossman, all the
words in the text, their spelling, and their interrelations are analysed and compared with the
respective materials of all Baltic languages; the possibilities of different interpretation of the
words and word combinations in the enigmatic text are looked for.
14.25 Marina Valentsova (Moscow)
The concept of SEA in traditional Slavonic culture
The report examines ethnolinguistic aspects of the concept sea in Slavic spiritual culture.
The word sea in Slavic languages has many different meanings, starting with 'sea',
'ocean', 'lake', 'bay', 'swamp', 'puddle' and ending with the metaphorical 'field', 'meadow', 'large
space', 'countless'. However, dictionaries (monolingual, etymological and others) do not explain
the relationship between these meanings, their relationship.
In the spirit of semantic reconstruction the report attempts to explore the semantic field of
the concept sea, to set motivation of the individual meanings, identify mechanisms of semantic
processes. To fulfill this task different contexts of the word sea usage were involved - in the
language of the traditional culture of the Slavic peoples.
The concept sea is meaningful in people's etiological legends about the origin of the
world; in charms where it appears as a divine locus where healing takes place, as "empty" space,
where the diseases are sent away; in fairy tales, where the sea is the boundary between the
human world and "other world", where live Koshchej the immortal, Dragon and other monsters
overseas; in popular beliefs the sea is the seat of the spirits, the "master of the sea," chthonic
animals.
Based on the analysis of these and other contexts in traditional folk culture, taking into
account the extra-linguistic reality and mental stereotypes the concept sea in Slavic culture is
reconstructed.
14.50 Ingrida Eglė Žindžiuvienė (Kaunas)
Sea and Transition between the Islands as the Restatement of Trauma
The aim of the paper is to provide the interdisciplinary analysis of the representation of
the sea and the island of Crete in the novel The Island (2005) by a contemporary British writer
Victoria Hislop (b. 1959). The main theme of the novel being the search for identity, the paper
examines the transformation of human values and discusses restatement of trauma. The
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fundamental issues of the narrative theory related to the discussion of the place are used in the
analysis of the role of the setting in the novel, in which the characters’ movement from one place
to another acquires the traits of the metaphorical transition. Alexis Fielding, a young British
woman, decides to disclose the secrets of her family’s past and travels from the UK to Greece
and then to Crete, where she finds out more facts about the mysterious family relationship based
on the long-time transition between Crete and the small island of Spinalonga, Greece’s former
leper colony. The novel contains many historical and geographical facts about Crete, and this
aspect may bring the novel closer to the genre of travel literature. However, the role of the sea
and both islands is described as one of the major issues in the search for national identity:
presenting a sensitive description of Spinalonga, a leper colony, the author discloses some parts
of the long-forgotten European history and introduces new aspects in the search for European
identity. The physical movement from one island to another and strong dependence on the sea
symbolize the boundaries of self-definition in order to take up a new identity or rather rediscover
the old one. The theme of transition goes alongside the one of restatement of national trauma.
This urge to disclose the traumatic unknown or the forgotten part of the European history moves
the novel further away from the popular genre of travel literature.
15.15 Dalia Kiseliūnaitė (Klaipėda)
Folklore of Prussian Lithuanians and “Curonians”:
“jūrės marės” or “jūra” and “marios”?
In folklore songs and fairy tales of the Prussian Lithuanians, as well as other Lithuanian
regions, jūra and marios/marės usually denote a concept that can be defined as: “a large body of
water with an unknown plot beyond”, “a boundary of water between oppositional members:
home: foreign, one’s own; strange/foreign, common: unusual, etc.”. In folklore, the words jūra
and marios are synonymous and are often used together as an idiom, meaning “far away” (per
jūras marias, už jūrų marių, etc.). A specific coastal space is sometimes defined in folksongs (in
Lithuanian folklore: Rusnė, Ventė, Gilija, etc.). It is enough for those, who are familiar with the
coast of the Curonian Lagoon to add the words laivas (“ship”) and žėgliuoti (“to sail”) and the
concept marios is replenished with the meaning of “waterway”. The folklore of the Baltic Sea
coast near Palanga and Šventoji is not fairly investigated. Legends and tales, recorded around the
coast of the Curonian Lagoon are completely different. The action occurs in a specific narrative
place: either on the coast of the Curonian Lagoon (often) or the Baltic Sea (seldom). The folklore
that belongs to the “Curonians” (Kursenieki) from the Curonian Spit and exposes the fishermen
culture is especially interesting, as they have been familiar with both the Baltic Sea and the
Curonian Lagoon. The narrative folklore of the “Curonians” reveals that jūra and marios belong
to different spaces, and thus are different concepts.
15:40 to 16:00: Coffee Break
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WORKSHOP 2
(Faculty of the Humanities, Room 312)
Moderators: Ilma Grauzdinia, Asta Balčiūnienė
16.00 Virginija Apanavičienė (Vilnius)
The themes of water, sea and mythology influenced Lithuanian academic music
from the early XX century
Based on these themes, symphonic poem of M.K.Čiurlionis „Jūra“ („The sea“) ant the
first lithuanian opera of M. Petrauskas „Birutė“ were created. The features of the sea culture,
mythology ant ethnic tails reflects in the immages of the opera of M.K. Petrauskas „Eglė –žalčių
karalienė“ („Eglė – the Queen of Snakes“) as well, the ballet of the same name by E. Balsys, in
the postmodern opera-ballet „Žilvinas and Eglė“by A. Žigaitytė, “, opera „Jūratė and Kastytis“
by K.V. Banaitis, in the chamber symphony „Jūratė and Kastytis“ by J. Juozapaitis, in the
poem for string orchestra „Jūros atspindžiai“ by E. Balsys, in his opera „The trip to Tilžė“, in the
music tail „Prutena: vilage under the sand“ by B. Kutavičius, opera „Bird of the see“ by
J.Juozapaitis. These pieces reveal the importance of the lifestyle near the see and images of the
see for composers of Lithuania.
In the postmodern oratory „Kuršiai“ by V. Bartulis an installation is displayed, where old
ships and dunes of Neringa are demonstrated.
The images of the water dominates in opuses of Z. Virkšas ( „The legend of blue lake“),
R. Šerkšnytė („Iceberg”, the first tail of „Mountains trilogy“ for symphonic orchestra), J.
Janulytė („Music of the drowning rain“ ), R. Šerkšnytė („The little spring“), J. Juozapaitis
(„The dancing drops of water“).
Nevertheless, nowadays the images of the water and sea are not popular in the
neomodern Lithuanian music.
16.25 Ilma Grauzdinia (Riga)
The Image of Sea in the Organ Music of Romualds Jermaks
Romualds Jermaks (1931) currently represents the elder generation of Latvian
composers. In his extensive oeuvre the image of sea plays a significant role and appears in nearly
40 opuses. Amongst these opuses are solo and choir songs (including the cycle “Sea Sings” for
mixed choir a capella; 1976), as well as instrumental compositions of various genres, i.e. “The
Restless Sea” for piano (1966), “Lullaby for the Sea” for flute and harp (1999), “Nocturne of Sea
and Moon” for violin and piano (2007). However, the most vivid examples of the sea image can
be found in his organ music and pieces with organ participation: Latvian folk song arrangements
(1979-1985), passacaglia “Blow, Wind, Blow” (1979), composition “Sky and Sea” for solo
organ (2007), cycle “Sea Serenades” for alto saxophone and organ, etc.
According to Romualds Jermaks, these two phenomena – organ and sea –
resemble each other closely in their magnificence, diversity and fluidity. The “eternal breath” of
the organ sound elevates the listener to the realm of “timeless” experiences. The romantic type
organ supplements this effect with inexhaustible richness of timbres and wide dynamic range,
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from fragile solo timbres to grand tuttis. The diapason of organ also far surpasses those of other
instruments, extending below and above the capabilities of human hearing (32-feet register bass
notes and higher aliquots).
Through excellent mastery over the organ’s expressive characteristics and
multiple texture types – from polyphonic writing to rich vertical chords – the composer has
succeeded to communicate in a striking manner his conviction of the closeness of the two
elemental forces of sea and organ.
16.50 Asta Balčiūnienė (Klaipėda)
The Sea in the Worldview of the Eastern Aukštaičiai Subdialects
The linguistic expression of the sea image in the dialects of Eastern Aukštaičiai
(Highlanders) is rather limited. That is caused both by the geographical and political situation,
the Curonian origin of the lexeme
and by the absence of sea-related economic relations
(Eastern Highlanders never fished on the sea, etc. ).
The lexeme
has been recorded not in all the Eastern Highlander sub-dialects, while
the subdialects in which the word has been recorded obviously acquired it through folklore and
Standard Lithuanian. That is witnessed by the examples of use of the lexeme, which reveal that
the sea was perceived as alien / threatening and associated with the youth’s work / military
activities or the place where they perished. The lexeme frequently means ‘a large area of saline
water’, less seldom it is used as a synonym for marios, ‘a lagoon: a large freshwater body’, and
extremely seldom it is used in a figurative sense: the abundance of something. In some
subdialects, not a single derivative of the lexeme
has been recorded (either diminutives
(e.g., jūrẽlės) or adjectives (e.g.,
The sphere of the use of the lexeme mãrios ‘the sea’ and its semantics differs from that
of the lexeme
. First of all, the representatives of the traditional subdialect do not directly
identify the lexeme mãrios with an alien / threatening area. Incidentally, mãrios mean merely ‘a
large area of water’, but not necessarily saline. The system of the meanings of the lexeme
marios is similar to that of the lexeme
, however, in the Kupiškėnai subdialect, the meaning
of the phraseologism màrios làšas as ‘very little’ has been recorded. The derivatives of the
lexeme mãrios are also untypical of the spoken Eastern Highlander. The diminutive marẽlės has
only be recorded in folklore, and only in the collocation jūros marelės. Incidentally, the
collocation
in Eastern Highlander subdialects is only used in folklore (more
frequently in songs, less frequently in riddles).
Thus, the lexemes
and mãrios may occur as absolute synonyms, however, not
always, and the spheres of their usage and perception significantly differ.
In the Kupiškėnai subdialect, the lexeme vanduõ ‘water: a large water area’ may mean not only
the sea, but also the ocean.
17.15 Dimitrij Vozchikov (Yekaterinburg)
„Homines Veneti nutriti sunt in aqua“: the sea imagery in the works of the
Venetian intellectuals (XIV – XV centuries)
The paper observes the aquatic imagery system, presented in the works of the
diplomats, statesmen and travellers of the Republic of Venice. The idea, that the Venetian
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social model and political institutes had been determined by the geographical situation of
Venice, was a commonplace in the late medieval and early modern Venetian chronicles and
treatises. The paper focuses on the Venetian maritime concepts in the texts of Marino Sanudo
Torsello, Lorenzo de Monacis, Giosafat Barbaro and Leonardo Giustiniani. The author of the
paper highlights three levels of maritime imagery in the Venetian narratives: at first, the sea
in everyday life of the medieval Venice, where, according to Lorenzo de Monacis’
expression, „a ship was instead of an ox“; secondly, the sea in its social and political
dimension, which had played a significant role in construction of the Venetian myth of the
„eternal freedom“; and lastly, the religious aspect of these aquatic images. This paper also
considers how the humanistic reacceptance of the classical textual tradition influenced the
evolution of maritime imagery system in the Venetian discourse.
In general, the Venetian statesmen and intellectuals of the XIV−XV centuries
considered the sea element to be a cradle of the Venetian state and culture and also a
cornerstone of trade prosperity and military power of the Serenissima.
NOVEMBER 21, FRIDAY
WORKSHOP 1
SECTION 1 (Faculty of the Humanities, Room 312)
Moderators: Silvija Papaurėlytė, Aina Būdvytytė-Gudienė
10.00 Indrė Stanelytė (Šiauliai)
The Realization of Sea Concept in Lithuanian Dictionary and Conceptual Metaphors
Cognitive linguistics changed the attitude towards some language phenomenon such as
the meaning of the word, metaphor and connection of thinking. The cognitive linguistics are
associated with nowadays very popular term concept. According to Lakoff and Johnson the
concepts govern our thoughts and thinking and perceive how we get around in the world (Lakoff
& Johnson, 2003). In the language the concepts are expressed by the words, the combinations of
words and phraseologies. The research of the concepts is very important to display how the
people of one language perceive and appreciate the world.
This work examines the features of concept sea in Lithuanian according to the definitions
of the word meanings in dictionary and on the basis of the Corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian
Language. The paper reports how the features of word sea in the direct meaning coincide with
the features of the concept sea in metaphorical expressions.
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10.25 Aina Būdvytytė-Gudienė, Nedas Jurgaitis (Šiauliai)
Waves in Economic and Political Discourse: Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors
The paper is based on the materials collected for the dictionary compiled in the
framework of the project “Conceptual Metaphors in Public Discourse”, financed by the Research
Council of Lithuania. The subject of the presentation is conceptual metaphors, more specifically
the interaction between the source domain WATER and target domains POLITICS and
ECONOMICS. In Lithuanian political and economic discourse, the feature of the wave derived
from conceptual metaphors POLITICS is WATER, ECONOMICS is WATER is employed.
Other features typical of the concept of the sea have not been found.
The feature of the wave, connected with the movement of the water, conceptualises
political instability and insecurity. The wave symbolises the collapse, the end of a certain
political phenomenon (desąjūdizavimo banga plauna LDDP pamatus: the de-sajudisation wave
undermines the foundations of LDDP; emigracijos banga baigia iššluoti: emigration wave is
about to finish). In other cases the wave means the beginning of a new political process. In one
case this beginning can be positive (politikos banga jus aukštai iškėlė: political wave has raised
you high), in another case it is associated with the appearance of negative characters in
Lithuanian politics (paksizmo bangos sukeltam išgąsčiui: fear caused by the wave of paksism).
The image of the wave is also most popular among the metaphors of the source sphere of
water in economic discourse (kainos kyla kaip cunamis: prices rise like tsunami, bankrotų
banga: a wave of bankruptcies; krizės banga: the wave of crisis, sunkmečio banga: the wave of
hard times, nuosmukio banga: depression wave, recesijos banga: recession wave). The discourse
makes a more detail account of the number of the wave (antroji sunkmečio banga: the second
wave of hard times; trečioji krizės banga: the third wave of crisis), its colour (juoda krizės
banga: black wave of crisis), its strength and territory of its impact are characterised (krizės
bangos nusirito per visą pasaulį: the waves of crisis have rolled all over the world) and its
consequences for economics (krizės banga, užkliudžiusi ir bankus, sukėlė nemažą žmonių
sumaištį: the wave of crisis, having touched banks, has caused a lot of havoc among population).
The abundance of the metaphors of the wave while conceptualising crisis highlights the
destructive force of the crisis, it presents crisis as a natural disaster, impossible to control by
man. The source domain of water entangles with that of natural disasters through the biblical
motive of the flood (the waves of the universal flood).
Although political and economic discourses are rather different, the analysis of
metaphorical expressions with the component of the wave demonstrated that most often it is used
to describe negative phenomena in politics and economics. Only in rare cases the wave in
politics means the popularity of a p politician, political party or the leap of political ratings
upwards.
10.50 Jurgita Girčienė (Vilnius)
What Lithuanians associate with the sea: the words with the component -jūrAccording to the Frequency Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language compiled on the basis
of the Corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian, the word jūra (sea) is a relatively common word,
standing 704 out of 1,000,000. The frequency of usage can be explained by the significance of
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the realia denoted by the words to the linguistic community. The significance of the realia is also
manifested by the number of common-root words.
A search in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language and the Corpus of Cotemporary
Lithuanian has produced 97 words containing –jūr–. Some of them are commonly used, like
jūrininkas, pajūris (seamen, seaside), while others, despite being present in the Dictionary, have
not been detected in real everyday use, like jūrežeris (sealake: a very big lake), or jūrotarpis
(seastrip: 1) a strip between seas; 2) a narrow strip of sea). Another batch comprises words that
are used very seldom, e. g. jūržmogis (seaperson, seapeople: one who has ties with the sea). The
use of such stylistically expressive words is, as a rule, limited to artistic or journalistic texts, e.g.
Jūržmogiai viską įpratę geriau sutvarkyti. Žemės žmonės labiau apsileidę (Seapeople are better
at putting things in order. The people of land are more slovenly).
The vast majority of the words containing –jūr– are nouns (78), which is quite common
to the denotation process, then about one-tenth, adjectives (11), followed by verbs (6) and
proverbs (2). Most of the words (59) are formed by using the most productive means of
derivation in Lithuanian, suffixes (as many as 29 different suffixes are used), whereas prefixed
derivatives are few (4), in contrast to compounds (34) that facilitate narrower denotation.
To sum up, Lithuanians had to denote quite many concepts related to the sea, as revealed
by the analysis of the Dictionary and the Corpus. Most of the concepts are living creatures,
objects, phenomena, actions or features (jūreivis ‘seaman’, jūrženklis ‘seasign’, jūreivystė
‘seafaring’, jūrininkavimas ‘seamanship’, jūriškumas ‘being sea-like’, less frequently, features
(jūrinis, pajūriškas ‘marine, maritime’), and most seldom, actions (jūrininkauti ‘go seafaring’)
and attributers of a feature (jūreiviškai ‘in a seaman-like manner’).
11.15 Silvija Papaurėlytė (Šiauliai)
The WAVE metaphor in the naïve psychology (based on the material of the
Lithuanian language world-view)
The aim of the present report is to analyse one of actualization ways of LIQUID
metaphor in the naïve psychology reflecting the fragment of the Lithuanian language world-view
– WAVE metaphor. The research is justified with the analysis of collocations of all forms of the
word wave with the words naming the main emotional states and feelings. Over 6000 examples
were reviewed, which were collected from Contemporary Lithuanian Language Corpus
accumulated in Vytautas Magnus University.
Naïve psychology – the perception of a person’s inner life, characteristics, relations
among different abstract phenomena fixed in language world-view. One of valuable material
sources for naïve psychology is the analysis of conceptual metaphors. In the present report, the
thinking schemes that relate two domains of reality – target and source are named as the
conceptual metaphors. Such thinking scheme shows a person’s ability to perceive the entities
(target domain) while employing the analogy with others (source domain) and reveals the
tendencies of assessment.
The possibility to wave in the naïve psychology related to the Lithuanian language worldview is ascribed to non-concretized mental experiences, i.e. feelings and emotions in general.
Among concrete emotional states, which are identified with waving sea, the emotion of anger
dominates, as waving are perceived happiness, fear and other phenomena of inner life.
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WORKSHOP 2
SECTION 1 (Faculty of the Humanities, Room 312)
Moderators: Rimantas Balsys, Jonas Mardosa
12.00 Rimantas Balsys (Klaipėda)
Pagan Sacrifices by the Sea in the 16th-17th Centuries
Analysis of the written sources on the pagan religion of the Lithuanians and Prussians
shows at least several ways sacrifices were conveyed to the gods and the ancestors: 1) libation
(pouring a sacrifice); 2) burning; 3) casting into water (sea, river, lake); 4) burying in the ground
(manure); 5) leaving at a sacrificial site (under a tree, in the threshing barn, in the sauna, at a
burial site, on a stone); 6) scattering, broadcasting (on fields, under a table, in buildings or in the
corners of buildings); 7) leaving for the wolves (dogs); 8) consumption by participants of the
ritual; 9) placing up in a tree. It wasn't unusual for several of the methods described here to be
employed during a single sacrificial ritual.
This paper limits itself to an analysis of water sacrifices (throwing into water, drowning).
In total there are just seven examples of this method of sacrifice described in the written sources
from the 16th-17th centuries: two in L. David's chronicle, three in annual reports by the Vilnius
Jesuits and one each from M. Strijkowski and the history of the Jesuits of Poland.
Analysis of these examples shows they differ in no essential way from other methods of
sacrifice. The intended recipients, as well as the content of the sacrifice, the supplicants and their
intentions, all vary. On the other hand, they are connected by a common human aspiration: the
welfare, health and safety of the community and its separate members.
12.25 Žydrūnas Vičinskas (Klaipėda)
Water-related gods of the old Baltic religion mentioned by Matthaeus Pretorius
Manuscript “Prussia or Prussian observation” (“Deliciae Prussicae, oder
Preussische
Schaubϋhne”)
written
in
XVII
century
by
Matthaeus Pretorius
(Matthäus Prätorius) (c. ~ 1635–1704, c. 1707 (?))) includes more or less water-related gods of
the old Baltic religion.
Until now scientists can’t deliver united thoughts on Pretorius mythological data
verification case, in other words, there’s still not exactly clear which Baltic gods mentioned in
manuscript are authentic and should be used in Baltic mythology reconstruction an which are
not. Moreover, it should be noted that mythological material of Matthaeus Pretorius have been
and will be used many times for mythological investigations of the old Baltic religion. In the end,
despite previous attempts to analyze its authenticity it is necessary to ascertain which part of the
data is authentic and which isn’t.
T h e o b j e c t o f i n v e s t i g a t i o n . Water-related gods of the old Baltic religion
mentioned in work “Deliciae Prussicae, oder Preussische Schaubϋhne” written by
Matthaeus Pretorius and its interpretation of the XIX–XXI century researchers.
P u r p o s e o f t h e r e p o r t . To review recorded research history of water-related
gods of the old Baltic region mentioned in work “Deliciae Prussicae, oder Preussische
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Schaubϋhne” written by Matthaeus Pretorius and verify different researchers arguments on the
case.
12.50 Jonas Mardosa (Vilnius)
Holy water in the sacralisation rites of rural fields in the 20th century Lithuania
Water, a universal symbol in world culture, has national, regional or even local specifics
in its use rites and customs as well as a semantic variety. The presentation discusses 20th century
field consecration in Lithuania. The materials from field studies will be employed to examine the
planning, forms and procedure of the rite and to determine regional specifics of field
consecration rites and their change over time.
Historical and ethnographic resources lead to the assumption that the origin of collective
field consecration can be traced to the traditions of religious life in linear settlements. Collective
consecration of fields might have been a rather widespread practice in the 19th century, for the
tsarist regime cracked down with repressions for field consecration after the January Uprising
(1863). But the available ethnographic materials on field consecration permit a broader
discussion about the 20th century, notably the post-World War I period, when the fresh
consecration tradition was still alive. People invited a priest to perform the rite believing that
holy water would protect their fields and bring better harvests. Thus it can be stated that the idea
of field consecration sprang from the expectations of devout people. The rite, however, was
accompanied by a range of beliefs with elements of magic and sorcery associated with water.
This way communal customs to visit fields emerged at the intersection of agricultural and
religious life and holy water was used to bless rural fields and to sacralise crops and even water.
Right up to the Soviet times, the consecration of fields remained an integrated rite with
intertwined Christian expectations of peasants and folk beliefs, sometimes contradictory to the
teachings of the Church. As communal consecration started to fade away, it was replaced by
individual consecration: come Easter, the master sprinkles his fields with water consecrated in
the church on the Good Saturday.
13.15 Baiba Apsīte (Rīga)
The Phenomenon of the Mystical Island in the Sea in Folklore, Contemporary Art
and Human Consciousness
Fairytales, folklore materials mentioning a mystical island in the sea reveal an imprint of
an ancient archetype leading the way into a meaningful spiritual dimension. The idea in different
variations makes appearance in visual arts, painting, from the Romantic period until nowadays.
The island of dreams and the way to it is intertwined with the image of the sea – one of the great
elements. The sea is an inseparable part of the concept and due to the perspective of the theme
the semiotic richness of the sea, its ambivalence in our culture and in our perception unfolds.
People inhabiting the Baltic countries not only perceive the sea as a beautiful, changeable
element of nature, but also see its spiritual value, which helps to revaluate personal experience
and strengthen our awareness of common identity.
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WORKSHOP 1
SECTION 2 (Faculty of the Humanities, Room 216)
Moderators: Maija Burima, Olena Gudzenko
10.00 Maija Burima (Daugavpils)
The Poetic Projection of Destruction: Andrejs Upīts’ Novella “Jūrā” (In the Sea)
After World War I prose fiction texts were produced in Latvian literature that conveyed
psychological traumas caused by the wartime destruction, depicting war as a trial of the human’s
physical and emotional potential in a destructive time-space. The outstanding Latvian writer
Andrejs Upīts (1877 – 1970) is considered to be a typical realist in Latvian literary scholarship
due to the dominant of the realist psychological narrative so characteristic of his works. This
cliché got especially firmly established in the soviet period. However, many prose fiction texts
by Upīts produced in the first decades of the twentieth century manifest subtle poetic language
that entails a much wider range of expressive means than traditionally envisaged by the strategy
of realism. The specific character of Upīts’ novella “Jūrā” (In the Sea) (1926) is its focus on
depicting human in a situation of choice and existential struggle. In the narrative of the novella
one of the strategies of the pre-war tradition in literature (depiction of realistic time-space by
inclusion of elements of the language of symbols) is synthesized with the poetics characteristic
of the post-war literature (poetics of naturalism and existentialism in texts that depict war). The
narrative is interpreted as a psychological study of an individual – the protagonist Klāss – against
the background of social determiners, an emotional sketch of the fragility of human values in a
situation of the turning point in history. The image of the sea has a specific function in the
novella as a symbol of eternity, power and strength, emphasizing the fragility of human life.
10.25 Laima Arnatkevičiūtė (Vilnius)
JURA Concept in Ignas Šeinius' drama The New Ruler
According to Maslovas, peoples' core understaning of a given concept remains unvaried
from one individual to the next, while minute details of the said concept unveil themselves
separaely in much narrower, non-verbal & artistically-expressed mediums. Conversely, another
opinion states that in order for a concept to be valid, it must be created, developed, and finally,
bear a signature of its author (Deleuze).
The purpose of this note is to outline the details of JURA's concept in Šeinius‘ drama The
New Ruler, as well as to analyze the influence of the author's personality, time period, and other
art forms onto this work. The New Ruler is Ignas Šeinis' first drama to exhibit impressionist
qualities unwound from Šeinis' planned Irvis, mentioned by him in a letter to Lithuanian Society
of Science in 1921.
JURA in this drama is exhibited by a figurative capsule of energies and forces, which is,
at the same time, bound and bondaged by the landscape's charms: splendor of the presidential
mansion, the park with its magnificent foliage. Contradicting backdrop: sea blending with storm
clouds at the horizon, vessels and seagulls fast becoming invisible. Connotations and
metaphorical meanings of seascape within cultural & experiential psyche allow for a fluent
expression of the work's subtext: political lifestyle; infantilism on the one hand & scheming on
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the other. At the same time, Šeinius' impressionist portrayal of seascape is typical to his dramas'
knack for an in-depth exploration of their characters − their inner worlds, emotions, conficts,
their refections. Since straight-forward action is barely perceptible, imagery & scenes are
interconnected by JURA's evolving moods and imagery.
10.50 Vigmantas Butkus (Vilnius)
Palanga and its Sea in Lithuanian Literature
The methodological basis of this report consists of geocritics, geopoetics and literary
geography’s methodological provisions. The point of the provisions, making a reduced summary,
could be described as a research of referential and other links between literary work and a
concrete geographic location or generalized landscape and its specific type.
“The sea of Palanga“ in the tradition of Lithuanian literature and culture is an old and
common metonymical name for the Baltic sea. It means not only a narrowed geographic location
of the Baltic sea but also various historical and cultural meanings, which combine Palanga and
the sea into an inseparable geocultural unit. In this report, the main focus goes to the
“textualization“ of this geocultural unit in literature, to be more specific – to main concepts of
such “textualization“ in the XIXth and the XXIst centuries.
The focus points are poetic, linguistic, sociopsychological, historical, political concepts,
developed in the texts with themes of Palanga by Silvestras Valiūnas, Maironis, Augustinas
Gricius, Salomėja Nėris, Antanas Škėma, Tomas Venclova, Judita Vaičiūnaitė, Sigitas Geda and
other poets and writers. The main conclusion drawn is that all these concepts are united by the
experiences of the border, marginal situation, which can be feverous or tragical as well as trivial
or comical ones.
11.15 Olena Gudzenko (Kiev)
Seascape theme in the work of the Ukrainian writer
Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky: Crimean stories
The article studies the image of the sea in Ukrainian literature as a symbol of infinity,
eternity, a powerful force, road to where the heroic exploits take place (for example, the path of
Cossacks to Constantinople). In the works of Ukrainian writers the sea is often associated with
the legendary steppes of Ukraine. The sea, as well as the meadow or the steppe, is an image
where the latitude, the infinity of open space plays a dominant role. The purpose of the study is
to show how this spatial semantics is interrelated with the categories of freedom: the free space
becomes the birthplace of the Free Spirit.
The novelty of the work lies in the fact that it is the first research of the stories about
Crimea written by the Ukrainian impressionist writer of late XIX - early XX century Mykhailo
Kotsyubynsky ("On the Stone", "In the Shaitan’s fetters ") in the semantic field of the value of
freedom in the life of man and of the whole nation. It is noted that in the stories of Kotsyubynsky
the image of free water element contrasts with the image of "little man" who is constrained by
the limits of his traditional morality. The sea is a full-weight character of the narrative. Thus, it is
full-bodied part in the life of the Crimean Tatars. This land − narrow strip of fertile soil - as if
15
squeezed in a vise: to the right − menacing Black Sea, to the left - the alien culture of "white"
people of different faiths, different, although somewhat progressive, traditions which
nevertheless represent a threat to authenticity of indigenous Crimeans.
11:40 to 12:00 Coffee Break
WORKSHOP 2
SECTION 2 (Faculty of the Humanities, Room 216)
Moderators: Axel E. Walter, Elena Barnashova
12.00 Iryna Galubovska (Kiev)
“External and Internal Sea” in Ukrainian Linguoсultural Continuum
Ukraine in the sense of an ethnic group and the state has been historically formed in the
space between East and West (between Lithuania and Poland in the West and the Crimea and the
Black Sea in the East). Eastern border of the Ukrainian areal was lead along the coast of the
Black and Azov Seas. That’s why for Ukraine the concept of the SEA is not less significant than
the concept of the STEPPE. This theme was reflected in the Ukrainian folk ballads (dooms) of
the XVI-XVII-th centuries, where the sea is presented not only in geographical but cultural and
historical aspects, because of having a direct connection with the relations of Ukraine with the
countries and peoples of the East. In the dooms we come across the themes of the Ukrainian
Cossacks, military actions on the sea, prison on the island, appealing to God for rescue. The
introductive parts of the Ukrainian folk ballads devoted to the sea (such as “синє море”, “білий
камінь”, “сокіл-провидець”, in translation “blue sea”, “white stone”, “falcon-seer”) have much
in common with the introductive parts of epic spells. Interestingly, the most complete
collection of Ukrainian folk ballads compiled by Catherine Grushevska in 1927 is structured into
two main parts with the following headings: “Folk ballads about the steppe” and “Folk ballads
about the sea”.
This is what we call “external Ukrainian sea”.
On the other hand, the motive of the “outside sea”, echoing in the literary pieces of
many Ukrainian poets (L. Ukrainka, A. Vlizko), dialectically flows into the motive of the “inner
sea” as a symbol of the human soul recalcitrancy, rebellion, aspiration to reach Great and
Eternal (H. Alchevska, E. Pluzhnik). Sea in the artworks of Ukrainian poets is compared with the
images of wind, sun, sky, space and depth, all of them figuratively related to the inner world of a
Man.
Thus, the SEA as Ukrainian linguocultural concept emerges in two main dimensions: in
“external” one, associated with the historical, cultural and geographical self-identification of the
Ukrainians, and “internal” one, cognitively linked with the first and presenting implications of
the strong, brave, rebellious, aspiring for the high senses of the human life personality.
16
12.25 Axel E. Walter (Klaipėda)
Media Representations and Mental Maps of the Baltic Sea
The ideas of people from the mare balticum have changed over the centuries. These
changes have to do not only with transformations of cultural identities and with the development
of economic and political conditions, they were especially accompanied and influenced by
media. Mental mapping and cartography work together. The paper is based on maps of the mare
balticum since the 16th century and wants to show not only the steady progress in cartography
and thus in knowledge, but also to analyze what ideas and concepts of this region of Europe are
represented in these maps.
12.50 Elena Barnachova (Tomsk)
The Opposition "Water-Land" in the Evoliution of European Artistic Culture of the XIX
century
Well known established over many centuries and wandering in the culture of the archetypes
associated with water. Water est purification, dangerous natural disasters, life, time, etc. In each
specific age different water archetypes actualize, reflecting the deep intentions of the culture of
his time. In the nineteenth century, which marked a painful and blast crisis of rationalism, we can
distinguish archetype: water as the embodiment irrational. Accordingly, the antithesis of
"rational-irrational" appears in literature and art through the contrast of images of earth and
water. This binary reveals itself in the evolution of artistic directions.
Water, especially the sea, images prevail in romanticism, allow to realize its leading artistic and
aesthetic ideas. Irrational element, the unpredictability embodied in the images of a stormy sea,
the drama and the wrongness of fate − in the pictures of the shipwreck. Sea − infinity, the
vastness of space, time, existence in General (J. Byron, U. Turner, T. Gericault, K. Friedrich, and
others).
In the era of establishing of realism, and then naturalism, with their interest in social existence of
man, "water recedes", giving place to land, the earth. In the image system, under the influence of
materialistic tendencies and positivist cult of scientific knowledge, is dominated by the
resistance, finiteness, definiteness. The earth is the center of matter, nature (E. Zola "Earth"). If
the field of view of water falls, lush shimmering sea gives way to the calm water surface
("Barbizon painters").
Easy waves, variability and freedom of water returned to the impressionism, once again shaken
rationalistic views.
13.15 Alina Romanovska (Daugavpils)
Peculiarities of Marine Theme in Egon Liv’s FICTION
Egon Liv turned ninety in 1914. His literary oeuvre comprises five short fiction
collections and the novel “Velnakaula dvīņi”. Liv is also an author of several film scripts made
in Latvia and Lithuania. In the major part of his works E. Liv appeals to the depiction of severe
marine environment. His characters are commonly fishermen tempered by harsh life conditions,
17
and their relatives awaiting their husbands, fathers, and children back home from the sea; these
are people who live at the seashore and are entirely dependent on it.
The sea in Liv’s works is the boundary between good and evil, life and death; it is a space which
reveals the true nature of a human whereabouts no spinelessness is allowed. It is not
characteristic for Liv to carol marine natural force. His sea is realistic and frequently ruthless but
at the same time it may show favorable; it constantly questions human’s reliability but also
allows for survival and provides with livelihood. The sea in the works of Liv creates the
background for character presentation and expresses their anxieties. Depiction of the marine
natural force is an extra device employed to facilitate the psychological depiction.
WORKSHOP 3
SECTION 1
(Faculty of the Humanities, Room 312)
Moderators: Rimantas Sliužinskas, Rimtautas Rimšas
14.40 Rimantas Sliužinskas (Klaipėda)
“I love the Seagoing Waves! ...“: The Sea Image Reflections in the Poetic Texts of
Lithuanian Tradition Love Romances
One of the most typical features in the poetic texts of late origin Lithuanian folk love
romances is well-known here abundance of sentimental emotions. Such emotions are emphasized
purposely, and they are understood as the basic value features in presentations of such romances
by their performers – people from the early 20th C. That means: “the more blood and tears − the
more effect.
Among numerous cosmological and fatal theme images, such as “moon”, “stars”,
“death”, “cemetery”, “sword”, “iron knife” (etc.), the marine theme images are also well-known
in the poetic texts of such romances. We can find images of “the see”, “sea waves”, “boat”,
“oars”, “drowned persons” and other. In some cases – water birds, such as “swans” are popular
here to express the sentimental love emotions as well.
We will analyze poetic texts from such late origin Lithuanian folk love romances, and we
will try to define marine image symbols variety here. In other hand we will try to understand
their genesis trajectories in comparison with analogous folklore heritage from neighbouring
(mainly – Slavic) nations in this paper.
15.00 Rimtautas Rimšas (Kaunas)
Sea – the canvas which one can pain by invoking the imagination
The report reviews Lithuanian and foreign marine literature in retrospect , as well as
historic circumstances of its spread; potential of portraying the sea as a mean of literary
expression is analyzed; two types of literary heroes are distinguished – the sea and the shore. By
comparing authors of the different periods and literary movements characters’ relationship with a
sea is discussed; essential features of the social environment of the sea and the shore are
presented. Marine spirit and marine culture in a literature is also analyzed; fundamental motives
18
of characters’ behaviour are discussed, writings of Lithuanian authors are compared with similar
literary pieces written by foreign authors. The ways of forming and spreading a marine worldview within the society are proposed. Marine culture, marine spirit, transcendental level of
relationship between the personality and the sea, the impact of marine environment on a
formation of the social environment are emphasized in a report.
KEY WORDS: sea, marine culture, marine social environment, marine state, marine, water
world.
15.25 Jūratė Derukaitė, Aleksas Eugenijus Kulvietis (Klaipėda)
Incognitos of the Baltic Sea: names of the Curonian lagoon in Spanish
The Baltic Sea and the western Lithuanian territory washed by its waters have been
identified in written sources in different languages and using different names in the same
language. Those names have been invented by the nations that ruled those lands or had some
contacts with the nations which lived in the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Traces of those
relations have been left in the toponymy. At first glance, it may appear that certain names of
geographical objects in different languages, their use does not cause problems, but it is not.
The objective of the study is to analyze the problematic situation related to the names of
the Curonian lagoon in Spanish. It often happens that Hispanic people feel unsure about the
perception of this hydronim. This has been especially evident since 2005, with a rapid grow of
the Spanish and Latin American tourists arriving to Klaipeda. In order to fulfil the growing
needs, various sources of the written information in Spanish have been prepared. However, there
are many inconsistencies, errors. This is attributable to the fact that there is no scientifically and
historically-based regulation for translation, adaptation and use in Spanish of toponyms of this
part of the Baltic Sea region.
A review of various existing sources in Spanish, such as maps, official documents,
encyclopedias, tourist literature, it has been found at least ten options for the name ‘the Curonian
Lagoon’, and both elements of the name vary. Why there are so many names of the same
geographical object in the same language, and what could be offered as a single option?
This study linked two fields of science, linguistics and geography; as a result of the study
a single name acceptable to every Spanish-speaking person will be proposed.
15.40 Algytė Merkelienė (Klaipėda)
Skuduciai playing in Klaipeda region: expression peculiarities
Skuduciai and polyphonic music performed was found and recorded at the beginning of
twentieth century in the region of Aukstaitija. Local spread of playing Skuduciai in Lithuania
started in third decade of twentieth century. Thanks to Stasys Paliulis Skuduciai music has
spread all across Lithuania. Most often it used to be collectives that prepared for National Song
Festival or for local performances.
New appearance in Klaipeda region started in eighth decade, in at the time Lithuanian
Conservatoire faculty of Klaipeda when Folk music department was created and Folk instrument
orchestra was formed, where alongside other instruments Skuduciai ensemble was. Skuduciai
ensemble was performing not only as part of an orchestra, but as separate collective in its own
19
right as well. Skuduciai players participated in festivals and contests. On the basis of this
collective other ensembles were forms in other Klaipeda region educational establishments.
Report “Skuduciai playing expression in Klaipeda region” reviews:
a) retrospective of general performances,
b) pieces written by Klaipeda composers for Skuduciai ensembles,
c) skuduciai in coast region folk collectives.
Joint Skuduciai ensembles from Klaipeda region perform in national children and youth
song festival “Mes Lietuvos Vaikai” (We are Children of Lithuania) (2001; 1004; 2008; 2012),
West Lithuania’s song festival, Klaipeda children and youth song festival, Zemaitija and
Klaipeda region folk instrument ensembles and orchestras festival “Trimitatis”.
Music for Skuduciai ensembles is created by Klaipeda composers Jonas Paulikas and
Remigijus Sileika, young generation composer Matas Drukteinis.
Despite Skuduciai playing not being characteristic to Klaipeda region, some folk collectives
diversify their repertoire by using Skuduciai timbral expression.
16.00 Tereza Levchuk (Lutck)
"In the sea of life": existential problems in the artistic interpretation of the world
marinism
The expanse of the world ocean has arroused a number of symbolic interpretations: from
the image of water surface as a background to treating water as a rational being. Most
impressively sounded latter concept in philosophical and artistic interpretation of the Polish
science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem and Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, who created the
image of Solaris - intelligent ocean, living biomass that can accumulate and recreate human
feelings. Plotin also has told about single ocean of human soul.
The image of the sea in the works of Sir Walter Scott, D. Defoe, J. Swift is more a kind of
decoration. At the beginning of the XIX century writers-sailors have come into literature:
F. Cooper, F. Marryat, M. Scott, whose stories about life of sailors have started the sea novel as a
genre. Conceptual rethinking of the image of the sea took place in the works of the romanticists,
who have associated natural element with different manifestations of the divine and the human
spirit.
The masterpieces of world literature refer to the images of the water element and its
inhabitants, raising the problem of human existence. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by
S. T. Coleridge, "Moby Dick or The White Whale" by H. Melville, "The Old Man and the Sea"
by E. Hemingway express fears common to all mankind in parable form. Sea is a free element, at
the mercy of which the fate of the characters largely depends on, it punishes and forgives. So,
despising the sea creatures, the Old Sailor at Coleridge experiences the torments of hell, and,
after he liked them, he becomes forgiven. The images of Melville's novel have Biblical
connotations and nature appears unexpected like fate itself. The characters' lives are largely
dependent on the mercy of the sea, but the person does not have to give up. That is why in
Hemingway's novel the old man Santiago not only survived, but also won.
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WORKSHOP 3
SECTION 2
(Faculty of the Humanities, Room 216)
Moderators: Alma Imbrasienė, Inna Dvoreckaja
14.40 Inna Dvoreckaja (Daugavpils)
The Sea in Igor Cinnov’s Artistic World
The sea in writing of Russian émigré poet Igor Cinnov (1909–1996) is related to
fundamental peculiarities of his artistic world.
It is significant that the motif of the sea is actualized in Chinnov’s first poetry collections
(“Monologue”, “Lines”), where the poet follows the principles of ‘Parisian note’ that was in
many senses quintessential for the tragic world perception of the emigration. This poetry,
according to its inspirer G. Adamovich, is based on the experience of existential catastrophe,
existential loneliness created by the consciousness that is totally devoid of any illusions and
hopes, poetry of last questions. The artistic world of Chinnov’s first poetry collections is
compressed to an ontological formula (based on a single complex of family notions related to the
essential questions of being: “…what do I know? – about life, death, God…”); it conveys
asceticism of thought and form (poems usually do not exceed two or three quatrains). The sea in
this context is space of ontology, is a symbol of limitlessness and unknowable.
Besides, an important role is played by a shoreline, that is a sign of border state of space,
which is another key element of Chinnov’s artistic system. The shoreline, and the Baltic
shoreline in particular (a homeland for Cinnov), is related to the sense of transience and frailty of
the world, the dialectic of memory-oblivion aggravated by the motifs of the complex of the
outcast – nostalgia, loss (“I still recall the Baltic Sea…”). It is important to note that these
deepest meanings correspond directly to the motif of the sea.
15.00 Gabija Bankauskaitė-Sereikienė (Kaunas)
The Theme of Sea in Nelė Mazalaitė's novels
In the presentation using principles of text analysis of thematic criticism Nelė Mazalaitė's
novels "Pajūrio moterys" (Eng. "The Seaside Women") and "Migloje" (Eng. "In the Mist") have
been analysed. The theme of sea is closely related with the development of romantic storyline
and representation of femininity in the writings of the author. The research is based on the
statement bringing representatives of thematic criticism together. It relates to literary text not as
the object of research but reality which embodies essence beyond it and this essence is disclosed
after theme is properly identified and after getting into the reality of a work through it. Sea and
regularity of the world of sea sights are the organising and leading motif of the analysed novels.
In the novels thinking of and watching of sea denotes time, i.e. reflects temporariness of human
fate and life. Sea is a mediator not only for the union between the real and spirit world of a single
human being, but also contact between the reality and transcendence of people of the same
profession. The leading motif of the sea emerges as a means to convey temporariness of human
fate and life, it also shows lifestyle, household, interpersonal relationships between characters.
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Connotations of utopia, difference, allegorithm are characteristic to the leading motif of see in
works of Nelė Mazalaitė - the sea is portrayed as a scenery of the soul of a dreamer.
15.25 Alma Imbrasienė (Klaipėda)
The Baltic speaks in the lyrics of Günter Grass
Günter Grass, the German writer and the 1999 Nobel Prize winner, is already known to the
Lithuanian reader: his Danzig Trilogie(Blechtrommel, Katz und Maus, Hundejahre) has been
translated into Lithuanian; his novels Unkenrufe, Mein Jahrhundert and Im Krebsgangwere
translated and published as well. The writer has visited Lithuania a few times and he has
participated in literary readings organized in Nida. However, the lyrics of G. Grass, which have
been published in seven poetry collections, are an unknown field to us, even though the author as he puts it – realizes himself best at this particular genre. Poems of G. Grass can be considered
as the link connecting all of his creative work. For example, the autobiographical
poem Kleckerburg does not only reflect the personal life of G. Grass; in this poem all the main
creative work motives, which the author sorts differently in all of his works, can be found.
However, is it possible to impart them in another language, when these motives in the poems of
G. Grass collapse on one another, when every stanza of the poem becomes a scene, in which
characters appear and speak banalities but await serious decisions, when the mode of life
becomes rhythmic, when the city folklore and pathos are side by side? And how to translate the
language that is spoken by the Baltic Sea, which is probably the most important character of G.
Grass’s poem Kleckerburg?
15.40 Dainius Sobeckis (Klaipėda)
Sea in Leonardas Andriekus' poetry
Water, as we know, is the primordial element. Since water is the lifeblood of everything,
it can be considered as the most important and sacred element on the earth. The facts that it is
believed in miraculous springs, different temples are built near various waters and the water
itself is a Life Giver say a lot of about water sacredness.
When a body of water, whatever it would be, becomes a sacred space? On what does it
depend? After all, water itself cannot be sacred. Some event or a person associated with the event
makes it sacral. It may be the baptism of Christ in the Jordan River, healings of the sick, blind,
limping or exhausted in Bethesda bathing-places, healing of a blind using water of Siloam pool
or Christ’s walking on the surface of the lake Gennesaret.
Parallels of Palestinian sacral and Lithuanian specific waters are laid in Andriekus’
poetry. The lake of Gennesaret is compared with the Baltic Sea, and the Kidron Valley − with
Cedron stream. Christ was going through a stormy lake of Gennesaret, thus making the area
sacral for his disciples. Later on sacredness of the lake Gennesaret through the written sources −
the Evangels − became a sacred space also for other Christians.
In Andriekus’ poetry sacredness of water draws the humanity sight to the eternity in the
New Earth. Sacralisation of plain water by any event shows that having changed the land by God
sacral water no longer will be. In the New Earth the water of life will flow from the throne of
God, which will provide everybody with the divine life.
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In the report it will be analysed waters, seas and oceans as well the Baltic Sea concept,
images and metaphor in Andriekus’ L. poetry.
16.00 Valentyna Biljatska (Dnepropetrovsk)
The artistic transformation of image of the sea in modern Ukrainian historical novels in verse
The article deals with the image of the sea in the modern historical novels in verse “Marusya
Bohuslavka” and “Rebellious Galley” by Mykola Tyutyunnyk, “Roksolana’s Wreath” by Mariya
Balashova, “Open Field” by Leonid Horlach, “Marusya Churay” by Lina Kostenko, the plot of
which is marked by deep philosophical generalization, based on real and legendary facts of XVI −
XVII centuries, the time of struggle of the Ukrainian people for independence and liberation from
social and national oppression. The events in the works mostly take place in Ukraine and Turkey,
therefore the element of the Black Sea is emphasized not as a spatial landscape, but as a symbol of
captivity, parting and isolation from the native land. The image of the sea in the historical novels in
verse conveys the emotional and psychological state of characters’ mind, stresses their invincibility,
national existence, the level of historical truth, it contains the genesis of folklore and apposite
intertextuality marker of national heroic epos − thoughts about the fight against the Turkish-Tatar
oppression. The concept of the sea has many interpretations, often presents in opposition (sea −
steppe, sea – road), supplements of toposes of the maritime cities, images of waves, wind, galleys,
“seagulls” (Cossack boats) and thus identifies with the Cossack history.
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