Marcelijus MARTINAITIS. 100 Words of Independence. Politicians, historians, essayists said a lot about the act of independence, signed on February 16. It already has a long and dramatic history of 90 years. At the moment Lithuania is approaching its twentieth anniversary of another period of independence, but we still have no vision how we will reform science and education, what image of us we will offer to the world, what we are going to plan and to build. Nobody will be interested in us until we will agree among ourselves about the most essential things, writes a renowned Lithuanian poet (page 2).

Almantas SAMALAVIČIUS. Who is Afraid of Postcolonial Studies? Continuing the discussion started by Dalia Cidzikaitė, the author of the article argues that Lithuanian literary criticism remains conservative in a bad sense; despite of numerous conferences in which Lithuanian literary historians and critics speak about the necessity of developing new tools for interpreting and analysing texts, they are extremely suspicious about applying new methods to the study of Lithuanian literature. However, despite of cold atmosphere, postcolonial studies have already entered Lithuanian domain and proved to be useful (page 5).

Algimantas VALANTIEJUS. Economics, Politics, Religion or Sociological Marginal Readings (I). Does economy evokes dizziness of consumption (or maybe fury of laissez-faire) and can we call it religion? A question is serious, because when we ignore our assumptions, we become captives of scientific illusions that destroy limits of differentiated reality, religion get extinct in magic and a human being is imprisoned by publicity of political economy and social classes that advocate it (page 9).

Edvardas GUDAVIČIUS et al. Will Baltic Studies Continue to Exist in a Country That is Called their Cradle? On the Declaration of Union of German Baltic Scholars "Baltistenkreis zu Berlin e. V." made in November 23, 2007. German Baltic scholars are worried by the fact that Baltic studies in Germany exist only at Greifsvald's Ernst Morris University. The abolishment of Baltic studies at the universities of Münster and Munich that were traditionally very hospitable to these disciplines gave a strong blow to the continuity of Baltic scholarship in the country. We Lithuanians can do very little to change the situation in another country, but we have to do as much as we can to help people researching Baltic cultures. There is only one way to reply: to activate our responses, to establish more contacts, to be receptive to works published abroad, to use more channels of communication, to help in publishing and understanding Baltic studies as broad as it is possible (page 16).

Skaidra TRILUPAITYTĖ. North Korean Art, Social Realism and Cultural Diplomacy. An overview of exhibition, shown in Vilnius, Museum of Applied Art from the private collection of Kaesong. This panoramic exhibition is presented as non-political and deprived of any party slogans and propaganda. The attitude of its curator bussinesman Francisc Broersen was stressed as non-political and it was attractive to administration of the museum. However, the exhibition is full of controversies: its innocent images might urge to tolerate repressive state system that according to the eye-witnesses is more horrible than Stalin's gulag (page 17).

Kazys SAJA. Polilogue. A short-story (page 24).

Gražina MARECKAITĖ. Is Šiauliai Theatre Interesting? Though inhabitants of Vilnius have a wide choice of theatre stages, performances of Šiauliai theatre during its visit to the capital at the end of February were attended by a large audience. The theatre critic muses why this theatre was of such interest to Vilnius' dwellers (page 27).

Raminta JURĖNAITĖ. Faceless Muse of Painter Andrius Zakarauskas. Western art market became open to a young Vilnius artist, born in 1982. After a successful start in Berlin's Schultz Contemporary he had a huge success in Rome's Traghetto and he's waiting for future exhibitions in Vienna and Venice (page 32).

Laima KANOPKIENĖ. Raimundas Sližys Attitude to the World. In Memoriam Painter Raimundas Sližys (page 33).

Jurgita STANIŠKYTĖ. Lost Between Cause and Result. Review of a play by Dea Loher "Rossevelt Square", directed by Gintaras Varnas at Kaunas State Drama Theater (page 35).

Rūta GAIDAMAVIČIŪTĖ. Many-sided Bartulis. The most recent opera by Vidmantas Bartulis, "Pas de deux", premiere was held on December 3, 2007 at Vilnius St. Catherine's Church, was an event that the audience was looking forward to, more so because he promised it to be a mixture of an Opera series and culinary opera. The composer intended to create a French style opera. The musicologist discusses its strengths and weaknesses (page 38).

Kęstutis ŠAPOKA. "Aesthetics" and "the Social" in Contemporary Lithuanian Art. While speaking about contemporary Lithuanian art, a lot has been said about the difference between the modern and postmodern trends, and the question of "social" and "social documentation" has been raised. On the one hand, they are in opposition to "aesthetics" in a contexts of radical shift in stylistics. On the other hand, conceptual notions are not deciphered strictly, thus they also present some kind of "aestheticism". This article is an attempt to reconsider these questions (page 41).

Sarah KIRSCH, Ulrike DRAESNER. Poems. Translated by Antanas A. Jonynas (page 51).

Wojciech JAGIELSKI. Table from Perspective. An essay by one of the most famous contemporary reporters, from his book on post-Soviet states in Caucasus "A Good Place to Die" (page 53).

Anette BALDAUF. Shopping town USA. Victor Gruen, the Cold War, and the Shopping mall. In the course of his life, Victor Gruen completed major urban interventions in the US and western Europe that fundamentally altered the course of western urban development. Anette Baldauf describes how Gruen's fame rests mostly on the insertion of commercial machines into the decentred US suburbs. These so-called "shopping towns" were supposed to strengthen civic life and structure the amorphous, mono-functional agglomerations of suburban sprawl. Yet, within a decade, Gruen's designs had become the architectural extension of the policies of racial and gender segregation underlying the US postwar consumer utopia (page 58).

Raminta JURĖNAITĖ. Heinz-Hermann Jurczek's Improvisation on the Theme of Fall of Images. The art critic discusses a private exhibition of the German painter held in Vilnius Vartai Gallery (page 64).

Bela EGYED. Nietzsche Today. Continuation of a project in co-operation with Bulgarian journal Critique & Humanism and Slovak Kritika & Kontext, supported by Next Page Foundation (Sofia). This essay is followed by a discussion between philosophers about insights of Nietzsche (page 65).

Contemprary Philosophers Discuss Nietzsche (page 66).

Almantas SAMALAVIČIUS. In the Siamese Land. Part III. The third part of the author's writings about Thai cultural heritage, focused on Northern Thailand, former Kingdom of Lanna Thai (page 70).

Vladas TURČINAVIČIUS. Freedom – the Most Essential Value. Essay on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the renowned Lithuanian prose writer and politician Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius (page 75).

Vladas TERLECKAS. Signer of Independence Act Jonas Vailokaitis, Who Did a Lot to his Country, but Was Misinterpreted Greatly. The article is an attempt to present the biography of this renowned person and to destroy myths and false stories about the life of the active founder of the Lithuanian Bank, industrialist Vailokaitis, as well as activities of his brother Catholic priest Juozas Vailokaitis (page 79).

Morta BAUŽIENĖ. Sigitas Lasavickas Did not Want to Live as an Outsider. An article about the activities of architect Sigitas Lasavickas who contributed a lot to the protection of monuments in Lithuania throughout his entire professional life (page 89).

Asta PETRAITYTĖ. Important Collection of Documents about a Man and the State. Review of the book "Anicetas Simutis' Sixty Years of Service in Lithuania's Diplomacy" (page 92).

Krescencija ŠURKUTĖ. National Comedy "Bakshish in the Sauna". Ironical essay on Lithuania's cultural and political life (page 94).

Published 2008-03-30