Vygantas VAREIKIS
Collective Dream: Sąjūdis in Klaipėda
Klaipėda is an exceptional Lithuanian city. But Sąjūdis's movement was established in a specific, if not in a very unusual, way. Ideas of national revival reached Klaipėda from Vilnius where the movement was established in June 1988, and in 1989 declared independence as its goal. This was a collective dream of the whole nation. People made it a political phenomenon, wanting not only moral but real power.

Edvardas KRIŠČIŪNAS
About Dictatorship of Illusions
Some aspects of Lithuanian relation to Communism. After WWII, the communist totalitarian system expanded to 1/6 of the world's territory which experienced some form of communism. The attitude of the Lithuanian nation to this system changed historically, and one can identify three stages: positive theoretical evaluation, practical experience of it as historical evil, and distanced objective evaluation. By knowing more about this dramatic period of recent history we can more willingly say farewell to the "Great Illusions" and new utopias.

Mila MINEVA
The national as an advertising repertoire
The paper analyzes advertisement as a cultural form through which we could interpret the popular common sense. On one hand, it situates the commercials in the research field of consumer culture. On the other, the text tries to focus the attention on one specific advertising repertoire in Bulgaria: the national images. The main problem is how to interpret the transformation of the national into commercial images. The paper argues that this de-dramatizes the national imaginary and transforms these images from national into local ones.

Karolis PAULAVIČIUS
Are All People Equally Free and Equal?
A letter to the editors. Too much freedom sometimes goes beyond common sense. Because politicians give in to the pressures of small but influential groups, they are afraid of being accused of restricting freedom or violating human rights. But by expanding freedoms according to the whims of the few, they forget that they violate the rights of the many.

Herkus KUNČIUS
Nocturne of Apostatas
Short-story.

Šarūnas NAKAS
The Box of Relicts. In memoriam Bronys Savukynas
Editor-in-chief of Kulturos barai Bronys Savukynas died on April 20. An associate of the journal, composer Šarūnas Nakas, wrote a musical composition according to Johannes Bobrowski's poem "Young Days" translated by Bronys Savukynas. This is neither a requiem nor a musical form of an epitaph. This is a different kind of music: one for healing from the Sunday in April, a day marked by death; a laconic sketch for a metaphoric portrait of Savukynas; a gesture of respect for the lonely and extremely strong man who united a community that is almost impossible to unite.

Helmutas ŠABASEVIČIUS
Mind and Feelings. New Baltic Dance '08.
The author discusses an international festival of contemporary dance that has already existed for twelve years. This year it lacked a strong framework, seemed rather accidental, and the programme was of the kind where "everything goes". On the other hand, the present system of financing Lithuanian culture is blocking the organizers' efforts.

The Taste of Patriotism
Perhaps the time has come to create a new concept of patriotism for post soviet states of the twenty first century? When young artists were offered this idea, it turned out that patriotism is as ephemeral as populism. The curator of an exhibition titled "Patriots" aims to stress three main problems – the social and economic situation of young artists, a dissolving civic understanding of society, and an increasingly commercialized use of heritage. The exhibition is held in Vilnius Vartai gallery and will later move to Žeimių manor in the Jonava region.

Ingrida GERBUTAVIČIŪTĖ
Kedja: Lets Us Help Dance to Disseminate
The international dance festival Baltic Dance '08 offered a new initiative – the meeting between Nordic and Baltic dance associations at Kedja [Icelandic for "chain", referring to the Nordic chain dances that are still popular]. The author outlines the discussions, lectures, and seminars held during the meeting.

"I didn't expect Lithuania to have such dance..."
Vita Mozūraitė interviews John Ashford, director at the London theatre The Place.

Jean METTELUS
Poems
Translated from French by Tomas Taškauskas.

Carl Henrik FREDRIKSSON
The Fall of Patriarchs
The editor-in-chief of Eurozine comments on the strange silence of Austrian intellectuals facing the horrors of Amstetten, noting that this strange silence is filled by downright stupid and/or superficial comments made by psychotherapists and journalists. The editors of Kulturos barai have written a short accompanying comment drawing attention to the silence of Lithuanian intellectuals regarding alarming and sometimes awful events happening in their own country. Translated by Zita Mažeikaitė.

Margot DIJKGRAAF
Old Holland and the New Dutch
Literary perspectives: the Netherlands. Insightful essay about the tendencies in contemporary Dutch literature and its most important authors. The liberal, atheist era has come to an end in the Netherlands, and contemporary Dutch literature reflects this writes critic Margot Dijkgraaf. The new need for security is reflected in the work of two novelists in particular: Jan Siebelink whose fiction, free of references to contemporary life, evokes the "profound Holland" overturned in the 1960s; and Arnon Grunberg whose representations of male disintegration blankly refuse any such reassurances. But there is a parallel strand of current Dutch literature that sidesteps such concerns: novelists and poets with migrant backgrounds introducing new styles and identities into the Dutch literary repertoire.


The project of exchange of essays by three European cultural journals: Kulturos barai, Critique&Humanism, and Kritika&Kontext, supported by Next Page foundation (Bulgaria), is continued.

Gyorgy TATAR
Death of God: the Heaviest Burden
We know that at the end of his life the philosopher went mad. But it would be simplistic to claim that Nietzsche thought as only a madman can do. And we can't remain indifferent to his diagnosis in view of the fall of Christianity.

Béla EGYED
Nietzsche's anti-democratic liberalism
While Nietzsche was an enemy of populism and egalitarianism, he was also an enthusiastic supporter of the struggle for liberty; his perfunctory endorsement of existing institutions sits alongside a proto-politics of drives and intensities. Nietzschean politics are less a critique of political events than a diagnosis of the forces and tendencies driving them – and therein lies their liberalism, writes Béla Egyed.

Algimantas GRAŽULIS
The Heritage and Its Protection in Šiauliai District
The author discusses territorial, administrative, and historical structures of the Šiauliai district, as well as the state of its cultural heritage and problems with its preservation.

Sigita KASPARAITĖ
A Glimpse at Provincial Estate and Town
Discussion of one of our protected historical monuments – the palace of Chaimas Frenkelis in Šiauliai, and its adaptation to present needs.

Mindaugas PELECKIS
Origins and Prospects of New Age
Continuation of an overview of the New Age religious movements. The author focuses on one of the most controversial and destructive new religious movements – the so-called followers of Osho. Another UFO cult is church of Rael created by French singer, journalist and motor-racer Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon (b. 1946), and yet another is the Followers of Roerich.

Domininkas BURBA
Black Spots on Costumes of Great Vilniusites
Features of morality of the eighteenth century are analyzed in the article, and the author questions whether the accusations made by the famous architect Martynas Knakfusas are well-founded or if Pietro Rossi was an initiator of fist-fights, and if officer Friedrich Cronemann was guilty of violence and inappropriate behaviour toward his soldiers.

Almantas SAMALAVIČIUS
The Sunset of Literary Postmodernism
Review of the book Postmodernism and After: Visions and Revisions, ed. by Regina Rudaitytė. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2006, p. 216.

Nothing Can Replace Books (2)
Kulturos barai continues to peek at Lithuanian publishing houses and published books (not necessarily the latest). An overview of Baltos lankos publishers.

Krescencija ŠURKUTĖ
Adventures Around the Fence and Under the Sky
Ironical essay on Lithuania's cultural and political life.

Published 2008-07-03