Beprotnamis išeivijoje ir Sovietų Lietuvoje

Abstract

Reading of the two Lithuanian plays - the American, by Antanas Škėma, ”A Christmas Scene”, written in 1961, and the Soviet, by Juozas Glinskis, ’’The Hause of Discipline”, written in 1970 - reveals many similarities. Both texts are saturated with religions concerns images and events. Both emplay a psychological mode of analysis, with emphasis on motivation and subconscious proceses. ’’The House of Discipline” is a more difficult text that ”A Christmas Scene”, not only in its general structure, but also in its conception of human nature. While both texts can be described as religious - psychological plays, ’’The House of Discipline” also, and in its very essence, a political play. It seems plausible to argue that character of Soviet Society transforms everything more intensely into a political problem, whereas the political dimensions of experience tend to appear secondary - or are presented in ’’restricted code” - in a liberal democracy. The political analysis of individual works of art is but the indispensable first step to the cruicial question: How do political settings influence the collective structures of consciousness within which particular authors construct their individual positions, their own distinctive interpretations of and attitudes toward the political settings within which they work?