Lithuanian literary tale: Andersen's lessons : (the first half of the 20th century)

Abstract

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Lithuanian writers were intensively learning from the European authors, being also interested in Scandinavian literature. Hans Christian Andersen was the first of all Scandinavian writers whose works were published in Lithuanian (1884). Because of the simplicity of form, ethic and aesthetic harmony, Andersen's minor prose genres were very close to Lithuanian authors; hence, reflections of his works, plot parallels, scene structuring, peculiarities of stylistics and poetics entered Lithuanian prose and poetry of the first half of the 20th century. It is obvious that Andersen's works first of all influenced the formation of the Lithuanian literary tale, e.g., its founder Antanas Giedrius directly and conscientiously oriented himself towards the model of Andersenës tale. Beside the analysis of typological affinities, the comparative study of Andersenís literary tales and those by Lithuanian authors is based on two representative aesthetic models of the early period of Andersen's writing, reflected in his works Boghvedení (The Buckwheat, 1841) and Hørrení (The Flax, 1849). Andersen's literary tales are compared to Konstantinas Bejerčius "Bread", Juozas Mackevičius-Nordís "Letter", Aldona Kazanavičienė "The Little Piece of Amber", as well as the works by Julius Kaupas, Stepas Zobarskas and other Lithuanian writers.