PROCEEDINGS OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Gunars Janovskis’ voice across time

Keywords: Gunars Janovskis, prose of exile, monograph, reception of works
Language: In Latvian

In 2023, the series “I am…”, dedicated to the life stories of classics of Latvian literature, saw the first publications of several monographs and novels. The research of LAS corresponding member Inguna – Silasproģe introduces the readers to the Latvian classic of exile and one of the brightest prose writers of Latvian literature in exile -Gunars Janovskis (1916–2000). This author has also been successful in the sense that it has been possible for his works to return to his homeland after years of prohibition —both in repeated and new editions of books, in an edition of collected articles in 14 volumes, and in the Latvian Television series taken in the 1990s, based on the motifs of his novels Shadow Minuet and Red Rapid, in the film adaptation of City by the River, in the Radio Theatre production Sōla, and in the productions of his novels by the director Varis Brasla in Valmiera Drama Theatre, which was once an event in the life of Latvian theatres in the 1990s and in the first decade of the new millennium. It seems that only the return of the texts of Anšlavs Eglītis (1906–1993) to his homeland was no less successful and diverse.