Academic literature on the topic 'Latvian Patriotic poetry'

During ten years, since Latgalian popular music has returned to the mainstream Latvian music stage, 44 Latgalian music albums have been released. The lyrics of these songs are written by musicians, Latgalian and Latvian poets and as a result of teamwork of poets and music authors. The subject of the present research is represented by cultural signs in the song texts of Latgalian bands; the research object is song lyrics of Latgalian bands. Sources selected for the research are the song texts of Latgalian bands and performers: "Borowa MC", "Bez PVN", "Dabasu Durovys", "Green Novice", Laura Bicāne, "Kapļi". Some musicians and bands use Latvian and Latgalian folk songs in their music, yet they are not discussed in the present research. Other musicians use works of Latgalian poets, which are mentioned here only for comparison. Therefore, the key focus is on texts written by musicians themselves, collected from the released music album brochures and from correspondence with band members. The texts of schlager music bands are not examined here either, as they are worth making a separate research.It must be admitted that cultural signs in the examined texts do not occur particularly often, although the feature of the post-modernist culture is related to reassessment and mock of previous culture, the song lyrics are still rather romantic, traditional and compliant with the requirements of mass culture. The use of cultural signs is not characteristic of bands "Green Novice", "Bez PVN" and performer Laura Bicāne, therefore, the song texts of bands "Borowa MC", "Dabasu Durovys" and "Kapļi" are analysed the most. The research has been carried out based on the method of structural semiotics (J. Lotmans, R. Veidemane) by analysing cultural signs found in the selected texts.The signs related to cultural history are rather traditional: Latgale, Latgalians, rarely, some specific natural or geographical objects relevant to cultural historical events or associated exactly with the Latgale region. However, the search for territorial and ethnic identity and its construction for oneself and others (mostly, neighbours of other regions) is one of the main questions in the lyrics. As the mentioned bands "Borowa Mc", "Dabasu Durovys" and "Bez PVN" play popular, mass-oriented music, their texts are mostly intended for broad public, therefore, the first features that characterize the song lyrics of Latgalian bands are the cultivation and preservation of stereotypes. These stereotypes are divided into two groups:1) favourable, emotionally uplifting, sometimes even rousing self-confidence; 2) critical, prejudiced, causing negative atmosphere and emotions.The poetical rock band "Kapļi", which belongs to an alternative direction of Latgalian music and has ironic, sarcastic texts, sing about cultural signs related to Latgale in a completely different way. Their lyrics show a different view of things that are holy, inviolable, and indisputable to many Latgalians.Regarding cultural signs representing the folkloristic level, it must be noted that in this research ‘folkloristic’ is meant in the broadest sense of this word (not only folk compositions, but also events, objects, things that have become a part of folklore over time, often becoming subjects of literary tales), for instance, Pinocchio, the main character combines several characters: a fool, a body-builder, and even a lyrical ego seeking for its own identity. All character appearances, which are reflected in other songs about the modern hero, suggest that the character avoids activity or makes the new world unstable by drawing, making it from plasticine, using the phone, and consequently, creates a virtual world which is modern and transitory. "Dabasu Durovys" reveals their life philosophy and search for meaning with the help of historical cultural signs, for instance, the river Rubicon, known from ancient times, meaning the breaking of links to the past and not returning to previous situation, or the royal court of the Sun King, that symbolizes absolute monarchy, or Napoleon, etc.“Little man” and his daily life are related to another group of cultural signs. Depiction of daily life in poetry shows on the one hand that the author values the place and time of his life; on the other hand it demonstrates an artistic approach to everyday reality. These texts usually convey tragically ironical feeling and show modern typical dramas right beside us. Such characters most frequently appear in the texts of the bands "Kapļi" and "Dabasu Durovys".Even though cultural signs do not appear in the texts of Latgalian bands frequently, they are diverse. Cultural historical signs, which appear in patriotic and ironic lyrics, reveal authors’ homeland Latgale and Latgalians with their typical positive and negative stereotypes. Cultural signs related to Latvia and Europe highlight ironically sharp reality of emigration and infrequent visits to Latvia and are bound to several historical periods, which are mostly related to domestic, rarely social political situations.

In a literary heritage with a developed tradition of genres, works whose main purpose is to attract the attention of readers to a selected geographical location, are of particular culture-historical and culture-geographical interest. The most widespread in this respect is travel literature, which is usually written by travellers and consist of impressions portrayed in prose after visits to foreign lands. Another type of literary depiction with an expressed poetic orientation, but a similar goal, is characteristic of dedicatory poetry. The author’s position is usually saturated with emotional expressiveness as well as the artistry of symbols, encouraging the reader or listener to feel the formation of a spontaneous attitude. It is possible to gain confidence in the engagement of the author of the poetry as an individual in the depicted cultural-geographical environment, which can be conceptually expressed by words or pairs of words ‘resident’, ‘native place’, ‘patriot’. With regard to the devotional depictions on the Latvian urban environment, one of the earliest examples known in the history of literature is the dedicatory poem in German by Christian Bornmann to the town Jelgava with its ancient name (Mitau, 1686/1802). The name of Liepāja town in this tradition of the genre has become an embodiment later – in the poetry selection in German, also using the ancient name of the town (Libausche Dichtungen, 1853), but in terms of contemporary literary practice with Imants Kalniņš’ music, there is a convincing dominance of songs with words of poetry. The aim of the article is, looking at the poetry devoted to Liepāja in the 19th century and at the turn of the 20th/21st century in the comparative aspect, to present textually thematic peculiarities as well as to provide the analytical interpretative summary of those.

The visibility and success of Latgalian schlager groups in Latvia are of interest not only due to music composed by these groups, but even more regarding lyrics created by these musical associations, and especially concerning their relation to Latgale. The aim of the research is to describe the manifestations of the concept of Latgale in the lyrics of Latgalian schlager groups. The object of the research is the concept of Latgale, the subject of the study consists of the texts of Latgalian schlager groups (“Patrioti.lg”, “Galaktika”, “Ginc un Es”, etc.). The source of the study is 12 albums that have come out over the period of ten years (2008–2017). Both Latgalian (the Latvian language of Latgale) and Latvian texts are discussed. Latgalian groups sing about the same themes that are covered around the world – love, everyday life, reflection, quest for the sense of life, etc. The concept of Latgale is among them too. Taking into account that the term concept is often used in different linguistic and cultural spheres and its limits of understanding are quite extensive, in this study it is used in the linguacultural sense, i.e., concept is a unit of collective consciousness guiding towards higher spiritual values, which is linguistically expressive and which possesses ethno cultural features (Аngelova 2004). The first discoverer of the concept of Latgale is language. In this research it is the Latgalian language consistently used by some groups, for example, “Patrioti.lg”; also the last album of duet Inga and Normunds (2015) is completely in Latgalian, while other artists (“Galaktika”, “Ginc un Es”) use Latgalian lyrics only in separate songs written either by musicians themselves or by poets. In any case, at least some songs in Latgalian included in an album are positive examples of the liveliness and functionality of language. Geographical names are rather widely represented in the lyrics and serve as a confirmation of the territorial identity of Latgale. Several titles directly include an indication to Latgale, for example, the titles of the following albums – “Munai Latgolai”, “Latgaleite”, or the names of songs – “Latgale”, “Munai Latgolai”, etc. Latgale’s most famous geographical objects associated with our region in the rest of Latvia are mentioned in schlager songs. For example, Latgale’s largest lakes Rāzna and Lubāns, the river Daugava, the hills – Liepukalns, Mākoņkalns. The naming of geographic objects is inextricably linked with the sense of homeland. The lyrics of these songs acknowledge patriotism and pride about our land or region, partly attributable to the mentioned geographical objects; however, the manifestation of the concept of Latgale is often expressed in descriptive terms. Several authors successfully use the symbols of Latgale, thus influencing the listener’s awareness even more, for example, Latgale as the land of blue lakes – a traditional and positive stereotype of the region. Latgale is closely associated with Latgalians’ belief in God due to the strong Catholic traditions. Authors of lyrics include religious motifs truly believing in their hearts or emphasizing religious themes on purpose in order to particularly impress people of middle and older generation who make up one of the main parts of target audience. The song lyrics written by poets (Ineta Atpile-Jugane, Leontīne Apšeniece, etc.) stand out for their artistic and ideological qualities in contrast to texts created by musicians themselves. In their poetry too there is a call to stay, live and work in Latgale. It should be considered a positive trait that Latgale is not shown as a wictim, but it is a place that symbolizes hope and patriotism. As the main function of schlager music is entertaining the listeners, a number of texts depict cheerful social and party situations where beer belongs as one of the unwritten symbols of Latgale and Latvia. Also a significant part of Latgale is song, which gives strength and unites people. The portrayal of Latgale in lyrics mostly invokes nostalgic and positive emotions, confirming Latgalian values and objects that are known to common listeners.