The Latvian writer Gunars Janovskis (1916–2000) lived a long life, becoming the most productive Latvian exile prose writer not only in Great Britain but the whole Latvian exile community. Everything he saw, experienced, observed, and noticed in some way, was echoed in his literary work. Janovskis’ voluminous work offers diverse interpretation and analysis opportunities for a researcher of literature.
The present article focuses on two of Janovskis’ prose texts – his novels “Sōla” (1963) and “Pilsēta pie upes” (‘A Town by the River’, 1992), belonging to different stages of the writer’s activity, as well as his life. For the literary characters depicted by Janovskis, it is vital to remember, avoid losing the past while they attempt to live in the present, though this may be rather hard at times. It has been commented regarding the works of Janovskis that in his books, people only are really living when they are remembering. The present article aims to view the aforementioned novels by Janovskis within the model of the relationship between the past and the present, mainly concentrating on the relationship of the main characters with the time.
The novel “Sōla” is the first novel by Janovskis ever published in a book. The main protagonist is Arturs Skuja, returning to some past impressions alongside the present from time to time. The landscape and elements of nature bring back his memories, inviting comparisons with the things once seen in Bolderāja or Daugavgrīva. There is a second and much heavier layer of the past in the protagonist’s dramatic and even tragic experiences during the war, which haunt him during sleepless nights or even return like a ghost. The main tense of the story within this novel is the present. But the novel “Pilsēta pie upes”, written much later, shows a shift of accent. The story starts in the present reality – at the old people’s home “Straumēni”. The urge of the author to tell the life story of Ansis Klētnieks is obvious, but in this story, one can unmistakably recognise the reflections of the author himself, through the location depicted (there are clear parallels between the course of life of Ansis from Krustpils and that of the author). The urge to tell, testify, not remain silent is much more pronounced in the story. The author has become less ambiguously involved in documenting a dramatic era, being its eyewitness.
The novels chosen for the present article mark the changes in the relationship of the Janovskis’ literary characters with the present and the past. While the narrative in the present basically dominates in the novel “Sōla”, the other novel, “Pilsēta pie upes”, shows the past events and narrative dominating over the present. In both works, the plot takes place in both Great Britain and Latvia, though with changing intensity.
It can be concluded that for Gunars, Janovskis writing was a kind of therapy aimed at overcoming the past while still securing the memories from being lost.
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