COMPONENTS OF CHILDS’ IMAGE IN LATVIAN AND CANADIAN PROSE OF THE 1900-30S.

• Rinkevica, R.

Abstract:

The aim of the research is to describe child’s image as one of the most important components in the structure of childhood narrative. Great significance is attributed in its depiction to characters’ portrait, action and its psychological motivation, age, degree of socialization, and name. Methods of the paper: theoretical and historical analysis of prose texts by bringing together semiotic, comparative, biographical, literary historical methods of literary research. Results of the paper: depiction of the artistic time of childhood in the prose texts of Latvian and Canadian literature is marked by rather stably observed principles. Firstly, diachronic time is predominant, that is typical of the traditional narrative and composition of a literary text showing events and experiences following one another in a sequence. Secondly, the artistic chronotope of the childhood narratives of the 1900-30s is closely related to the category of memory; narration often fits into the cyclical time of nature processes and it is also created in the past form. Besides, the distance between the past and the present is often specially emphasized by the author by inserting into the plot the present viewpoint and reflections on the past, emphasizing the author’s position (Aspazija, A. Brigadere, L. M. Montgomery). However, also in this perspective time is manifested as a subjective phenomenon creating an imaginary picture of the world. Thirdly, great importance is attributed to the time related to childhood as an age period. In the texts of the considered period, disregarding the priorities of any literary trend, the chronological boundaries of childhood are extended from pre-school age to early adolescence (12-13 years of age), and school becomes a point of reference for the change of the child’s status. Fourth, especially in the prose texts produced in the 1900-30s childhood, on the one hand, is included in the linear time conception but simultaneously it is subjected to the cyclic rhythm of seasons and the cycle of farm labour. Both seemingly opposite perceptions of the time flow are united in childhood memory narrative.

SGEM Research areas:

• ART & HUMANITIES: Section Literature & Poetry

Year:

2020

Type of Publication:

In Proceedings

Keywords:

child’s image; Latvian and Canadian literature; prose; childhood memory narratives; child’s portrait

Volume:

7

SGEM Book title:

7th SWS International Scientific Conference on Arts And Humanities - ISCAH 2020

Book number:

1

SGEM Series:

SWS International Scientific Conferences on ART and HUMANITIES - ISCAH

Pages:

123-130

Publisher address:

51 Al. Malinov blvd, Sofia, 1712, Bulgaria

SGEM supporters:

SWS Scholarly Society; Acad Sci Czech Republ; Latvian Acad Sci; Polish Acad Sci; Russian Acad Sci; Serbian Acad Sci & Arts; Natl Acad Sci Ukraine; Natl Acad Sci Armenia; Sci Council Japan; European Acad Sci, Arts & Letters; Acad Fine Arts Zagreb Croatia; C

Period:

25-27 August, 2020

ISBN:

978-619-7603-00-2

ISSN:

2682-9940

Conference:

7th SWS International Scientific Conference on Arts And Humanities - ISCAH 2020, 25-27 August, 2020

DOI:

10.5593/sws.iscah.2020.7.1/s25.15