Bread in Lithuanian Literature

Abstract

Bread is one of the most important cultural realities distinguished by its direct and symbolic significance. In Lithuanian folklore, there are clear direct connections between bread and the most important categories of national values: diligence, thoughtfulness, responsibility, kindness, and spiritual nobility. Bread symbolises strength, mind, self-control, loyalty, kindness, and humility. It was of immense sacral importance in the lives of our ancestors: it became the central element of numerous customs of family life, calendar rituals, agrarian celebrations, and was widely featured in Lithuanian folk songs, fairy-tales, tales, and beliefs. Bread has always been an important image in Lithuanian literature. A loaf of bread, a slice of bread, daily, wholemeal bread, the bread of life, mother’s bread are traditional images of Lithuanian poetry and prose, reflecting the reality of the nation’s life and at the same time visually drawing the hierarchy of the nation’s spiritual values. In the poem Metai (The Seasons), the pioneer of Lithuanian literature Kristijonas Donelaitis gives a vivid picture of the life of the serfs of Lithuania Minor in the eighteenth century, and his characters primarily address their thanks to God for giving people bread, the greatest grace of all. Since then, images of the worshiped daily bread have become stronger in literature, pointing to its vital importance. The image of holy bread takes root in Lithuanian twentieth-century poetry, perhaps most clearly meaningful in the work by Kazys Bradūnas, one of žemininkai, or the ‘earth’ poets. In his poetry, bread is associated with the meanings of the holiness of agricultural existence. In the poet’s work, bread is an important moment in the cosmogony of the microworld, symbolising rebirth and the higher moments of an individual’s existence. Such a poetic interpretation of bread is also characteristic of Sigitas Geda’s works. In the poetry of Justinas Marcinkevičius, Janina Degutytė, Alfonsas Maldonis, and Robertas Keturakis, bread becomes an important element in the poetic programme of goodness and is associated with the artistic meanings of human spiritual nobility, inner warmth, and love. In Lithuanian literature, bread emerges both as the great manifestation of the woman in traditional Lithuanian culture (Birutė Baltrušaitytė, Vanda Juknaitė) and as a symbol of harmony in dehumanised reality (Juozas Kundrotas). One of the most striking literary transformations of the artistic image of bread is its desacralisation in the works by Valdas Gedgaudas and the group “Svetimi” (Strangers). Here bread is interpreted as a symbol of chaos and disharmony between the human and the world. Thus, one of the most important realities of Lithuanian culture, the image of bread in Lithuanian literature, is changing; it reflects the worldview of the human of the epoch and his or her spiritual orientations and attitudes.