CEU Press
Life should be Transparent
Aurimas Svedas, Irena Veisaite
- Title
- Life should be Transparent
- Subtitle
- Conversations about Lithuania and Europe in the Twentieth Century and Today
- Authors
- Aurimas Svedas
- Irena Veisaite
- Translator
- Karla Gruodis
- Price
- € 70,95 excl. VAT
- ISBN
- 9789633863596
- Format
- Paperback
- Number of pages
- 382
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 22 - 04 - 2020
- Dimensions
- 15.5 x 22.9 cm
- Categories
- Discipline
- History, Art History, and Archaeology
- Imprint
- Also available as
- eBook PDF - € 70,99
Introduction: Engaging Memory and History
Conversations
1. Life Should Be Transparent
2. We Could All See That Lithuania Was Trapped
3. What Had Happened to the World?
4. To Forgive and Build the Future—These Are the Duties of the Living
5. I Was Surrounded by Very Good People
6. I Needed a Change
7. I Saw My Work as a Kind of Mission
8. The Theatre Suits My Interests and Temperament Perfectly
9. People Developed Close Relationships within "Islands"
10. Why Was Faust Redeemed, Even After Making a Pact with the Devil?
11. I Felt a Powerful Connection with My Spiritual Brothers
12. I Regret Nothing, But I Continue to Pay Dearly for My Decisions
13. It Is Probably Only Possible to Feel a Part of History Once in One's Lifetime
In Lieu of an Epilogue: More and More Questions, But Fewer and Fewer Answers
Appendices—Voices from the Past
Appendix I: What questions matter the most to me now?
High School Questionnaire
Appendix II: Texts and Statements
Review: "Measured Optimism"
"Left Unsaid"
"The Holocaust in My Life"
"Does Litvak Culture Have a Future on Lithuanian Soil?"
Appendix III: Letters
Appendix IV: Post Scriptum
"On Memory and Remembering"
"An Important Meeting"
"The Debate about Our People"
Key Biographical Events
Index
Aurimas Svedas, Irena Veisaite
Life should be Transparent
Conversations about Lithuania and Europe in the Twentieth Century and Today
This book of thirteen conversations introduces us to the life of an exceptional person—theatre critic, Germanist, and long-time chair of the Open Lithuania Fund board—Irena Veisaitė. The dialogue between Lithuanian historian Aurimas Švedas and a woman who reflects deeply on her experiences reveals both one individual’s historically dramatic life and the fate of Europe and Lithuania in the twentieth century.
Through the complementary lenses of history and memory, we confront with Veisaitė the horrific events of the Holocaust, which brought about the end of the Lithuanian Jewish world. We also meet an array of world-class cultural figures, see fragments of legendary theatre performances, and hear meaningful words that were spoken or heard decades ago.
This book’s interlocutors do not so much seek to answer the question “What was it like?” but instead repeatedly ask each other: “What, how, and why do we remember? What is the meaning of our experiences? How can history help us to live in the present and create the future? How do we learn to understand and forgive?”
A series of Veisaitė’s texts, statements, and letters, presented at the end of the book suggest further ways of answering these questions.
Authors
Aurimas Svedas
Aurimas Švedas is an associate professor at the Faculty of History, Vilnius University.
Irena Veisaite
Irena Veisaite is a Lithuanian Jew and survived the Holocaust. She earned a doctorate in Leningrad in 1963 with a dissertation on the poetry of Heinrich Heine, and was a lecturer at the teacher's college in Vilnius from 1953 to 1997. She has also been head of the Thomas Mann Cultural Centre in Nida, Lithuania. She was awarded the Goethe Medal in 2012 for her contribution to the cultural exchange between Germany and Lithuania.
A German scholar and theatre critic, she has been at the helm of the Open Society Fund for many years.
