Language and translation policies in state-building processes: the case of Lithuania

ENThe beginning of the 20th century induced geopolitical changes that triggered the formation of many modern states in Europe, including the modern state of Lithuania along with other neighboring countries. This chapter focuses on Lithuanian language policy making as an important process in the nationbuilding and Lithuanian identity-(re)presentation process. It gives an overview of how translation practices were interrelated with language policies in many different ways. Writers, poets, translators, editors and publishers were not only mediators within and between cultures, languages, texts and minds of the time, but also crucial agents who substantially contributed to the development of the Lithuanian identity after 1918. The aim of this chapter is to examine the Lithuanian language policy during the first independence period (1918-1940) and until independence was regained in 1991, to determine the role of the different agents in the institutionalization of language and translation as well as the contribution of diaspora to the development and construction of Lithuanian identity. We apply historical, descriptive and reconstructive translation approaches: our analysis is based on historiographic and documentary material. The collected evidence allows us to outline the historical context and to highlight the roots and sources of the language policies, as well as the role of translation in building and preserving the national Lithuanian identity throughout most of the 20th century.