Historical consciousness in Norbertas Černiauskas' 1940. The Last summer of Lithuania and Agnė Žagrakalytė's The Noisy ones: catholics

• Keturakienė, Eglė
• Straševičiūtė, Kristina

ENBased on Marc Bloch’s concept of diversity of consciousness and narrative traces, Hayden White’ s concept of historical narrativity, and Umberto Eco’s concept of the open work, this article examines two historical narratives that appeared in Lithuania in 2022: Norbertas Černiauskas’ 1940. The Last Summer of Lithuania and Agnė Žagrakalytė’s The Noisy Ones: Catholics which stand out in the field of contemporary Lithuanian historical prose primarily for their focus on the traditional form of historical narrative—the genre of the calendar. Both authors’ original historical narratives are based on specific written testimonies of people; both reveal a clear feminist perspective and a comparative view, where events of local significance and people’s stories are linked to events in world history and the experiences of specific individuals. Černiauskas’ historical narrative creates an optimistic discourse of 1940, which is linked to the arrival of young and promising artists on the cultural scene, while Žagrakalytė’s polyphonic historical narrative, presented in a unique card catalogue form, conveys two world wars through specific human experiences using irony and satire, and links the future of humanity with Benedictine culture and the ethics of love. Keywords: calendar story; open work in movement; testimony; mood; optimistic discourse; Benedictine culture; ethics of love.