Širdgėla dėl kultūros: (Jono Aisčio eseistika)

ENJonas Aistis (1904-1973) is a talented Lithuanian exodus poet and one of the initiators of Lithuanian essay writing. Essays by Jonas Aistis incorporated in the collections of articles "Dievai ir smūtkeliai" (Lithuania, 1935), About Time and People ("Apie laiką ir žmones", USA, 1954) and Milford Street Elegies ("Milfordo gatvės elegijos", USA, 1969) has been little researched. The first book examines maladies of Lithuanian culture. The second book is mostly devoted to contemplation over certain issues of creation: maturation of Aistis' himself as a poet, reminiscences of the most outstanding authors and literary works that influenced Aistis' personality and writings. In the Milford Street Elegies, Aistis returns to the problems raised in the first book. A joining link of the three collections of Aistis' essays is care for the higher level of culture. Jonas Aistis is worried about the floundering cultural life and the concept of freedom muddied with daily routine. The writer encourages his nationals to maintain the peculiarity of national culture (language, literature, theatre) and withstand against the oncoming globalization. According to the essay writer, the problem is the lack of free personalities and talented authors, who would be able to change the murky cultural situation. But the author not always can motivate objectively the causes of the emphasized negative things. Jonas Aistis felt like being a prophet for the nation called for changing the situation of Lithuanian culture, improving its quality.On one hand, Jonas Aistis undertakes a positive stand: to educate, enlighten and change the society. On the other, he seems to evade the individual's way of growing conscious. It is not a coincidence that Jonas Aistis was born the same year, when Lithuania regained its prohibited press. The essay writer was a messenger and fosterer of the freedom of speech, who by the naked truth addressed to Lithuanians' national feelings and by his accurate insights uncovered urgent problems of the nation's existence.