Животные в структуре повествования литовского лирического рассказа

ENThe origin of Lithuanian lyrical short story genre is related with Jonas Biliūnas. At the beginning of the 20th century, he wrote the short stories "Kliudžiau" [I Have Scraped It], "Brisiaus galas" [The End of Brisius]. Relations between a human and animal are transferred here to the level of a moral ethical issue which is revealed by the structure of lyrical narration. The tradition of lyrical narration is continued in the Lithuanian literature of the middle of the 20th century; it is related with the writing of Juozas Aputis, Romualdas Granauskas, Saulius Šaltenis, Bronius Radzevičius, etc. The object of a more thorough analysis is short stories from the collection "Gegužė ant nulūžusio beržo" [A Cuckoo on a Broken Birch] (1985) by Juozas Aputis. The character of this author's short stories is a village man whose everyday life gives an important place for an animal. One of them is a man living in the collective farm system where the established life-style and moral attitudes of a village man undergo severe changes. The main problem raised by Aputis in his stories is a village man and civilisation. Within the structure of a lyrical narration, the author does not avoid expressing his own assessment, like transferring the point of view from the narrator to an animal.In the short stories "Horizonte bėga šernai" [Boars Are Running in the Horizon], "Kur dingo, kur dingo skerdžius?..." [Where Has the Herdsman Gone?...], "Šūvis po Marazyno ąžuolu" [A Shot under Marazynas Oak Tree], etc., the author's attitude and assessment are expressed through the eyes of a dog, bird, pig and the author appeals to the cultural memory which awakens reader's emotional reaction. The comparison of the short stories "Kliudžiau" by Jonas Biliūnas (the beginning of the 20th century), "Šūvis po Marazyno ąžuolu" by Juozas Aputis, "Bitė" [A Bee] by Antanas Ramonas (the second half of the 20th century) reveals that the structure of a lyrical narration, where an important role is given to an animal, highlights the changes in the value system of a contemporary man. This aspect of the development of civilisation raises a special concern for Lithuanian authors of lyrical short stories.