Memory in Contemporary Baltic Literature

Abstract

The goal of this article is to explore the concepts of memory and to explain specific features of a literary text. According to the German literary scholar Astrid Erll, a story could be presented in a cultural and/or a communicative mode. The analysis of the novels by Rūta Šepetys, Māra Zālīte, and Ilmar Taska shows trends of structural models of the narrative. The author of this study comes to the conclusion that writers tend to express processes of remembering in different ways. The choice of the mode could possibly be understood as a strategy of communication: the framework of presentation of the narrated events indicates possible cultural effects of the literary text.