Trajectories of identities in the Lithuanian exodus novel of the 1950s

The aim of this article is to analyze conceptions of identity as revealed in the following realistic novels written by emigre authors in the 1950s: Negestis (1955) by Nelė Mazalaitė, Aštuoni lapai (1956) by Birutė Pūkelevičiūtė, and Miškais ateina ruduo (1957) by Marius Katiliškis. The interdisciplinary methodology of this research is constructed out of the reflexive identity conception proposed by the sociologist Anthony Giddens; the interdisciplinary comparative theory; and the conception of authenticity advanced by the philosopher Charles Taylor. The article explores the hypothesis that these novelists recorded the “narrative of the self” and the “moral ideal.” “Narratives of the self” of protagonists in the novels by Mazalaitė, Pūkelevičiūtė and Katiliškis would exhibit different identities: family, religion, and body identities. We must consider the last-mentioned identities as conditional moral articulations which, first of all, express authors’ “I” and their moral horizons. The inderdisciplinary approach shows that a different perception of identity in the novels is established: the identity is not a reflexive given thing (Mazalaitė); the identity is a reflexive given thing (Pūkelevičiūtė); the identity is a reflexive construct (Katiliškis)