Antanas maceina: the question of national identity in exile

Antanas Maceina: the Question of National Identity in Exile National identity is a cornerstone of each nation. It contains culture, language, history and even religion. The main problem of this paper arises from the fact that many scholars have discussed the nation concept, however, not many research papers has been written about the exile case, which is pretty rare in academic literature. Therefore, the question of national identity in exile is fundamental, especially in Lithuanian circumstances. The aim of this paper is to analyse, what is the significance of protecting national identity, according to Antanas Maceina. In order to answer this question several tasks are set: 1) to identify what are the national identity of Antanas Maceina; 2) to find out which aspects form and protect this identity in exile; 3) to define what the importance author is given to national identity maintenance while living in exile. The first chapter of the work reveals academic discussion of the main theoretical sentencions about nation and nationalism. The second Chapter, named "National identity conception and the specificity of exile" highlights originality of Antanas Maceina approach in this debate. Furthermore, the next chapter is divided into four sub-topics, which represent the implement of language, culture, history as well as religion to the national identity. The final chapter is written about the search for the meaning of exile. The results of the research of the study represent that Antanas Maceina agrees with the importance of national identity, culture and language. However, the author also believes in bicultural as well as bilingual human existence in exile