Lithuanian Collectors Coins

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The coin was minted at theUAB Lithuanian Mint

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Lithuanian Collectors Coins© Bank of Lithuania, 2015

Coins photographed by Arūnas BaltėnasDesigned by Liudas Parulskis

The publication uses photographs by Ona Pajedaitė, Liudas Parulskis, Deimantė Rybakovienė (photograph

of Justinas Marcinkevičius’ manuscript), illustrations by Stasys Krasauskas

Published by the Bank of Lithuania, Gedimino pr. 6, LT-01103 VilniusPrinted by UAB LODVILA, www.lodvila.lt

5 EURO COIN, DEDICATED TO LITERATURE

FROM THE SERIES “LITHUANIAN CULTURE”

Silver Ag 925Quality proof

Diameter 28.70 mmWeight 12.44 g

On the edge of the coin: LIETUVOS KULTŪRA * LITERATURE*

(LITHUANIAN CULTURE *LITERATURE*)

Designed byRytas Jonas Belevičius

Mintage 4,000 pcs.Issued 2015

5 EURO COIN, DEDICATED TO LITERATURE

5 EURO COIN, DEDICATED TO LITERATURE

a few words. Here there was adaptation, expansion of the boundaries of freedom and a conscious e� ort to preserve the native language. Lithuanian literature, written in the most di¡ cult conditions, continued to grow, mature, it signi¢ cantly contributed to the act of restoring Independence. From 1988–1989 the whole of literature began to include that, which had been banned by censure — the works of political prison-ers (lagerininkai), exiles, immigrants, religious literature, translations of world literature that hadn’t been dear to the Soviets. It was openly said that part of the signi¢ cant literary works were written by writers who had to emigrate to the West (Jonas Aistis, Bernardas Brazdžionis, Marius Katiliškis, Antanas Škėma and many others). It became clear that even those who were fostered by the regime couldn’t publish everything. For example, a collection of poems by Salomėja Nėris, Prie didelio kelio (The High

Road), was kept in a drawer from 1944 to 1994. One of the chapters was begun by the poet with the following two lines:

Oh my writing, so winding and twisted,As the wind blows you shall buzz again...

What is literature among all sorts of other worldly treasures?Let us remember the biographies of famous people. They often mention a book that determined their future way.Therefore, with this coin you can purchase a book that has the power to encourage you to ̄y upwards.

Valentinas Sventickas

What is the di� erence between the language of ¢ ction literature and the language of interaction, announcements? In literature, words have indi-rect meanings, express things that haven’t been said, they grow into symbols and images, work in the harmony of sounds. The intonation and stylistic originality of the author’s language is important — an informational text doesn’t need it at all. The clearest di� erence is felt in reading works in verse.The word literature, carved into a coin, may seem like a paradox. This is because money marks usefulness, while literature — does it have any use and does it aim to have one? No, it rather is drawn away from practical use and almost seems to say that other, spiritual values are sub-

stantially important. But some historical functions of literature — cognitive, education-al, ideological — can be assessed from the aspect of usefulness. We couldn’t assess this way the aesthetic function; we would have to speak only about the joy of reading. Only or even? Famed modern theoreticians, in attempting to answer the question as to what is the mission performed by literature, often ¢ nish profound considerations simply in the following way: in reading good literature we become better. Let us assume, that for the general state of society, this would be useful. Although it is priceless.In Lithuania’s history there wasn’t any other period similar to the present one in terms of the growth of ¢ ction and its publishing. All types and genres of literature are devel-oping freely, there is a variety of topics, methods, styles. The value of the appearing publication and books is di� erent and varied. If, in drawing a view of modern Lithuanian literature, we will limit ourselves to the new works that appeared in the 21st c., we will see that a large part of them was writ-ten by writers who were born in the previous century. Prose writers — Juozas Apu-tis, Petras Dirgėla, Juozas Erlickas, Ričardas Gavelis, Romualdas Granauskas, Leonardas Gutauskas, Jurga Ivanauskaitė, Grigorijus Kanovičius, Vytautas Martinkus. Poets — Sigitas Geda, Antanas A. Jonynas, Donaldas Kajokas, Justinas Marcinkevičius, Aidas Marčėnas, Marcelijus Martinaitis, Jonas Strielkūnas, Tomas Venclova. However, there is a lot of fresh creative energy — both in terms of the problems and literary expres-

What is the ¢ rst thing that comes to our minds when we speak of the word literature? We think of the art of words and glance towards our bookshelves. A corner for prose, poetry, drama. This is ¢ ction (belles-lettres). We perceive dictionaries, reference books, non-¢ ction writing as something else. What is literature, as an art among other art? It stands out. Its only instrument is lan-guage, and through language understanding of the world is expressed. This way litera-ture becomes a mirror of the conciousness of people and the passing of time.This is its modern perception. It would be ̄at if we were to forget history and those meanings of concepts that do not disappear. Literature for a long time was the name for everything that was written, as well as the oral creations of all nations, folklore. The passing of time strengthens some of these meanings, while others are weakened. But, until now it wouldn’t be a mistake to include scienti¢ c works, journalism, etc. in litera-ture. Nevertheless, at the end of the 18th c., in the perception of the concept it became clear that ¢ ction had the upper hand. At the same time it began to draw away from re-ligious writing. In literary re ̄ections the names of genres appeared: novel, short story, poem, verse, play. The criteria of aesthetic value, which ¢ rst was of importance to the romanticists, continued to be de¢ ned.

literaturesion — brought in by the younger generation, which expressed themselves most in the past two decades, such as Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė, Marius Ivaškevičius, Andrius Jakučiūnas, Herkus Kunčius, Sigitas Parulskis, Kristina Sabaliauskaitė, Rimvydas Stankevičius, Renata Šerelytė, Alvydas Šlepikas. In the period of changes, an important phenomenon is the abundance of essays. An-other clear shift — the interest of readers in lit-erature of fact. The ¢ eld of entertainment lecture materials is expanding. Literature is disclaiming its ideological services, didactics, boosting of its aesthetic purpose. The primary organiser of literary life is the Lithua-nian Writers Union (Lietuvos rašytojų sąjunga). It cares for the professional and social situation of writers, which has established sever-al periodical literature publications, a publishing house and a Writers Club, which or-ganises meetings with writers. The most ambitious annual event is the Poetry Spring, which has been taking place since 1965.This multifaceted Lithuanian literary life seems exceptional, because it, if we were to compare it to world literature, is very young. The ¢ rst Lithuanian book — Marty-nas Mažvydas’ The Catechism — appeared only in 1547. Another amazing feature — the masterfully intricate forms of the works from Lithuania’s literary beginnings. An acrostic is incorporated into Mažvydas’ preface in verse (thus making it the ¢ rst Lithuanian poem): the ¢ rst letters of the 3–19 lines, when looked at vertically, reveal the author’s name. Kristijonas Donelaitas, who between 1765 and 1775 dedicated his life to creative work, wrote the poem Metai (The Seasons) in hexameter, as if Lithuanian literary language and the art of versi¢ cation has been improved on for the longest time. These are signs of great creative energy and rapid growth, which were taken over by later generations.The index of historical growth is in part re ̄ected by the portraits of writers that we could see on the Lithuanian litas banknotes (from 1993). These were Motiejus Valančius (1801–1875), Žemaitė (1845–1921), Vincas Kudirka (1858–1899), author of the Lithuanian national anthem, Maironis (1862–1932), Vydūnas (1868–1953).The period of Soviet occupation was so dramatic, that it cannot be described in just