Rainis and Baltic Intellectual Movements

FAIN: FB-11199-72

Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ 85281-3670)
Rolf Ekmanis (Project Director: June 1972 to present)

To research the career of the poet and playwright Janis Rainis (1865-1929), i.e., to analyse his imaginative reaction to the cultural conflicts of the Russian Empire during the reign of Nicholas II, to determine the essence of Rainis' themes, moral nature, ideology, and to establish a comprehensive system of the different aspects of his literary style. An attempt will be made to place this innovator of modern Latvian ligterature in perspective within the social and literary environment in which he continously moved. Study hopes to increase the understanding of the Lativian writer but also the knowledge of the East Baltic area and thus improve the cultural communication in the Western world. Study will not only be of literary interest but also to persons desiring to find out the causes of the Revolution of 1917.