Adrese Pasta iela 3: Liepājas kultūridentitātes metafora (1950–1980)

Abstract

The study aims to identify and evaluate the main aspects of the formation of Liepāja literary and cultural environment in the 1950s–1980s. The location of the editorial office of the city newspaper “Komunists” (“Kurzemes Vārds”) at Pasta Street 3 is of great importance to the creative cultural space of Liepāja. The Association of Young Writers was founded there in the 1950s. The editorial office becomes a gathering place for young writers, actors, musicians, and artists, a cultural space for an active, creative life. Landscape identity can be viewed as a spatially unique psycho-sociological perception of a place defined in cultural space. The theoretical and methodological basis of the article is the theoretical studies on place identity and cultural memory issues by Maria Levicka, Bas Pedroli, Jan Diek van Mansvelt, William P. Stewart, Derk Jan Stobbelaar, Astrid Erll, and others. The article concludes that many talented personalities – journalists, writers, artists, etc. – worked in the newspaper’s editorial office during the time researched. Many writers and journalists, later recognised in Liepāja, the region, and throughout Latvia, started their literary activities in the Association of Young Writers. Many of them experienced their first publications in the literary pages of the newspaper “Komunists”. Many of them were also engaged in the newspaper as journalists. A close relationship is formed between the physical environment and, under its influence, the strong attachment to the creative community. Despite the ideological direction of the political era and the limitations of the creative process, thanks to the favourable, sometimes even open-minded, supportive, and trusting atmosphere prevailing in the editorial office of the newspaper “Komunists”, the cultural and literary life of Liepāja rapidly developed and improved, and has become an important indicator of the city’s cultural identity.