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Abstract:The article addresses the question of colonial interpretation of Latvian secular literature of the late 18 th and early 19 th century. It has been argued recently that because of the colonial language used by contemporaries to describe ethnically determined social relationships between Baltic peasants and the German upper class in the Enlightenment era in the Baltics, it would be possible to expand the understanding of peasant enlightenment by applying to it theoretical approaches of postcolonial studies. Aspects of colonial features in the peasant discourse of the 18 th century Baltics are analyzed in the article by paying special attention to their role in creating the secular writing praxis in the Latvian language.

In the article, the literary works of Baltic German writer Carl Hugenberger have been explored. Anthology of his poetry translations, “Derrigs laika kaweklis” (Useful Pastime, I–II, 1826–1827), has been analysed. The anthology was significant in the emancipation of Latvian literary culture and liberation from moral didacticism as well as the development of the self-sufficient aesthetic value of literature. Thus, the anthology prepared the way for the formation of Latvian national literature in the mid-19th century. Special attention has been turned towards Hugenberger’s translations of poems by Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. Besides, the evaluation and reception of Hugenberger’s works have been explored. The article concludes that despite the innovative role and poetic achievements of Hugenberger’s poetry, it did not gain popularity among wider circles of the Latvian reading public and met criticism regarding the shortcomings in the translation techniques that can be explained by the limits of the underdeveloped Latvian language at the time. The most important episodes in Hugenberger’s biography have been outlined as well as his religious hymns and works of popular enlightenment, including translations of “Schillings-Bücher des Rauhen Hauses”, a book series of German Inner mission, works by Jeremias Gotthelf, August Kotzebue, Gottfried August Bürger et al. Special attention has been paid to previously unidentified originals of Hugenberger’s translations – works by Matthias Claudius, Johann Hinrich Wichern, Heinrich Alexander Seidel, and Adolph Krüger as well as previously underexamined partial translation of Johann Peter Hebel’s “Allemanische Gedichte”. The literary works of Hugenberger have been interpreted within the context of the literary praxis of the late popular enlightenment in the Baltics.

This article concentrates on the representation of Riga in six fin-de-siècle Latvian novels written by Augusts Deglavs, Jānis Poruks, and Andrejs Upīts. The relations between the country and the city were changing significantly at the time due to growing social mobility in the Baltic littoral. However, in this paper we also argue that to a considerable extent the descriptions of Riga preserve principles previously employed by Latvian writers who tend to focus on minute descriptions instead of mapping a broader territory. The representation of living conditions in Riga thus fluctuates between true-tolife episodes and the recycling of certain stereotypes that determine the overall perception. More specific elements enter into literary texts in two ways. First, as psychological close-ups become more nuanced, they suggest closer links between fictional characters and carefully depicted milieus. Secondly, in our last example we discover an ideologically conscious effort of Latvian identity construction as the author, Deglavs, promotes the necessity of mapping Riga as the symbolic national capital, thus summarising and transforming ideas already implicit in earlier representations of the city.

In this article, the work in Latvian literature by Baltic German pastor Konrad Schultz has been explored within the context of the development of Popular Enlightenment ideas during the early 19th century. Schultz belonged to those Latvian-writing authors whose works were characterized by variety of themes and genres: from short stories and poems to essays, popular scientific and practical economic articles. Most of Schultz’s literary works were published in newspapers “Latviešu Avīzes” (Latvian Newspapers) and “Tas Latviešu Ļaužu Draugs” (The Friend of Latvian People). Special attention in the article has been turned towards social themes in Schultz’s works – characterization of Latvians in the essay “Latviešu tauta” (Latvian nation), comments on Germanization and upward social mobility, the celebration of the agricultural work, reflections upon aims and reception of enlightenment. Further, correspondences by Schultz on current events in Linde and Birzgale area as well as cultural, historical and ethnographical sketches about the river Daugava have been explored. The short prose fiction works by Schultz have been analyzed within the context of traditions of enlightenment didactic literature, and their originals in German literature have been traced. In the closing part of the article, Schultz’s “Kurzemes stāstu grāmata” (Book of Courland’s Stories) – the first book on Latvian history in Latvian – has been analyzed by turning attention towards Schultz’s understanding of history as well as aims of popularization of history and interpretation of Christianization and other historical events.