Latvian Intellectuals in Australia in the 1950-1980s: Situations of Cultural Frontier

Abstract

The author analyses the problems of frontierism in the development of the Latvian community in Australia. After Latvia was Sovietized, Australia became one of the centres of Latvian emigration. Several Latvian intellectuals who began their careers in independent Latvia after the events of 1940 and 1944 lived in Australia. Others were born in emigration, but they were able to become national Latvian activists. The author believes that the historical backgrounds actualized the frontier features of Latvian identity in emigration. The author believes that “Jaunā Gaita”, one of the leading journals of Latvian in the exile, is an important source that provides historians with opportunities to analyse the main vectors and trajectories of the development of Latvian identity in Australia. The author analyses the poetic and prosaic texts of Latvian intellectuals in Australia. “Jaunā Gaita” became an important source of information on the cultural, song and theatrical activities of Latvians in Australia. It is assumed that Latvian communities in Australia, like Latvians in other countries of emigration, became victims of a gradual marginalization process because they imagined exile as a frontier between different periods of Latvian history. “Jaunā Gaita”, on the one hand, paid special attention to the problems of Latvian youth, because its authors were afraid of assimilation. On the other hand, the journal published poetic and prose texts actively that actualized the main vectors and trajectories of the development of Latvian identity in emigration. Texts of Latvian intellectuals published in “Jaunā Gaita”, actualize various forms and dimensions of identity crisis and transformation of historical memory in emigration.

Keywords

• latvia
• australia
• emigration
• exile
• “jaunā gaita”
• identity crisis
• assimilation
• frontier