| Abstrakt: |
Jānis Veselis in his urban novel "Dienas krusts" (1931) pays close attention to the human body focusing on what is known nowadays as the unity of its physical and social manifestations. Though Veselis could not have known and used modern social theories of the human body, it is very interesting and productive to analyse his novel using this framework. Along with the unity of the physical and social body, one of the main premises is how much it defines the individual identity of a modern person. The novel "Dienas krusts" vividly exemplifies what sociologist Chriss Schilling states in his book "The Body and Social Theory" (1993): "Instead of being the natural base of society, the body is the outcome of social forces and relations". Veselis had been interested in human body, especially that of a woman, in his previous writings where he often used gustatory metaphors (most often sour and bitter) to describe the physical condition of a woman's body and also her character and attitude to her environment. Sour and bitter (or bitterish) woman usually meant not only plumpness but also resentment about life and loss of interest in other people. Bitterness and sourness mean also loss of appeal in the eyes of other people, especially the opposite sex. In the novel "Dienas krusts", Veselis studies two young, good-looking, and ambitious people, Austra and Viktors, who are lovers but end their lives in deadly confrontation ignited by mutual jealousy and challenging each other. Both characters are very conscious of their beautiful bodies - they tend to them, they keep them fit, they enjoy them. Their bodies are perfect embodiments of their characters - Austra is polite, energetic, and caring, while Viktors uses his strong, fit, and appealing body to flirt with women. Viktors is very aware that a strong body is as much a result of hard and regular work as are a developed mind and artistic inclinations. The young couple illustrates what Chriss Schilling describes in his book "The Body and Social Theory": "Social relations may take up and transform our embodied capacities in all manner of ways but they still have a basic in human body". Austra and Viktors know how different their bodies are from the early aged bodies of Austra's parents and Viktor's foster parents and those of many other people in the streets of Riga who have experienced hard life and World War I. The difference in their attitude and attention they pay to their bodies mark also a change in a generational paradigm -- the new generation will treat their bodies (very) differently as compared to the way their parents used to treat theirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
