Baltské literatúry: Globálne problémy v lokálnom kontexte

The paper tries to sketch the ways and strategies scholarship in Latvia has chosen in the recent years to look for the answers to the questions whether it is possible to give a systematic description of the development of different cultures and literatures; how they are to be comprehended in their particularities and similarities, their originality and literary and cultural encounters; whether one must proceed from a large encyclopaedic picture then trying to find specific examples in particular cultures which match general models of development, or one should instead concentrate on particular aspects of different cultures and specific case studies in order to look for their possible place in the multitude of cultural manifestations. The paper thus offers a succinct summary of literary studies in Latvia after the re-establishment of national independence in 1991, while keeping in focus the mutual ties of literary studies in Baltic countries.