A Morning with a Literary Scholar: Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska on Uncomfortable Latvian Literature

Literary scholar Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska will give a lecture, “Uncomfortable Latvian Literature: Authors and Texts in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s,” at Krimulda Community Centre. Free love, the struggle against “kulaks,” and an assassination attempt against Kārlis Ulmanis—what do these seemingly unrelated topics have in common with Latvian literature? The answers can be found in Latvian Soviet writing of the 1920s and 1930s, which is less well known today. The lecture will explore a peripheral and contentious part of Latvian literary history: the work of Latvian authors in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. Particular attention will be given to writers whose lives and work were closely connected with Vidzeme, including Alvils Ceplis, Oskars Rihters, Linards Laicens, Roberts Eidemānis and Konrāds Jokums. Their works reveal not only the influence of Soviet ideology, but also literary experimentation, social provocations and unexpected perspectives on Latvian history.

Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska, PhD, is a literary scholar, a researcher at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, and a senior expert at the University of Latvia’s Digital Humanities Centre. In 2025, she earned her doctorate with a dissertation titled “Narratives in Latvian Prose in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s.” Her research interests include 20th-century Latvian literature, especially Latvian writing in the Soviet Union, as well as autobiographical texts and digital humanities.

In 2026, “A Morning with a Literary Scholar” focuses on the theme “In the Shadow of the Canon: Less Visible Writers in 20th-Century Latvian Literature,” offering a research-based perspective for a broad audience on the contributions of 20th-century writers whose reception has been interrupted or has yet to become established. Some lectures are devoted to literary figures connected with Vidzeme and the cultural space of Vidzeme, linking literary history with local belonging, memory and the region’s cultural identity. The series was prepared in collaboration with the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia. The series content was created by Eva Eglāja-Kristsone. Video recordings of the lectures will later be available on the Facebook page and YouTube channel of the Sigulda cultural centre “Siguldas devons.” Please note that photographs and video recordings will be taken during the event.