Paper Short Abstract:

Writer Juris Rozītis (born 1951) spent his childhood in Australia before moving to Sweden as a student. His parents fled Latvia for Germany after World War II to escape Soviet occupation, later relocating to another country where labor was needed. In response to their circumstances, Latvians formed diverse communities and embraced the concept of exile to preserve a shared collective identity. After Latvia restore independence in 1990, these communities had the opportunity to return to the homeland they had left behind. In his novel "Kuņas dēls" (The Son of the Bitch, 1995), Rozītis explores the complexities of double identity through mythological characters. His parents maintained the belief that the country, where he was born, was not his "true" homeland; rather, it lay elsewhere. This quest for belonging unfolds as a creative journey through the cultural landscape of exile and a return to Latvia. Disappointment in the ideals of exile society, the confrontation with a devastated homeland, and a young person's search for identity and belonging.

Paper Abstract:

Latvian post-exile writer Juris Rozītis (born 1951) is author of two novels that contribute to the genre of displaced person literature. Raised in a Latvian immigrant family in Australia, he grew up listening to his parents' tales about Latvia. This magical and supernatural world of folklore significantly influenced his first novel, "Kuņas dēls" (The Son of the Bitch, 1995), which explores a young man's struggle to integrate into Australian Latvian society. The protagonist begins his search for identity upon visiting Soviet Latvia for the first time. The novel offers a satirical look at the community dynamics, hierarchy, and the young hero's efforts to embrace his Latvian heritage. The novel was published after Latvia restore independence in 1990, it is a time when exiled writers were often regarded as Others. During this time in a Soviet postcolonial framework met two different writing cultures: one rooted in post-Soviet experience and the other in post-exile narrative. As Gayatri Spivak points out, to regain lost self-respect, othering takes place in postcolonial societies; it is necessary to strengthen one's identity and the branding of others. Whatever the markers that mark the line between us and them – race, geography, ethnicity, economy, or ideology – there is a danger that they become the basis for self-affirmation, which depends on the denigration of the other group. Same-and-othering, the groups that receive some attention in the cultural sphere are the new immigrants (sometimes unjustifiably conflated with exiles, refugees, diasporic, and postcolonial in the former colonies).