Plenary lecture on the portrayal of K. Barons in biographical literature

On 31 October 2025, the annual “Krišjānis Barons Conference,” organized by the Archives of Latvian Folklore, was dedicated to the earliest textual corpora of Latvian folklore—their creators and their reinterpretation today using methods made possible by modern technologies.

Marking the 190th anniversary of Krišjānis Barons, an important figure of the First Latvian National Awakening and editor of the Latvju dainas, the conference’s plenary lecture focused on the interpretation of this prominent cultural figure’s life in biographical literature.

In her lecture, Ginta Pērle-Sīle, researcher at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, compared works written in different periods—the facts they include or omit, the contextual information added by the authors, and the details that shape the narrative about Krišjānis Barons. The comparison shows that in all the examined works, the authors tend to heroize Barons, portraying him as an exemplar of selflessness, a strong sense of mission, and remarkable work ethic. At the same time, within the broader literary process, such an approach positions these works more as realist novels and less as documentary literature.

The lecture was prepared within the project “Recovering Latvian Realism: Literary Innovation as a Search for Identity” (LZP 2024/1-0341).