Kostas Korsakas

Korskas Kostas May 5,1909 Vilnius,Lithuanian literayologist,poet,translator. Father of Ingrida Korsakaite (Lithuanian art critic). Full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences(1949).Habilaged worker ( research fellow in humanities philology 1965).1928-30 imprisoned for communist activities.In 1931-40 he studied at the Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Humanities. Collaborated in left-wing media (Culture, Third Front, Literature, Prošvaistė), 1933-41 Culture magazine editor. He approved the incorporation of Lithuania into the USSR. From 1940 to 1941 he headed Elta, the state publishing house. At the outbreak of the USSR-German War, he retreated to Russia, publishing anti-Hitlerian poetry, publishing, and editing the almanac Victory (2 books 1943-44). After returning from 1944-45 he headed the Lithuanian Writers' Union, from 1944-57 he taught at Vilnius University (1944-45 Dean of the Faculty of History and Philology); professor (1948). 1946-84 Director of the Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature (until 1952 the Institute of Lithuanian Literature). Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the LSSR in 1947-63 and 1975-80, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council in 1959-63 and 1975-80. One of the most famous of the 20th century. Representative of Lithuanian critics and sociological interpretation of literature of the 1930s. Following Russian revolutionary and Soviet critics (V. Belinsky, G. Plekhanov, V. Friesian , V. Vorovsky , I. Macos) regarded literature as a reflection of life and as an expression and weapon of class struggle and Marxist art theory. In literary criticism and history articles and studies (Collections of Literature 1932, Criticism 1936, Writers and Books 1940, Literature and Criticism 1949), he advocated the creation of revolutionary attitudes and realistic forms, and decadent in his work on the general problems of the human being. K. Korsak's literary criticism is characterized by thesis, polemical tone, categorization of thought, rhetorical speaking, but also by insights of artistry, poetic expression, and accurate descriptions and evaluations of style. During the Soviet years, he mainly researched the history of literature, writing about the first Lithuanian. book (outline Lithuanian Book 400 Years' Road 1948), M. Mažvydas , K. Donelaitis , Maironis , Samogitia , Julius Janonis (biographical description by Julius Janonis 1951), S. Nerija , Mr. Cvirka (book Petras Cvirka in Life and Creativity 1953), A. Vienuolis and other writers, published comparative works (Literary Friendship 1962). He was one of the authors and editor-in-chief of the History of Lithuanian Literature (4 vol. 1957–1968; LSSR State Prize 1969 with others), consolidating the periodization of the development of Lithuanian literature, the one-sidedness of writers' evaluations and creative interpretations. Next to the ideologized conjunctural texts, he left valuable studies of old and modern Lithuanian literature. The poetry of the war and post-war years (Collections of the Law of War 1943, Birds Returning 1945) is characterized by socialist ideas, motives of nature, longing for abandoned homeland, and cultural reflections. Later on (1969 collections, November 1979), the civic tone was changed by skepticism and irony, the thought of the meaning of life, and the sentiment of old age and death. He translated Latvian authors Akuraters Jānis,Kaudzīte Reinis,Kaudzīte Matīss.Italian Lugi Pirandello ,Finnish Johannes Vihtori Linnankoski works.

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