A new encyclopaedic publication has been prepared by an authors’ collective and edited by literature specialist, Head of the Culture Theory and History Department of the Latvian Academy of Culture Raimonds Briedis to mark the centenary of the Republic of Latvia.
The book is a comprehensive chronological and encyclopaedic overview of the events in the cultural space of Latvia over ten centuries. Like an archive of values it reveals the diverse and rich cultural layer on which the Latvian state and society were formed. It begins with the time when ice melted in Baltic lands till 1918 when the Republic of Latvia was proclaimed. The purpose of the publication is to promote interest in the history and culture of Latvia, to update the phenomena associated with the overlapping of different cultural fields, and to encourage research on topics that are still unnoticed and little known.
The target audience includes not only researchers but also students, teachers, cultural journalists, writers, etc., as well as anyone who would like to see an event or personality in the context of their time and to better understand the place of culture in the development of society.
The format of synoptic tables is utilised in the book, offering a simultaneous survey of the course of history, social and culture events, permitting synchronism and concurrency of specific processes, and at the same time marking their place in the bigger picture. Emphasizing the simultaneity and consistency of events, the facts are arranged in the columns: EVENTS (historical, political, social), ENVIRONMENT (emancipation of the society), SPACE (architecture, spatial objects), OBJECTS (visual and applied arts, art life), WRITINGS (literary life and writing), PLAYING (theater and music life, cinema, entertainment). VOICES, or people's statements that describe the specific times and events, are involved as the ornament in the chronicle text.
The book is supplemented with person and place indexes.