SOCIO-CULTURAL DISCOURSE OF HYBRID TEXTS: THE CASE OF LATVIAN LITERATURE

The origin of a hybrid text is to be found in the domain of contact of various cultural texts, languages, art forms and genres. The characterization of literary hybrid texts provide insight into the interconnections of historical and cultural processes and the developments in philosophy, aesthetics, religion and psychology of the era, as well as into the readership's segments and the demand in different periods of history. New forms of text creation develop in the result of (i) the mutual modification of the traditional narrative forms; (ii) the overlap of traditional genres with certain unprecedented forms of innovative aesthetics and philosophy; (iii) the generation of innovative genres and their designations. Genre is a complex, multidimensional and dynamically developing language formation. Its borders are often so vague that it is difficult to understand with what kind of genre one has to deal. It should be clearly understood when working with the genre as an object of literary studies. In the development of Latvian literature there are various projections concerning the modifications of literary genres in the historical perspective. Many writers or publicists arrive at hybrid literature through the forms of essay, memoirs or nonfiction, which are compatible with their willingness to use imaginative expression, to give voice to memories, meditation, emotional and intellectual discoveries. Writers address hybrid forms not only to document current events, their experience or feelings, but also to express themselves creatively. The examples of hybrid texts identifiable in Latvian classical literature testify to the writers' desire to modernize the thematic spectrum of literature and to remodel poetics. In the 20th century the manifestations of hybridity in literature are associated with literary modernism. The formation of hybrid genres in contemporary Latvian literature represents the synthesis of "high" and "low" cultures into the new forms of literature acceptable for both mass and elite readership.