Toward a postcolonial perspective on the Baltic states

Abstract

My purpose is to examine the paradoxical nature of the postcolonial designation when it is applied to the Baltic states. While the occupation by the Soviet Union can be seen as a colonial enterprise according to the most basic definitions of colonialism, the case of the Baltic countries is yet to be considered as relevant in the context of an ever-expanding field of postcolonial studies. In this sense, I argue, the Baltics have been doubly victimized: first, by the outcome of WWII and second, by the ideological effects of the cold war. It is the testimony of literature, I suggest, that makes a convincing case for applying a colonial perspective to the experience of the Baltic peoples. The novels of the Latvian author Alberts Bels, for example, evoke most tellingly what it felt like to live inside the cage of Russian colonialism and chronicle present-day attempts to cope with its aftermath.

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