The Interdisciplinary Possibilities of Literary and Visual Creation: The Case of Jurga Ivanauskaite

This article deals with the phenomenon of Jurga Ivanauskait? (1961-2007), considered to be one of the most interdisciplinary and poly-sided Lithuanian women writers and artists. As an artist, as well as a writer, she was impressed by the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Peter Bruegel, and modern surrealists works, such as those of Salvador Dali, Paul Delvaux, Giorgio de Chirico, and especially René Magritte. She felt a deep closeness with the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. The main thesis of this study is that, mainly, the encounter with modern Western visual art allowed the writer to break the rules of the established limits of national Lithuanian literature and escape the closeness of the Soviet block mentality and create the new paradigm of “town literature†, based on openness to the world and experimentation. Mainly, an interdisciplinary upbringing encouraged Ivanauskaite to search courageously for new modes of expression in literature and visual painting, as well as in her life style.