ABSTRACTS This thesis is concerned with the psychological prose by Regīna Ezera. The first chapter gives an insight into the writer's personality. The chapter also outlines the situation in Latvian literature in the period from the restoration of Soviet occupation at the end of World War II throughout the 1990s. The following two chapters are devoted to the analysis of specific Ezera's works, namely three works that were translated into the Czech language (The Well, Aka, 1972, Summer Lasted for Just One Day, Vasara bija tikai vienu dienu, 1974, A Man Needs a Dog, Cilvēkam vajag suni, 1975) and some works that have not yet been translated (Smouldering Fires, Zemdegas, 1977, A Dragon's Egg, Pūķa ola, 1995 and some short proses included in the book The Princess Phenomenon, Princeses Fenomens, 1985 especially so-called zoological novellas and so-called crazy stories). The fourth chapter contains a translation of the short story called August, Month of Apples, Augusts, ābolu mēness included in the book The Princess Phenomenon. The translation is the original work by the author of the thesis. In the final chapter the main features of analysed works are summarised.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera Grebzdes novellsamling Bergen enligt Michail Bachtins kronotopteori. Jag baserar min kronotopmodell, som uppstår i Bergen, enligt de modeller som utvecklats av litteraturvetaren Juris Rozītis. Romanerna, vilka undersöks av Rozītis behandlar tiden efter andra världskriget i flyktingläger och hur flyktingarna upplever de första åren utanför sitt gamla hemland Lettland samt hur de bosätter sig i det nya landet. I denna uppsats tänker jag gå ett steg längre än Rozītis, eftersom jag ska analysera hur flyktingarna, dvs. novellernas karaktärer, lever i det nya landet. / I have analyzed the collection of Irma Grebzde's short stories "Where the Mountains Meet the Sky", published (in the Latvian language) in 1962 in New York, USA, and found that the times and venues in Grebzde's narratives correspond to the chronotope models developed by literary historian Juris Rozītis for novels written in the immediate post-Second World War years. I have expanded upon the Rozītis' models, and created a new model called "Alone in the New Country". This new model describes and positions Irma Grebzde's short stories in Canada - the new country. It also places the parallel space of Latvia, now occupied by the Soviets - outside the immediate circle of the abstract external chronotope, since in Grebzde's short stories, the old homeland no longer has such a dominating function.

This dissertation presents an analysis of the genre of conceptual novel created by the Latvian novelist Alberts Bels. Specifically, it deals with four novels that have been translated into the Czech language: The Investigator (1967), The Cage (1972), The Voice of a Herald (1973) and Insomnia (1987); however, the author focuses predominantly on People in Boats (1987), a novel that is yet to be translated and is regarded to be one of Bels's most accomplished novels. The selected extracts, translated by the author of this dissertation, are representative of the nature of Bels's work as well as of his artistic and personal contribution to the Latvian literature and culture in general. The dissertation focuses on literary interpretations of the selected works and treats them with regard to the period of their conception, because themes such as 'individual' and 'nation', 'time' and 'stream of history', human and ethical values and, above all, moral decline of an individual and of the entire society on the background of political and cultural development in Latvia become central in Bels's conceptual novels. Their conceptuality lies mainly in their highly compact form, through which Bels voices his philosophical ideas, implicit in the overtones of his novels.

In the years immediately following the Second World War, the main part of Latvian literature was produced by writers living outside Latvia. To this day Latvian literature continues to be written outside Latvia, albeit to a much smaller extent. This study examines those Latvian novels, written outside Latvia after the Second World War, which depict the realities of the early years of exile. The aim of the study is to describe the image of the world of exile as depicted in these novels. Borrowing from Bakhtin's concept of the chronotope, images relating to time and space in these novels are examined in order to discern a mental topography of exile common to all these novels - a chronotope of exile. The novels are read as part of a collective narrative, produced by a particular social group in unordinary historical circumstances. The novels are regarded as this social group’s common perception of its own experience of this historical reality. The early years of exile fall into two distinct periods: first, the period of flight from Latvia and life in and around the Displaced Persons camps of postwar Germany; second, the early years of settling in a new country of residence after emigration from Germany. A model of the perceived world is constructed in order to compare these two periods, as well as their divergence from a standard perception of oneself in the world. This model consists of various time-spaces radiating concentrically out from the individual – ranging from the physically and psychologically near-lying time-spaces of one’s personal and intimate life, through everyday social time-spaces, as well as formal societal time-spaces, to the more distant abstract and conceptual perceptions of one’s place in the universe. Basic human concepts such as home, family, work, intimate relationships, social administration, and most notably the homeland – Latvia – are plotted at various points within these models. Divergences between the models describing the perception of time and space in the two early periods of exile thus become apparent.