Editorial board from left to right: Olga Donskaia, Agnė Semėnaitė, Fausta Bauer, Patricija Česonytė, Sofiia Kalenska.
We are thrilled to introduce the inaugural issue of Discourse Magazine! What started as a simple search for a place to publish an essay turned into a student-driven literary platform, bringing together ideas, creativity, and thought-provoking writing.
Letter from the Editors
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Discourse Magazine!
When last April I was looking for a place to publish my essay, I decided it would be easier to create a magazine. I shared this idea with my friends, and we agreed to work on it together. Well, it turned out it creating a magazine is not that easy. I had to write what seemed like a hundred emails (it was probably around 10). And then we had to come up with a name for the magazine. Nothing seemed fitting until Patricija suggested Discourse. We instantly loved it.
The first time I really thought about the meaning of the word ‘discourse’ was in my first year during the Introduction to the Theory of Literature course. I was failing to grasp the concept and even called my father, asking him what it meant. And then I started seeing and hearing ‘discourse’ everywhere — in the texts assigned by professors, in the interviews I watched in my spare time, and in the discussions, I had with my family and friends. Discourse was everywhere, I just never noticed. It is probably the main feature of discourse that it eludes recognition while being omnipresent. It is born through communication — be it a dialogue, a heated debate, or a full-on argument — and it fashions communication at the same time.
The ways Discourse Magazine we think and talk about certain subjects and even the subjects we talk or don’t talk about are shaped by discourse. We find ourselves in a double position ofconstructing discourse and being constructed by it.
With this in mind, we wanted to create a discourse that would be shaped by students’ ideas and creativity and, in turn, spark new ideas and artistic expressions among students. That is how and why Discourse Magazine was born. In this issue, you will find three sections comprised of students’ writings — Prose, Poetry, and Translations. As you read each piece, look for the way it engages with the world around us, explores the language, and take notice of what questions it asks or maybe attempts to answer. That is what the creative discourse of Vilnius University students looks like.
We are incredibly grateful to each of our authors who contributed to the magazine — without you, it wouldn’t exist. We are also thankful to our lecturers and professors who contributed to the Bookshelf section, in which you will hopefully find an exciting book to read. Special thanks to the Faculty of Philology for supporting this idea and to all those who played a part in bringing it to life. Your help and dedication mean so much. And to our readers — thank you for picking up these pages — we hope you will find here something that truly resonates with you.
Sofiia Kalenska, Editor-in-Chief
Read the first issue here.
