On April 4, 2024, Baltic Studies Kazickas Associate Research Scholar Dr. Viktoras Bachmetjevas delivered a talk titled “On the Aporias of Victimhood: The Case of Lithuania”. The event was sponsored by the Yale Baltic Studies Program and took place in Rosenkranz Hall.
Dr. Bachmetjevas opened the talk with a personal anecdote, recounting his youth in Lithuania, then part of the Soviet Union, and conceptions of victimhood and forgiveness in his own formative years. He then illuminated several key theses in the book Forgiveness by French philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch, whose work helps inform Dr. Bachmetjevas’s current research.
After also highlighting some themes related to forgiveness articulated by philosopher Jacques Derrida, Dr. Bachmetjevas outlined his own arguments, exposing the inherent contradictions that mark ideas of victimhood in the Lithuanian case. He maintained, for one, that by refusing to accept the label or identity of victims (of the Soviet authorities), Lithuanians possess greater agency to dictate a path forward in terms of national identity.
Through the end of his time at Yale, Dr. Bachmetjevas will continue work on his primary research project, which investigates the early influences of Emmanuel Levinas, both historical and intellectual.