The novel and its narrator
Jurgis Kunčinas’s Tūla was first published in 1993. Its fictional world belongs to the late Soviet period in Vilnius. The unnamed narrator recalls his relationship with Tūla while moving through the city. Publication date and fictional setting therefore need to be kept apart: a novel published after the end of Soviet rule can look back on life under that system.[1][2]
In Gintarė Bidlauskienė’s analysis, the protagonist is a philologist without a job or home, whose knowledge of Vilnius allows him to wander through it. His social position matters to the routes and encounters the novel presents. He should still be read as a fictional narrator, rather than treated as an unfiltered statement by Kunčinas about his own life.[2]
Seeing the city and moving through it
Bidlauskienė’s 2019 study distinguishes the close view of streets from wider panoramas. A nearby pavement and a distant cityscape offer different kinds of information. Her argument is that these changes of viewpoint also affect the narration: they can immerse the reader in an immediate encounter or allow connections across a larger space.[3]
Walking supplies another connection. The protagonist’s steps link places, while encounters and interruptions redirect the story. Bidlauskienė follows a journey that includes a visit to the narrator’s former wife and child before the meeting with Tūla. The detour brings recollection and reflection into the route. A map could mark the locations, but it would not by itself preserve the time spent narrating them.[3]
A landmark in place and memory
The Bernardine Church and the area around Tūla’s home have a recurring role in this reading. Bidlauskienė treats the church as both a visible city landmark and a point around which the narrator’s memories gather. The place helps connect physical orientation with the repeated return to Tūla. What matters is where it appears in the telling, as well as where it stands in Vilnius.[3][2]
The 2019 study also examines the studied edition’s Užupis illustrations by Valentinas Ajauskas and references in the novel to Juozapas Kamarauskas’s watercolours. This draws attention to the relationship between words and images. It does not mean that every translation or later edition contains the same illustrations.[3]
Reading in English
The Lithuanian Culture Institute records an English translation by Elizabeth Novickas, published by Pica Pica Press in 2016 under the title Tula. When following scholarly page references, check the edition: the Lithuanian novel used by a researcher and the English translation need not have matching pagination.[4]
As you read, ask what prompts each return to the past. Does a location lead to a memory, or does a memory change the meaning of a location? Notice when the narrator moves, looks back or addresses Tūla. The companion article on Soviet Milk offers another case in which the arrangement of voices matters to a story about the past.
References
Sources accessed on 6 November 2026. The locators below identify the relevant passages.
Lithuanian Culture Institute. 2018. Jurgis Kunčinas. Lithuanian Culture Institute. Institutional author and edition record. Accessed 6 November 2026.
Locator: Tūla edition description: first edition 1993.
Gintarė Bidlauskienė. 2022. Creating Urban Heterotopia: Užupis in the Focus of Literature and Film (Tūla by Jurgis Kunčinas and Ten Minutes Before the Flight of Icarus by Arūnas Matelis). Acta Baltico-Slavica, 46, pp. 1 to 18. DOI: 10.11649/abs.2741. Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. Scholarly journal research article. Accessed 6 November 2026.
Locator: PDF p. 4, The cityscape in Tūla: Užupis as bodily experience. PDF pp. 4 and 7, unnamed protagonist, occupation, homelessness and narration. PDF pp. 5 to 6, Bernardine complex and narrative memory.
Gintarė Bidlauskienė. 2019. Jurgio Kunčino Tūlos Vilnius: nuo miesto praktikų – prie teksto strategijų / Vilnius in Jurgis Kunčinas’s Tūla: From Urban Practices towards Textual Strategies. Colloquia, 43, pp. 127 to 145. DOI: 10.51554/Col.2019.28642. Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. Scholarly journal research article. Accessed 6 November 2026.
Locator: pp. 133 to 136, Vilniaus erdvės patirtis žvilgsniu. pp. 137 to 139, Žingsniais užrašyti maršrutai and movement between places and memories. pp. 140 to 142, Orientyrai romano erdvėje ir laike. pp. 142 to 143, visual paratext and Kamarauskas references. Source language: Lithuanian, with English summary. English paraphrase.
Lithuanian Culture Institute. 2016. Tula: supported translation record. Lithuanian Culture Institute. Institutional translation catalogue record. Accessed 6 November 2026.
Locator: Central translation record: title Tula, original Tūla, translator Elizabeth Novickas, publisher Pica Pica Press, year 2016.