Maija Burima THE MENTAL TOPOCHRONE OF LATGALE IN THE RECENT LATVIAN LITERATURE Summary The present article marks the dominant tendencies in the Latvian literature of the turn of the 20 th and 21 st centuries, particularly emphasizing the specific features of spatial depiction in it. The cultural space of Latgale has a specific place among the depictions of the space of Latvia. The mental topochrone of Latgale in a number of Latvian writersí works is featured as a specific religious and national historico-cultural zone. This kind of representation of Latgale is marked in the works of three Latvian writers of the early 21 st century. Inga ¬bele in her travel description ëAustrumos no saules un ziemeÔos no zemes. Dienasgr‚matas un ceÔojumu aprakstií (To the East from the Sun and the North from the Earth. Diaries and Travel Descriptions, 2005) takes up the subjective representation of RÁzekne, Dagda, and Daugavpils. Pauls Bankovskisí novel ëSekreti. Pierobe˛as romanceí (Secrets. A Borderland Romance, 2003) depicts an old-believer family of Latgale against the background of the historico-cultural border zone of Latvia, its people and their life-stories in the course of history. Andris Bergmanisí novel ëKaili uz MÁnesceÔa. PoÁma. Ne tikai erotiskaí (Naked on the Moon Road. Poem. Not Only Erotic, 2000) sketches the tradition of Aglona pilgrimage and its experiences of facing an ëotherí, ëdifferentí culture space, profanated by the author in opposition to the canonized notions. The novels with the inherent topochrone of Latgale analyzed in the present article reveal that Latgale in the recent Latvian literature is most often depicted as a multina- tional, multilingual, multireligious culture zone, ëthe othernessí, ëstrangenessí, ëunfa- miliarityí of which embarrasses, scares, or surprises Latvian writers and readers. Key-words: historico-cultural zone, topochrone, Latgalian culture zones, Latvian literature, regional discourse in literature, Old-Believers, otherness * The early 1990s is an important turning point for the former Soviet countries. Regaining of the independence of Latvia is associated in the peopleís consciousness with a distinct border situation entailing the evaluation of the previous life, its review, and simultaneously a hopeful and questioning outlook is directed to the future. Latvian literature of the post-awakening period is marked by several tendencies that have continued up to the turn of the 20 th and the 21 st centuries. They may be divided into two basic streams: 1. Reviewing the past: ñ return of the émigré and inter-bellum period authorsí writing who were banned in the Soviet period;