THE ROLE OF AUTHORIAL SELF-REFLECTION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW BELARUSIAN LITERATURE ( EARLY 20 TH CENTURY )
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
The essay focuses on the development of a new Belarusian literature in the early decades of the 20 th century and the ways Belarusian writers reflected on the perspectives of the national literary development. During this period, literary works to some extent took on the functions of literary criticism and literary studies. The works of the founders of the new Belarusian literature contained ideas about the nature of creative writing and the relation of literature to reality. In 1913, there took place an important discussion on the correlation of the social and aesthetic content in literature. A prominent Belarusian poet Maxim Bogdanovich was not directly involved in this discussion but his prose piece “Apocrypha” was an indirect response to the discussants. This story is written in the form of a parable. It tells about Jesus Christ coming on earth. Christ answers the question of a folk singer whether his art may serve simple peasants who toil in the busy season. Working people need beauty like all the rest of us, says Christ. The artist should not reproach himself for idleness because his work serves people. In many other classical works by Yanka Kupala, Yakub Kolas, Maxim Bogdanovich, and other writers of the early 20 th century, creative process too becomes a subject of self-reflection. The poem “Symon- Musician” by Yakub Kolas shows that the artist’s life experience is a priceless treasure, which is subject to artistic reflection and transformation. Belarusian classical literature that emerged in the early 20 th century thus faced a difficult challenge; it had to outbalance the social orientation of literary works with artistic quests. This task was eventually solved and this experience remains actual and useful in our time.
Authors and Affiliations
E. A. Gorodnitsky
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26140
- DOI 10.22455/2500-4247-2017-2-1-268-283
- Views 275
- Downloads 17
CHILDREN AND JUVENILE LITERATURE OF THE THIRD REICH AS AN INSTRUMENT OF NAZI IDENTITY FORMATION
The article examines the role of children and juvenile literature of the Third Reich in the development of Nazi identity. In German culture of the 1930s, the image of childhood developed during the period of the Weimar...
RUSSIAN FOLKLORE AS A REFLECTION OF NATIONAL CHARACTER IN THE WORK OF BORIS VYSHESLAVTZEV
The essay is focused on the spiritual crisis of Russian culture at the beginning of the 20th Century and on the search of philosophical alternatives to overcome the crisis within the framework of Russian philosophical...
“JOURNEYS OF THE MIND” IN THE RUSSIAN CULTURAL SOCIETY OF THE 1760-S. EDUCATIONAL AND PUBLISHING ACTIVITY OF KHERASKOV LITERARY CIRCLE
This article examines one of the pages of the history of Russian Freemasonry as a philosophical and ideological trend within the circles of reflective minds of the Russian society and its influence on the literary process...
The Natural Sublime Leading to the Human Sublime (on Book 8 of Wordsworth’s The Prelude)
This article seeks to trace the connection between two kinds of the Romantic sublime envisaged in Book 8 of Wordsworth’s great autobiographical poem The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind (1805, 1850). Our focus is pr...
New Admissions to the K.G. Paustovsky Moscow Literary Museum-Center
This is an overview of а new collection received by the K.G. Paustovsky Moscow Literary Museum-Center in 2017, the year of the 125th anniversary of his birth. The collection consists of 366 items. Among them are manusc...