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Based on the literary and cultural material, the article discusses two functions played by the term of emigrantology as a legacy of three waves of Russian emigration in the 20th century. The term was introduced by Lucjan Suchanek to the research space of Slavic emigration. It has systematized the area of intellectual and scientific self-reflection (including literary studies, historiography, philosophy and theology, and cultural studies), which developed in the community of Russian emigration. Additionally, the term provides modelling of the need for interdisciplinary and in the nearest future trans-disciplinary studies on the complex cultural phenomenon of Slavic emigrations. In this particular context, the article presents major research directions and achievements of Russian studies in Poland.
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The situation of heterotopia naturally appears in the areas in which multinational cultural and historic context creates premises for ambiguous choice of interpreting the message text, i.e., the areas where the common interpretative convention does not exist. Such premises have been a typical peculiarity of some parts of Central Europe, since the moment of the formation of national civilization structures up to the present time. In frontier areas the relations between centre and periphery are more complicated than the binary centric model “centre – outskirts” which presupposes reproducing the messages of the centre in terms of outskirts. The article deals with the application of the concept ‘heterotopia’ to the field of metric and semantic analyses of rhythmically ambiguous and semantically vague texts. As an example N. Aseev’s poem “Pliaska” (“Folk Dance”) is under consideration. The poem is of interest due to its rhythmical characteristics, as well as to its content and lexical choice, including that of proper names, which indicate the author being influenced by poetical and historic realia of Balto-Slavonic border areas (“kresy” in the Polish language). The poem is analysed in a wide context of Slavonic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian and Polish) poetry. The paper also touches upon a Slavonic versification universalia, the so-called hexasyllabic verse consisting of two (rarely three) phonetic words. Such type of verse in the context of Russian poetry is usually regarded as exclusively Ukrainian by its origin and as a bright sign of stylization of this kind. The article proposes another interpretation of hexasyllabic verse, namely as a sign of Balto-Slavonic heterotopia.
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The author considers the phenomenon of the images of the Belorussian in the works of modern Slavic writers. The following structural components of its paradigm are analyzed: auto-images (images of Belorussians in Belarussian literature) and hetero-image (images of Belarussians in Polish, Czech and Ukrainian literature), their formal characteristics and inner content, modality and interaction, as well as the functional and strategic significance for the formulation of the principles of national Identity and outline of its boundaries at the time of creation (for auto-images). Taking as an example the works of Karpovich, Topol, Urban, Singaevsky, Andrukhovych and some others texts, the author shows that in the non-Belorussian writers’ works, the images of Belarus and the Belorussians have been generally stereotyped (in Ukrainian and Czech literarture) or grotesque (in Czech literature) or even stigmatized (in Polish and Czech litersture). Such images illustrate the cultural and civilization influences and fix certain typological coincidences between the corresponding literary receptions. The imagological image appears to be an extralinguistic phenomenon, a full-fledged subject of interethnic relations, the modality of which forms the scenario of such relationships and determines the role of the author as their social mediator. The article also compares the image of the Belarussian in classical and modern Belarussian literature. There are examples of postmodern ironic rethinking of Kupala autoreflections in the works of Belarussian poets of the 21st century, attempts to deconstruct stereotypical perceptions of Belarussian realities are demonstrated. There is a connection between the updating of the image of Belarus in the writings of modern Belarussian writers and the intensity of the processes of self-identification in the stream of Belarussian culture of the 21st century.
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The purpose of the article is to present the poetic activity of Joseph Morelowski and his career path as a hardworking educator and student of the Jesuits in Polotsk. Morelowski devoted his life to teaching at Jesuit colleges, the Academy of Polotsk, as well as in the schools in Galicia. He was known as an educator of the youth, a professor of Rhetoric and Poetics, teacher of languages: Russian and French. The testimony of his efforts as the youth educator, the cleanliness of the Polish language and survival of mother tongue at the Time of Partition can be found in his literary work. Daily job as educator and attention to his own poetic work and certainly religious duties were associated with the need to impose him much of discipline. Despite the immensity of work for Morelowski the great importance was the pursuit of excellence in the art of poetry. A large part of his literary works was dedicated to reflection on the writer’s work. Some remarks are also devoted to places of work and rest of the Jesuit because there can also be found poetic ‘documentation’ forms of recreation in his poetry.
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Mass protests in Belarus after the presidential election in 2020 showed all weaknesses of the official propaganda. The monograph characterises the tools of the cultural protest (banners, music, street art, digital forms of resistance), which exposed a deficit of truth in the relations between the government and society. They undermine and ridicule the actions undertaken by the presidential centre as well as the long-term strategy of the official propaganda. Regardless of the political outcome, the 2020 crisis will have long-lasting political, social and cultural consequences. It is an important factor in building the contemporary Belarusian identity.
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The military actions of the 20th century (Revolutions, the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, the war in Kosovo, Chechnya, Iraq) left a terrifying mark on the history. The article discusses traditional and innovative forms of recreating the military context in the Russian and Russophone Belarusian military prose on the example of V. Astafiev and S. Alexievich’s works.
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In the present work we will show how school theatre influenced dramatic works of Simeon Polotsky. Considering him as a founder of drama genre in Russian baroque literature, we will try to demonstrate the importance of school plays in that process (didactic role, elements of rhetoric, and declamation patterns). We will focus on his two dramas in order to examine this influence: Parable of the Prodigal Son, and On Nebuchadnezzar the King. Further, we will examine the importance of Polish and Ukrainian school theatre, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy. Moreover, we will focus on the influence of Catholic and Orthodox religions on Simeon Polotsky’s works through the school theatre.
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Henadz Buraukin is a famous Belarusian poet, translator, and public figure. The main theme of his poetic world is heroic. First, the poet gives much attention to the theme of the Great Patriotic War; secondly, he is in search of a hero – a contemporary man who is honest and conscientious, who works for the benefit of his country; he is also conscious about the topic of Personality and Society. The poet loves his motherland very much; he is devoted to it and poeticizes its image. An elevated humanistic idea runs through the entire creative work of Henadz Buraukin. The poet loves Belarusian nature and glorifies it; it is a source of lyrical feelings for him. Henadz Buraukin also touches upon the problem of land, the man’s attitude to his home and his roots. The study of Henadz Buraukin’s biography and works at the lessons in Russian as a foreign language at the music higher educational institution makes it possible for the foreign students to learn the Russian language and Belarusian culture better; to boost their interest in learning Russian; to help them participate in the cultural dialogue and become highly-educated creative personalities.
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This monograph celebrates the 65th anniversary of Belarusian Studies at the University of Warsaw. It presents little-known facts from the history of the Department of Belarusian Studies as well as the Department’s present-day academic and didactic achievements and directions of its development. Apart from anniversary-related texts, the book feature research articles by Polish and Belarusian scholars, touching on socio-linguistic, anthropological, lexicographic, etymological, dialectological and toponymic questions, in both historical and modern contexts.
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The article refers to the 65th anniversary of the Department of Belarusian Studies at the University of Warsaw. It discusses the beginnings of Belarusian studies in Warsaw and describes the figures of its first researchers, starting with Prof. Antonina Obrębska-Jabłońska. The author also alludes to the contemporary socio-political situation and the importance of academic research in the field of Belarusian studies in this context.
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The article is devoted to the personal names of feature bearers in Belarusian. Over 200 noun derivatives formed by suffixation from adjective and adjectival participle stems were analyzed. The material comes from the author’s file and Belarusian lexicographical sources and scientific works. The lexical corpus is presented according to the most productive word-formation types, including names with the suffixes -ец // -эц // -ац; -ак // -як and -iк // -ык. The study is conducted using descriptive and statistical methods. The derivatives selected for the analysis were classified according to two groups of meaning (names of people according to external and internal features) and then described from the point of view of word-formation structure. The study that in the analyzed lexical units, the (qualitative) feature underlying the derivation process acquires intensity, which leads to the blurring of any other (potential) personal features expressed in the referent. Some derivatives have a stylistic (expressive) character. The collected material proves that the suffix has a semantic and/or stylistic function and that the derivation itself is mutational.
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The sexual and corporeal vocabulary of the Belarusian language is still extremely taboo and euphemized. At the academic level, however, it remains underdeveloped due to primarily extralinguistic factors, such as the ideological and moralistic attitudes of the Soviet and now Belarusian society. At the level of the history of language, literature, folklore, as well as on the example of modern Belarusian dialects, sexual vocabulary is actively used and developed. This gap is especially evident during teaching and translating into Belarusian. The article attempts to explain the gap between practice and theory and suggests ways out of the impasse.
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The article presents the figure of Edvard Pjatrovič Cynhiel, a Belarusian regional activist of merit for the Belarusian minority in Latvian Latgale. Born in 1913 in the village of Cynhiele near Indra, he graduated from, among others, the Belarusian gymnasium in Daugavpils and courses for teachers of Belarusian schools. After returning from exile in Siberia, he worked as a teacher in Krāslava and in a village school, supporting the Belarusian national movement.
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The article analyses the first examples of the systematic use of the Belarusian-language version of toponyms in the mass media from 1906–1907: in the Vilna (Vilnius) newspapers "Nasza Dola" and "Nasza Niwa". Some of the forms of toponyms used in these weeklies are the same as contemporary ones: Брэст, Вілейка, Віцебск, Глыбокае, Гомель, Гродна, Заслаўе, Магілёў, Мікалаеўшчына, Мінск, Навагрудак, Полацк, Рагачоў, Смаргонь, Стоўбцы and others. At the same time, other forms of the names of some of these settlements appear, borrowed both from the Russian language or spelling tradition: Вітебск, Глубокае; and from Polish: Брэсць, Вітэбск, Гродно, Магілеў. The names Ашмяна, Смаргоні, Стоўпцы may be derived from Belarusian-Polish linguistic practice. The town of Маладзечна is referred to only in the form Маладэчна. The name Менск appears in the first Belarusian newspapers only in 1906, sometimes in parallel with Мінск, and from 1907, only Мінск is used. The formation of the “national pattern” (the term introduced by the Belarusian researcher Iryna Haponienka) of Belarusian toponymy in the first Belarusian-language newspapers reflects the complex process of the formation of Belarusian national identity. This process was significantly influenced by Polish, but above all by Russian. This explains the similarity of the forms of many toponyms in "Nasza Dola" and "Nasza Niwa" in 1906–1907 and in contemporary Belarusian literary language, which, in turn, underwent a strong Russification after the reform of spelling (in fact, grammar) in 1933, as well as the official change of the form Менск to Мінск in 1939.
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The article deals with the Belarusian Latin script in the second half of the 19th century, which the author analyses on the basis of the first illegal newspaper in the Belarusian language, "Mužyckaja Praŭda". The paper focuses on the realization or non-realization of akan’e and jakan’e, two important vocalic phenomena. Significantly, the newspaper was published during the pre-orthographic phase of the Belarusian language, which was characterized by a great inconsistency in orthography. The article aims to note the distribution of the realization and non-realization of the above-mentioned phenomena and in this way trace possible trends in the evolution of Belarusian orthography. In a corpus-based analysis, the two phenomena are studied according to parts of speech, which allows exploring whether phonetical (or even morphological) criteria might have influenced the realization of akan’e and jakan’e in "Mužyckaja Praŭda".
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The subject of research is the Belarusian subdialect from the town of Krynki (Podlaskie Voivodeship), which was analyzed lexically. The words for analysis were taken from the conversations with the residents of Krynki recorded by the author in 2020. These people have known the local subdialect since they were children. As for the subdialect itself, it is used in Podlasie (in the modern sense; historically, this region would be called Lithuania). In previous centuries, Podlasie was also populated by Baltic tribes, which affected local subdialects as well. The analysis showed that the dominant part of the vocabulary in this subdialect is of indigenous (Belarusian) origin. The next biggest group are loanwords from Polish, of which there are 185. (The words chosen for the analysis – 247 in total – were characteristic of this subdialect and/or nonexistent in literary language. In some cases, a word was assigned to several groups because it was impossible to determine its etymology). Besides words of Polish origin, words of Russian (22), German (6), Romance and Latin (3) origin were identified. The largest group of loanwords came from the Polish language, which makes sense, given that Krynki are located in Poland. Other loanwords are evidence of contacts with other nations, but it should be emphasized that the dominant part of the vocabulary remains indigenous, i.e., Belarusian.
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The article addresses the problem of the modern preconditions for the formation of the Belarusian nation. Among the open questions investigated by the author are the identification of the period in which the specific collective identity of the population settled on the territory of today's Belarus emerged, as well as the study of historical and cultural factors that may have influenced their national identity. As proposed in the article, the inhabitants of the territories of today's Belarus did not begin to consider the Grand Duchy of Moscow as a separate political entity until at least the 15th century: similarly, it is possible that they did not perceive themselves differently from the Ruthenians of Ukraine before the 17th century. It was only with the Chmel'nyc'kyj uprising and, in particular, during the war between Muscovy and the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation (1654-1657) that the peoples of the Belarusian and Ukrainian regions of Ruthenia began to exhibit significant differences in their interests, values and cultural peculiarities. The long-standing membership of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the historical interaction of the Slavs with the Baltic peoples helped shape many specific traits of Belarusian culture and laid the basis for the historical foundations of Belarusian identity as an independent national community. It therefore seems appropriate to associate the creation of the Belarusian nation not only with the Ruthenian identity, but also with the Lithuanian tradition.
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The main purpose of the article is to show the traumatic experiences (the Chernobyl tragedy, the Holocaust) from the animal perspective. To achieve this goal, two prose texts have been compared. Although the texts differ in their narrative strategies, both place an animal protagonist in the center. In the stories Lions by the Belarusian prose writer Ivan Ptasznikau and The Dog written by an Israeli writer of Polish origin, Ida Fink, the animal goes through a painful experience that is close to a human one. These texts fall within the context of the so-called posthumanistics, emphasizing the collectivity of the human and animal lives.
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