Teaching and Researching Belarusian Literature in the UK

Teaching and Researching Belarusian Literature in the UK Dr Svetlana Skomorokhova Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick, UK S.Skomorokhova@warwick.ac.uk

Belarus is...?

“For many travellers, Belarus is a lot like that carton of spoiled milk at the back of the fridge – everyone knows it’s bad, but they want to smell it for themselves”. • Visit Belarus “if for no other reason than stepping back in time to an era [...] all but lost in the modern world” (Russia, Ukraine and Belarus: Lonely Planet Guide, 2003).

“An isolated country dominated by a single, ruthless leader, Belarus is Europe’s last modern dictatorship.” • “Belarus exists outside of modern European norms, frozen in time by a tyrannical regime that fooled its citizens into thinking a new leader would grant their freedom.” • Brian Bennett, The Last Dictatorship in Europe: Belarus Under Lukashenko, Columbia Uni. Press, 2012, dust-jacket)

Arise from the depths, thou of falcon-born race, O’er sires crosses, their woes, degradation, O young Biełarus, come thou forth, take thy placeOf honour and fame among nations. JankaKupala, Young Biełarus(1906-1912) (translated by Vera Rich)

Many people outside of Belarus have asked the present writer, ‘Is Belarusian literature any good?’, to which the answer is always an emphatic yes, a belief underpinned not only by my experience, but as much as anything by the many promising young writers who are still coming forward, apparently undeterred by the cold climate (McMillin 2010, xxi)

Мы сабеўстракатасціпрыкрас • У сусветнымбачымсямаштабе. • Верш сатканызбеларускіхслоў, • Родных спраў круг закранаевузкі. • У перакладзе на любую змоў • Гінецалкамаўтарбеларускі. • Не жывём у гушчы мы падзей, • Штопраходзяць на вачахзаўсёды. • Не жывём мы справамілюдзей, • Мы ўжоадарваны ад народа. • (Shved 1990, 90)

“Literatures written in languages that are less widely spoken, will only gain access to something that could be called ‘world literature’, if they submit to the textual system, the discursive formation, or whatever else one wants to call it, underlying the current concept of ‘world literature’. They have, in other words, to create something that is analogous to some element of ‘world literature’ as it already exists”. André Lefevere, The Gates of Analogy: The Kalevala in English, in Constructing Cultures, 1998, p.76

Teaching and Researching Belarusian Literature in the UK