MODERN BELARUSIAN AND UKRAINIAN LITERATURES: ‘SMALL’, ‘INCOMPLETE’ OR FRACTAL STRUCTURES OF THE ‘BIG’ EUROPEAN LITERATURES

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The development of Ukrainian and Belarusian literatures has many common features: from the historical point of view and from the contextual point of view. There is a rather long period of their development (till Baroque) in historical perspective, in which it is very close, and in many aspects even common and united. From the contextual point of view, from the end of 18 th to the beginning of 21 st century the tendencies of their development have many common features which are formed by historical, political, economical circumstances. Among such contextual common features there is undoubtedly the influence of Belarusian and Ukrainian literature till the 18 th century on the forming of Russian literature, transferring through them the impact of Western European literature and culture onto Russian literature (basically through Polish literature) 1 . Simultaneously, from the beginning of 19 th century, Russian literature began to displace Belarusian and Ukrainian literature to outside of cultural life. We mean the conscious destroying of Belarusian and Ukrainian culture by Russian state factors. A striking example of such imperial treatment is the Valuyev and Emsc circular which was trying to level any attempts of publishing works of art in Ukrainian on the territory of the Russian empire (even the writing of notes) 2 . In “The History of Ukrainian Literature” Dmytro Chyzhevskyi came to the conclusion that till the beginning of the 19 th century this literature is ‘incomplete’ 3 . We could say same about Belarusian literature. Such ‘incompleteness’, however, is not a negative definition. There is no genre completeness in these literatures, because several genres did not develop at all during this period, due to political, social end economical circumstances.