Autonomy, market and ideology in the Belarusian literary field of the first third of the 20th century and at the turn of the millennium

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Gun-Britt Kohler
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 253403835

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

The project has shown that Belarusian literature developed between 1906 and 1932, as well as between the end of the 1980s and 2019, in repeatedly changing, complex political, economic and ideological configurations. Within these configurations, which the sub-projects meticulously worked out, Belarusian literature is embedded in each case in a field of power, which himself has a specific (sometimes emergent, sometimes precarious, sometimes apparatus-like) status. One result of the project is that Belarusian literature can be seen as a ‘laboratory’ of usually historically and/or areally distant field conditions and is therefore of great interest for further research. In all the configurations studied, it is evident that the social universe and the field of power are dominated by ideological (and not primarily economic) purposes – but the literary market as well (which does not cancel out market mechanisms and market strategies, but does diminish them). In line with this, it can be stated that the dichotomous structure (mass production vs. limited production; economic profit vs. symbolic recognition) assumed in field theory is only weakly developed in the field and market of Belarusian literature in some phases, or, in other phases, runs along a primarily ideologically profiled dividing line. This is relevant because, as the research has shown, the primacy of ideological (initially of national) purposes anchored specific practices, convictions and standards of value in the logic of the field (as, e.g., principle of corporation, national commitment; alliance between author and reader; symbolic recognition as the ‘usual’ form of recognition; positive valuation of the ‘mass reader’), which must be taken into account when evaluating expressions of autonomy on an institutional and poetological level. In this logic, manifestations of L'Art pour l'Art do not contradict the ‘national idea’, an elitist understanding of Art does not distance itself from the ‘mass-reader’, economic rather than ‘merely’ symbolic recognition is explicitly demanded, among others. With regard to ‘small’ literatures, these findings provide potential for reflection on the flexibilisation of the common indicators of (primarily aesthetic-poetological) autonomy − taking into account the specific logic of the field-(status) in question. Perhaps even more important, however, is the conclusion that can be drawn from the finding, that Belarusian institutional autonomisation processes are eminently non-linear: namely, that the analysis of institutional processes is of decisive importance for the analysis of the specific autonomisation of a ‘small’ literature. These processes on the institutional level reveal field conditions that usually remain excluded in the field model.

Publications

• Rėkanstrukcyja litaraturnaha rynku peršaj trėci XX stahoddzja: stvarėnne simvaličnaha praduktu i pravily "handlju". In: I.F. Štėjner u.a. (Hg.), Spadčyna I. Ja. Navumeki i aktual'nyja prablemy litaraturaznaŭstva, Vypusk 3. Homel': Homel'ski dzjaržaŭny ŭniversitėt imja Francyska Skaryny, 56-68. ISBN 978- 985-577-230-0
  Koler, Gun-Bryt & Navumenka, Pavel
  
• Die zeitgenössische belarussische Literatur und ihr 'Markt' im Spiegel des Verhaltens (potenzieller) Leser. In: Adamczak, Katarzyna et al. (Hg.), Zwischenzeiten, Zwischenräume, Zwischenspiele. Ergebnisse des Arbeitstreffens des Jungen Forums Slavistische Literaturwissenschaft 2017 in Hamburg. Berlin, 125-140. ISBN: 9783631784785
  Kromm, Kristina
  
• Literatur zwischen Ideologie und Markt. Zur Nachfrage im belarussischen Literaturfeld zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. In: Adamczak, Katarzyna et al. (Hg.), Zwischenzeiten, Zwischenräume, Zwischenspiele. Ergebnisse des Arbeitstreffens des Jungen Forums Slavistische Literaturwissenschaft 2017 in Hamburg. Berlin, 89-100. ISBN: 9783631784785
  Pakhomchyk, Natallja
  
• "...Das Sehen, Hören auf diese Welt einstellen". Die belarusische Literaturlandschaft von innen und außen. In: Thomas M. Bohn; Marion Rutz (Hg.), Belarus-Reisen. Empfehlungen aus der deutschen Wissenschaft. Harrassowitz Verlag: Wiesbaden, 137-152. (ISBN 978-3-447-11559-9)
  Kromm, Kristina
  
• Cykly pradukcyi na belaruskim litaraturnym rynku. In: Štejner, Ivan (Hg.), Rehijanal'nae, nacyjanal'nae i ahul'načalavečae u slavjanskich litaraturach. Minsk: Junipak, 118-139. ISBN 978-985-6802-95-2
  Kromm, Kristina & Pachomčyk, Natallja
  
• Materyjaly da analizu belaruskaha litaraturnaha rynku. Struktura, papjarednyja vyniki, litaraturna-histaryčnyja perspektyvy. In: Štejner, Ivan (Hg.), Rehijanal'nae, nacyjanal'nae i ahul'načalavečae u slavjanskich litaraturach. Minsk: Junipak, 92-117. ISBN 978-985-6802-95-2
  Koler, Gun-Bryt & Navumenka, Pavel
  
• Insights into the Belarusian Literary Market (1905-1932). In: Ricerche slavistiche, S. 127-152. ISSN 0391-4127
  Kohler, Gun-Britt
  
• Konstruktion und Suspendierung. Die belarusische Nationalliteratur im ersten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts. In: Berliner Debatte Initial 32/2. S. 74-86. (ISBN: 978-3-947802-72-2; ISSN: 0863-4564)
  Kohler, Gun-Britt
  
• Umkämpft: Das zeitgenössische belarusische Literaturfeld aus institutioneller Perspektive. In: Berliner Debatte Initial 32/2, 87-100. (ISBN 978-3- 947802-72-2; ISSN 0863-4564)
  Kromm, Kristina
  
• „Kollektivierung als Zerstörung. Literarische Repräsentationen des Dorfes Ende der 1920er / Anfang der 1930er Jahre (Kaljuha, Čorny, Krapiva). In: Ananka, Yaraslava; Heinrich Kirschbaum; Magdalena Marszałek (Hg.), Heu auf dem Asphalt. Topoi belarussischer Selbstverortungen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (=Die Welt der Slaven 67), S. 93-144. SBN 978-3-447-11648-0
  Kohler, Gun-Britt