NOTES ON BELARUSIAN-AMERICAN-ENGLISH LITERARY RELATIONS
Dr. Vitaut Kipel, BINIM
The interrelationships among American, English & Belarusian literatures, the theme of Belarusica in English-language belles-lettres, and that of America in modern Belarusian literature are virtually unexplored despite the plethora of materials available for the analysis. The notes that follow are intended to signal these topics as areas awaiting their researcher.
Belarusica in American Literature
Notions about the poetic aspects of Belarusian folklore appeared in America at the beginning of the 19th century. (Kipel V. Zapisy. No.17, 1983, pp.124-125).
A major twentieth-century literary figure who took notice of Belarusian immigrants in this country was Upton Sinclair. In his classic The Jungle (1906), which inter alia, depicts the life of a Lithuanian immigrants, the author says (p.263): ''One night he was caught by a thunderstorm, and he sought shelter in a little house just outside of a town. It was a working man's home, and the owner was a Slav like himself, a new emigrant from White Russia. He bade Jurgis welcome in his home language, and told him to come to the kitchen fire and dry himself'' (Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York, Viking Penguin Inc., 1985).
Most descriptions of Belarusians and Belarusian scenes occur in literature generated by Jewish authors: this is fully understandable, because many hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants to the United States came from Belarusian territories of Pale.
One of the first describe Belarus and Belarusians was Mary Antin. It is unfortunate that Antin and other Jewish writers use ethnic/geographical terminology that is inaccurate, describing Belarusian writings and individuals with the term ''Russian'', which compounded conceptual and terminological confusion. It somehow escaped many of these writers that, although the Belarusian peasants were Orthodox Christians, they were, like the Jews, also oppressed by the regime. But here and there distinctions were made. Mary Antin wrote: ''When I was a little girl, the world was divided into two parts; namely, Polotzk, the place where I lived, and a strange land called Russia..'' (Antin, Mary. From Polotzk to Boston, 1899. 80 p.; The Promised Land. Boston, 1912. p.8).
Antin was followed by a legion of Jewish writers, poets and playwrights who wrote in Yiddish and English and touched on Belarusian themes. Many of these authors originated in Belarus, among them: the poet Morris Vinchevsky, born in Janava, southwestern Belarus; the playwright David Pinski, born in Mahiliou; the theater critic and story-teller, Bernard Gorin, born in Lida; the major poet and story-teller, Avrom Reyzin, born in Kojdanau; the poet David Einhorn, born in Karelichy; the classical poet, H.Leivik, born in Ihumien (all these localities are in central Belarus); the poet and novelist Chaim Grade, born in Vilnia; the poet Anna Margolin, born in Bielastok. From the Bielastok region, the township of Klashcheli, comes the bard of Belarusian landscapes, Peretz Hirshbeyn; the important literary critic, Shmuel Niger (Charney) born in Dukory; Borekh Glazman, the writer of short stories and commentator on literature and theater, born near Mazyr, and so on (Enc. Judaica, Jerusalem, vol. 7, 1971. p.810; vol.10, 1971, p.1123, vol. 11, 1971, pp.1318-1324, vol. 13, 1971, p.550, vol. 16, 1971, p.154; Ethnic Groups, London, vol. 4, 1982, pp.85-101).
The classical triumvirate of Yiddish literature is made up of Mendele Mokher Sforim, Sholem Aleichem, and Y. L. Perets. Mendele, considered the grandfather of modern Yiddish literature, was born in the town of Kapyl, central Belarus. As one prominent critic of Yiddish letters, A. A. Roback, has noted, ''Mendele originated from White Russia and was looked upon as a Litvak''. Many of Mendele's works touch upon Belarusian themes and people in their relationship to the Jewish population (Roback, A.A. The Story of Yiddish literature. New York, 1940, pp.95-103, 190-362; Madison, Charles A. Yiddish literature. New York, 1968. pp.134-199; Liptzin, Sol. The Maturity of Yiddish literature. New York, 1970. pp.109-115).
The prominent playwright, Leon Kobrin, who was born in Viciebsk, treats Belarusian themes in his famous play, Yanki Boyle, or the Village Lad and in his stories ''A Lithuanian Village'', and ''From a Lithuanian Townlet to a Tenement House'' Kobrin describes the life of Jews and their relations with the local Gentile population, which, although not always harmonious, were often enough amicable, especially where young people were concerned. Kobrin's writings are seasoned with typical Belarusian sayings and reveal his knowledge and familiarity with the life of the peasants among whom thousands of his fellow Jews resided. Belarusian themes are also reflected in Abraham Cahan's The Rise of David Levinsky, and in the first volume of his multi-volume autobiography, Leaves from My Life.
Thus the concept of ''Belarus'' - though often not called by the name - was presented to a broad readership. In many cases, Jewish authors, in writing about Belarusian elements, infused their work with affection and nostalgia for ''the old country''. <...>
As Charles Angoff and Meyer Levinhave written in their book, The Rise of American Jewish Literature: ''Civilization never dies, it only changes its address. In the first two decades of the present century the centers of Jewish civilization moved to America. Vilna moved to New York, Grodno to Philadelphia, and Minsk to Boston''. (Angoff, Charles and Meyer Levin. The Rise of American Jewish literature, New York, 1970. pp.8-9).
The tradition of associating Belarusian themes within English-language literature by American Jewish writers continued well into the last quarter twentieth century. Our outstanding contemporaneous representative of such literature was Maurice Hindus, who referred to his ''native Byelorussia'' in several of his writings (Hindus, Maurice. red bread. New York, 1931; -''- House without a roof. New York, 1961; -''- The Kremlin's human dilemma. New York, 1967).
Literature, however, is only one way in which Belarusian themes and Belarusian-Jewish relations have been conveyed to readers in America. The development of Jewish culture in general in the old country was product of centuries-old friendly and peaceful coexistence between Belarusians and Jews. This fact is unfortunately not often enough underscored.
The experiences of the Belarusian people during the World war II have been depicted by numerous writers. An English writer, Anthony Richardson, features a Belarusian lad as one of his heroes (Richardson, Anthony. No place to lay my head. London, 1957. 254 ). <...>
Events of World War II and consequences of war years depicted also in Australian literature (Keneally, Thomas. A Family Madness.London-Sidney, 1985. 315 p).
Belarusian-American Literature
American writers of Belarusian descent who wrote in Belarusian, began to appear in print at the beginning of the century. The newspaper Nasha Niva, published in Vinia, included two poems by a Belarusian-American, I. Dubovik, in 1909 and 1910. During the 1920s and 1930s there were a few Belarusians in America who wrote in Belarusian (Zapisy, No. 19, 1989, p.90).
A book by Rev. John Tarasevich is especially important because it is the first one to be written by a self-aware Belarusian who records and analyzes the life of a Belarusian-American. He presents vivid impressions of America as compared to the homeland he left behind, after long years of separation. Father Tarasevich became a successful poet and prose writer, contributing to numerous publications in addition to his role as a pastor of a Belarusian parish.
An upsurge of Belarusian-American writing began after post-World War II wave of immigration during the late forties and early fifties. Many well-established Belarusian writers and literary critics in their prime arrived in this wave and made their literary debuts in various publications. These included Natallia Arsenneva, Jurka Vicbich, Uladzimer Dudzicki, Anton Adamovich, Aliaksandra Sakovich, Liavon Kryvichanin, Stanislau Stankevich, Ryhor Kazak (Krushyna), Majsej Siadniou, Michas Kavyl, Janka Zolak, Anatol Biarozka, Janka Shakun, Uladzimier Klishevich, Janka Jukhnavets, Uladzimier Hlybinny, Antos Halina, Hipalit Niamiha, Siarhiej Jasen, Ales Zmahar, Ales Valoshka. Two Belarusian-Canadians were writing in this same time frame, Mikola Viarba, and Kastus Akula. Numerous Belarusian-American poets and writers have created collections of work dedicated to American themes, depicting landscapes, urban life and analyzing problems facing American society and reflecting Belarusian thinking in a new environment. Several of them became bilingual and composed in both languages.
Belarusian in the United States have produced a substantial amount of memoir-type literature, some of which have a claim to literary significance.
Belarusian-American literature is at the present time is a transition stage. Authors who came to US after World War II have either died or are now advanced in years. New Belarusian poets and writers continued to produce works in Belarusian during the fifties, sixties, and seventies, now for the most part in English. It suffices to examine youth publications such as Vici and Byelorussian Youth, to observe that dozens of new authors were published, Vera Zaprudnik, Eva Zemojda, Berni Hutyrczyk, Andrew Gosciejew and others forming a chain of continuity with their Belarusian-speaking and -writing colleagues. <...>
Extracted from ''Zapisy'', No. 20, 1992
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