For Belarusian literature, the 1990s were a time of liberation from the rigid corset of the Soviet literary tradition, in which only certain themes and forms were permitted. In the transition period, new forms and unusual combinations of genres proli...
More
Ostap Slyvynsky
Dictionary of War
Dictionary of War
After the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian poet and translator Ostap Slyvynsky decided to "lend his voice" to the people who shared their war experience with him. The many voices, distilled with...
More
Svetlana Alexievich
The Unwomanly Face of War
Svetlana Alexievich's documentary text, written in 1983 and published in Russian in the Soviet Union in 1985, is about women who fought in the Red Army during the Second World War but who have not become part of the collective memory. They tell the a...
More
Valjancin Akudovič
Rustle of Silence
Valjancin Akudovič is one of the central figures of the Belarusian rebirth of the transition period, whose representatives were concerned with national self-determination, overcoming the colonial legacy and establishing Belarusian culture. “The time...
More
Surveys at the zero point
Bilingual thematic booklet (German/Belarusian) on contemporary independent art and culture in and from Belarus following the series of events organised at Leipzig University and the European University Viadrina from May to July 2021. In the form of e...
More
Zmicier Vishnioŭ
I am the meat that Zmicier has prepared
In his novel about the exile existence of a Belarusian writer in Berlin, Zmicier Vishniou moves between autofiction and fantasy and builds a branching labyrinth that spans different worlds: The deceased friends from Belarus visit the narrator in Berl...
More
Minsk School (Almanac)
Since the 2000s, Dmitry Strotsev has been publishing the "Minsk School" almanac in order to pass on the work of the non-conformist Belarusian authors of the 1970s and 1980s. The main language of the almanac was initially Russian, the language of thes...
More
Kacia Chekatoŭskaya
The Last Breakfast
The Last Breakfast (theatre texts)
The volume includes six plays: Mastectomy, The Last Breakfast, Discreet, Half a Year, Gorgons, Theatre. In each play, Kacia Chekatoūskaya takes a close look at those different forms of violence and control th...
More
Zbych Slupoŭsky
Kinship
Kinship (satire novel)
The novel's characters are part of multiple generations that go through upheavals and catastrophes throughout history: Revolution, collectivisation, war, collaboration, the Holocaust, moving out of the villages into the...
More
Ihnat Abdziralovič
The Eternal Way
The Eternal Way (Адвечным шляхам)
Right at the beginning of this essay, written in 1921, Belarus is presented as “the border between East and West”, a culture without distinct contours. Kančeŭski sees the tragedy of the Belarusian nation in th...
More
Volha Hapeyeva
On Fluffy Paws
Belarusian-language poetry for children is still mainly in traditional rhymed forms. The poet Volha Hapeyeva derives from this the adults' fear of the diversity of poetry and sets herself the goal of showing even the smallest readers how different po...
More
Aliaxey Talstou
Errors and Gaps
In his book Errors and Gaps, Aliaxey Talstou deals with the big issues of the present: the connection between information technologies and human consciousness, the instrumentalisation of history by authoritarian regimes, the effects of capitalism....
More
Zmicier Vishnioŭ
Unsubordinated
The cultural "zero point" situation, the ongoing severe repression in Belarus against everyone and everything that is not acceptable to the government, and the war were and are associated with a radical professional and biographical break for Vishnio...
More
Iryna Herasimovich
Unsolved Equations
As a freelance translator and cultural mediator, Iryna Herasimovich has been travelling between the German-speaking and Belarusian cultural spheres for many years. It is no coincidence that in times of unrest she is repeatedly asked to comment on eve...
More
Tanya Dzivakova and Vera Burlak
Language Games
The artist and educator Tanya Dzivakova and the poet, translator and doctor of literature Vera Burlak are developing language games for children in Belarusian, a language that is coming under increasing pressure in today's Belarus. Many children left...
More
Julia Autz
While I was waiting (2017-2019)
Alexander Lukashenko has ruled Belarus for almost 30 years. A generation has grown up that does not know its homeland without the authoritarian president. What does it mean to grow up under these circumstances? What is it like to live in a country wh...
More
Mikhail Gulin
The Great Majority
In this book, the artist Mikhail Gulin tells the story of the largest animals on our planet, those currently living and those already extinct. He doesn't just tell the story, but he also puts them in relation to each other: What is big? Big, heavy, p...
More
