Проблема мови в сучасних білоруських антиутопіях

Abstract

The article analyzes the novels of contemporary Belarusian writers "Language" (2014) by V. Martsinovich and "St. Patrick's Day" (2017) by G. Sevyarynets. It was found that the structural core of both novels, their central theme and the basis of artistic conflict is the problem of the status of the Belarusian language in society and its prospects. This problem is relevant in modern Belarusian society and raised in numerous works of art, in journalistic and scientific discourse (V. Akudovich, P. Vasyuchenko, G. Sevyarynets, A. Bakharevich, etc.). The authors use of both realistic stylistics and the method of fantastic assumption is substantiated. It is the method that determines the genre nature and socio-critical issues of both works (novel-warning). Narrative techniques, peculiarities of conflict construction and system of images in novels are analyzed. The realization of gloomy predictions of writers about the death of the Belarusian language as the inevitable finale of the long-term marginalization of its status is due to negative fantasy plots. The authors interpret the problem on an individual level - the protagonists and their path to language / relationship with language, and universal - language as a factor in the existence of the nation, language as a marker of identity, loss of historical memory / loss of language / loss of state. The author's strategies of overcoming the crisis situation related to the peculiarities of the functioning of the Belarusian language in modern Belarus are also singled out. G. Sevyarynets promotes language and literature as an invaluable treasure and heritage of ancestors, which should be carefully preserved, studied, nurtured and multiplied. Instead, V. Martsinovich rejects the classical concepts of the nation and language, positions the works of art written in the Belarusian language as a source of pleasure, "high" (language as a forbidden drug), while still fully accessible to the inhabitants of independent Belarus. The research is an attempt to draw attention to the important processes that are taking place today in Belarusian literature and Belarusian society, but leaves room for further comprehensive poetic, ethno- and sociolinguistic analysis of these texts.