Diglossia as a Strategy. Viktar Martsinovich’s Literary Work and Posture

Abstract

This article investigates Viktar Martsinovich’s writings within the context of literary debates in Belarus. Positioning the discussions concerning Belarus’ national literature between the Belarusian nativist and the Russophile literary fields as the results of hegemonic struggles, I stress their discursive violence. Imposing a logic of equivalence based on (mono-) linguistic and ethnic particularisms, both discourses fail to represent the constitutive plurality of Belarusian culture. Martsinovich dissociates himself from this approach. Borrowing Jérôme Meizoz’s term “external posture”, I illustrate Martsinovich’s self-representation and self-positioning as a diglossic Belarusian-Russophone writer. Martsinovich writes in Belarusian and Russian and allows his books to be translated in both directions, creating a metaliterary dialogue which reflects the literary conflicts in Belarus. Further, he pursues particular (meta-) linguistic strategies in his texts. Russian and Belarusian allow him to achieve different effects. In Mova (2014), he stresses the performative political potential of Belarusian by “implanting” Belarusian words on a Russian matrix. In The Lake of Joy (2016), he uses Russian for a critical and realistic representation of today’s Belarus. My analysis of these strategies in the two novels will illustrate Martsinovich’s concept of a ‘Belarusian Russophone literature’ and show its importance in undermining both nativist and Russophile positions.