Belarusian literature

Belarusian literature (Belarusian: Беларуская лiтаратура, Bielaruskaja litaratura) is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by speakers (not necessarily native speakers) of the Belarusian language.

Belarusian literature was formed from the common basis of Kievan Rus' literary tradition, which also gave rise to Ukrainian literature and Russian literature. A separate literary tradition of Belarus became apparent only in the 14th-15th centuries. The old Belarusian literature experienced its golden age in the 16th-17th centuries, when the Old Belarusian language was the official language of the Great Duchy of Lithuania. The Statutes of the Great Duchy of 1529, 1566 and 1588, as well as polemic religious literature were all published in Old Belarusian language. Since the early 16th century Belarusian literary works have been printed. The first printed Belarusian book (in the version of Old Belarusian) was Psaltyr, which was printed in Prague by Francysk Skaryna in 1517 (this was the first book to be printed in an East Slavonic language). During the 16th and 17th century poetry and drama (see Simeon Polatsky) appeared in Belarusian literature under the influence of a more developed Polish literature.

Due to the cultural dominance of the Polish language within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian language within the Russian Empire, Belarusian literary tradition was severely damaged in the 18th century. Its renaissance began in the first half of the 19th century, when an anonymous satirical poem 'Taras na Parnase' was published. The first novels in Belarusian have been authored by Pauljuk Bahrym, and several works have been contributed by Polish poets born in Belarus (Jan Barszczewski, Jan Czeczot, Adam Mickiewicz, Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich, Andrej Rypinski). Books were often published in the Latin alphabet (Lacinka), not the Cyrillic, which is the norm today. In the second half of the 19th century there was a rise in the literary tradition of Realism (Francisak Bahusevic, Adam Hurynovic, Jan Lucyna).

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