Uladzimir Karatkevich

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Uladzimir Karatkevich as a student
Cyrillic ( Belarusian )
Уладзімір Караткевіч
Łacinka : Uładzimir Karatkievič
Transl. : Uladzimir Karatkevič
Transcr. : Uladzimir Karatkevich
Cyrillic ( Russian )
Владимир Короткевич
Transl .: Vladimir Korotkevič
Transcr .: Vladimir Korotkevich

Uladsimir Karatkewitsch (born November 26, 1930 in Orsha , † July 25, 1984 in Minsk ) was a Belarusian writer, poet and translator and winner of several state literary prizes, including the Ivan Melesch literary prize for the novel Nelha sabyz ( Leanidy ne wernuzza da Sjamli ) (1983) and posthumously (1984) the Jakub Kolas State Prize for the novel Tschorny samak Alschanski .

biography

Uladzimir Karatkewitsch was born in Orsha in Vitebskaya Woblasz as the son of a civil servant and a teacher. During the Second World War the family had no permanent residence, they were evacuated to Perm , later to Orenburg , and other places of residence were Moscow, Ryazan , the Urals and Kiev. In 1944 he returned to Orsha, where he attended middle school from 1944 to 1949. There he worked on school newspapers and school theater productions. 1949–54 he studied Russian studies in Kiev, where he developed a love for the Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and was almost forcibly de-registered due to “Ukrainian nationalism”. From 1951 the first poems appeared in local newspapers in Orsha and a first version of the novella "Dsikaje paljawanne karalja Stacha" ( King Stach's wild hunt ). In 1952 he sent a booklet with a letter to Jakub Kolas "Kaski i lehendy majoj radsimy" ( Fairy tales and legends of my homeland ), which he later partially revised and published. His diploma thesis in 1954 was entitled “Kaska. Lehenda. Padanne “( fairy tale. Legend. Legend ). He was denied a dissertation and thus a scientific career. After graduation, he taught for several years, first in the vicinity of Kiev (1954–56), later in his hometown of Orsha (1956–58). Karatkewitsch made his breakthrough in 1955 with the poem "Mascheka". From 1955 he was in correspondence with the writer Maksim Tank . In 1957 he joined the writers' association of the BSSR and his first drama "Mlyn na sinich virach" ( Mill on blue swirls ) celebrates its premiere. 1958–60 Karatkewitsch attended literary courses, 1960–62 scriptwriting courses in Moscow. In 1963 he moved to Minsk. In 1967 he met Valjanzina Nikizina, whom he married in 1971. In 1979 he took part in the international Ionesco conference on "Slavic Cultures" in Kiev.

Uladzimir Karatkevich did not have any children.

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Monument to Uladzimir Karatkevich in Orsha

Uladsimir Karatkewitsch was the author of epic texts (stories, short stories, novels, including fairy tales and legends), of poetry (poems) as well as of dramas, essays, essays and translations. The publication of his poem in the Orsha regional newspaper Leninski Prysyu (1951) was followed by his breakthrough as a poet in 1955 with the poem Mascheka in the literary magazine Polymja . Three volumes of poetry followed. From the 1960s on, he mainly wrote epic works (novels, short stories, short stories). His most popular works include the novel Tschorny samak Alschanski ( The Black Castle of Alschany , 1979) as well as the novella Dsikaje palyawanne Karalja Stacha ( The wild hunt of King Stach , 1964), both of which are in the style of a detective story play against a historical background. Due to the structure of many of his texts (for example mostly young characters, elements of the fantastic) and the stories often told excitingly in them, which also deal with interpersonal relationships, the writer still enjoys a very good reputation, especially among young readers. This is promoted not least by a mostly male protagonist who tends to be portrayed as an ideal, who feels obliged to humanism and wants to help justice to victory through his actions in the course of action. This is also expressed, for example, in the hero's behavior towards the female gender, which he is willing to protect, and in a narrative that tends to polarize. In Karatkewitsch's texts, the protagonist is often opposed to an antagonist, an “antihero”. This polarizing representation of his works is often criticized as "black and white painting".

Belarusian history as a subject of literary texts

Uladzimir Karatkevich, who has shown a keen interest in the history and folklore of the Belarusian people since childhood, is considered the founder of the historical novel in Belarusian national literature. In his texts he mainly deals with historical topics and describes ethnological peculiarities and realities from the life of the Belarusians (customs and traditions, celebrations, local color, nature, etc., very detailed descriptions of regions and landscapes).

The story of the Lithuanian-Belarusian uprising of 1863/64 under the leadership of Kastus Kalinouski takes up a lot of space with him , a material that is processed in several genres. His main work is the two-volume novel " Kalasy pad sjarpom twaim " ( ears of corn under your sickles ), which has not yet been translated into German , in which he describes the uprising of 1863/64 against tsarist autocracy from a Belarusian perspective. The focus of the novel is the aristocratic son Ales Sahorski, who, according to an old tradition of his gender, grew up with a family of serf farmers for the first few years of his life and learned to appreciate life and freedom there with supposedly "simple" people . From now on, the protagonist campaigns for the freedom of the peasants and at the age of 18 joins the revolutionary Kastus Kalinouski, who does not appear here as a historical person but as a figure of a literary work of art. In the novella Sbroja ( The Weapon , probably 1964) the novel plot is continued with the story of a procurement of weapons for the fight against the rulers, whereby the novel and the novella can also be read independently of each other. The focus of the drama Kastus Kalinouski (1963) is the freedom fighter himself.

Historical themes dominate the writer's oeuvre. This also applies to many poems and prose texts, including some fairy tales in which he addresses the past of the Belarusian people and draws on images and motifs from Belarusian folklore. In addition to the uprising of 1863/64, this is the Second World War , as in the novella Lisze kaschtanau ( Kastanienlaub , 1973), the action of which is set in the contested and almost depopulated Kiev of 1944 and in which a group of children of different social and national origins is on The madness of the ongoing war. The novel Nelha sabyz ( One mustn't forget , 1982) takes place 20 years after the Second World War, but the protagonist who falls in love with a married woman is not only caught up with the recent past, because the beloved dies of the late effects of someone War injury, but its own family roots go back to the Lithuanian uprising: a novel not only against historical forgetting, but also against the suppression of the historical past and its own origins and at the same time a plea for an appropriate culture of remembrance.

In this respect, Karatkewitsch's oeuvre represents a dense network of language rich in images and historical precision.

Volumes of poetry

  • "Matčyna duša" ( Mother's Soul , 1958),
  • "Viačernija vietrazi" ( evening sail , poems and a poem, 1960)
  • "Maja Ilijada" ( My Iliad , 1962)
  • "Byŭ. Josc '. Budu ”( I was, am and will be , poems and poems, 1986, published posthumously).

Narrative collections

  • "Blakit i zolata dnia" ( The blue and gold of the day , 1961)
  • "Čazenija" (1970)
  • "Voka tajfuna" ( The Eye of the Typhoon , 1974)
  • "Z viakoŭ minulych" ( Since ancient times , 1978)

Novels

  • "Kałasy pad siarpom tvaim" ( The ears of corn under your sickle , 1968)
  • "Chrystos pryziamliŭsia ŭ Harodni" ( Christ rose in Hrodna down , 1966)
  • “Čorny zamak Al'šanski” ( The Black Castle of Alšany ), published together with the novella “Zbroja” ( The Weapon ), 1979
  • "Nel'ha zabyc '" (Leanidy ne viernucca da Ziamli - One must not forget (The Leonids will not return to earth), 1960, not until 1982 in book form)

Novellas

  • "U sniahach dramaje viasna" ( Spring sleeps in the snow , 1957, publication only posthumously in 1988)
  • "Sivaja lehenda" ( The gray legend , 1958; for this opera of the same name in 1971, premiered in 1978)
  • "Cyhanski karol '" ( Gypsy King , 1958; published 1971)
  • "Dzikae paljavanne karalja Stacha" (1964; on this 1979 film adaptation; 1985 German translation: "König Stachs wilde Jagd"; 1989 ballet of the same name)
  • "Zbroja" ( The weapon , probably written in 1964)
  • "Lis'ce kaštanaŭ" ( chestnut leaves , 1973)

Children's literature

  • "Kazki" ( fairy tale , 1975)
  • “Biełavieskaja pušča” ( The Biełavieža Primeval Forest , sketch 1975).

Dramas

  • "Mlyn na Sinich Virach" ( The mill with blue swirls , 1957; performance on television 1959)
  • "Zvany Viciebska" ( The Bells of Vitebsk , 1974)
  • " Kastus Kalinouski " (1963)
  • "Kalyska čatyroch čaraŭnic" ( The Birthplace of the Four Witches , 1982)
  • “Maci ŭrahanu” ( The mother of the hurricane , 1985; about this 1990 feature film by J. Maruchin).

Scenarios for short films

  • "Sviedki viečnaści" ( Witnesses of Eternity , 1964)
  • "Pamiac 'kamnia" ( The memory of the stone , 1966)
  • "Budz 'ščaslivaj, raka" ( Be happy, oh river , 1967)

Screenplays for feature films

  • 1967: Chrystos pryziamliŭsia ŭ Harodni
  • 1973: Čyrvony ahat
  • 1980: King Stach's wild hunt (Dzikaje palavannie karalja Stacha)
  • 1984: Čorny zamak Al'šanski

Essays, journalism, literary criticism

Only after Karatkewitsch's death did the short story collection "Staryja bielaruskija chroniki" ( Old Belarusian Chronicles ) appear in 1988 .

Some performances based on Karatkevich's works have been broadcast on television and radio. According to his libretto, the opera “Sivaja lehienda” ( Gray Legend , composer Dmitry Smolski, 1978) was performed in the Belarusian Opera and Ballet Theater and, based on his novella “Dzikaje palavannie karala Stacha”, the opera of the same name by Uladsimir Soltan (1989).

Karatkevich also frequently worked as a translator . He translated individual works by Lord Byron , Adam Mickiewicz and others into Belarusian . v. a.

Editions of works and translations

  • Uladzimir Karatkevič: Zbor tvoraŭ u vas'mi tamach, 8 volumes, Minsk 1987ff.
  • Uladzimir Karatkevič: Tvory: Proza - dramaturhija - publicystyka, Minsk 1996
  • Uladsimir Karatkewitsch: King Stachs wild hunt, translator Ingeborg u. Oleg Kolinko. Berlin: Verlag Neues Leben 1985
  • Uladsimir Karatkewitsch: Land under white wings, transl. Uladsimir Tschapeha. Minsk: Junaztwa Publishing House 1983
  • Uladsimir Karatkewitsch: On the blue and gold of the day. Translated by Hans-Joachim Grimm. In: Norbert Randow (ed.): Storks over the swamps. Belarusian narrator. Berlin: Volk und Welt 1971, pp. 408–420

Literature on Uladzimir Karatkevich

  • A. Verabej: Uladzimir Karatkevič: žyccë i tvorčasc ', Minsk 2005
  • A. Rusecki: Uladzimir Karatkevič: Praz historyju ŭ sučasnasc ', Minsk 2000
  • A. Mal'dzis: Žycce i ǔznasenne Uladzimira Karatkeviča: Partrėt pis'mennika i čalaveka, Minsk 1990

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Karatkewitsch, Uladzimir
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Караткевіч, Уладзімір (Belarusian); Karatkievič, Uładzimir (Łacinka); Karatkevič, Uladzimir (transliteration of Belarusian); Короткевич, Владимир (Russian); Korotkevič, Vladimir (transliteration of Russian); Korotkewitsch, Vladimir (transcription of Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belarusian writer and poet
DATE OF BIRTH November 26, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Orsha
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1984
Place of death Minsk