Праблема аўтабіяграфізму ў творчасці Янкі Брыля

Abstract

Autobiographism is a very important context and a building material for the works of Yanka Bryl (1917–2006), a classicist of Belarusian literature, an essayist, and a translator. The literary works of this outstanding writer, due to his acclaimed literary output and lasting importance in the recent history of Belarusian literature and culture, deserve special attention, especially in Poland because his biography and works were inscribed permanently in the Belarusian-Polish cultural and literary associations. Yanka Bryl’s childhood passed on the lands which, as a result of the Treaty of Riga of 1921, became a part of the Second Polish Republic. For the works of the writer the equally important moments in his biography were his service in the Polish Army, fighting in the defense of Oksywia in 1939, and the subsequent intense contacts with the Polish literary circles. His knowledge of Polish and passion for reading Polish classics were reflected in the works of Yanka Bryl. An integral part of his works are the translations of Polish literature (translations of works by, inter alia, Maria Konopnicka, Boleslaw Prus, Tadeusz Różewicz, Leon Kruczkowski and others). Polish themes keep coming up in memoirs and other statements about Poland, its culture and literature, long-term personal contacts with Polish writers and translators. They are also present in the form of reminiscences and fleeting motifs in many stories, tales and short prose pieces. In Poland several volumes of Yanka Bryl’s translated prose were published, although some of his great things remain still completely unknown for Polish readers or known only to specialists. This book “The problem of autobiographism in the works of Yanka Bryl” is an attempt at monographic presentation of the life and creative path of Yanka Bryl and his place in Belarusian and European culture. Biographical determinants of the works of this outstanding writer are thesubject of the analysis of the dissertation. However, since autobiographism penetrates almost all of his works, it is not possible to analyze the whole issue in the context of this one work. For this reason, in the dissertation, we devote our attention to the analysis of these works in which the process of shaping the autobiographical character is most fully expressed. In the dissertation autobiographism is understood as a feature of a creative method, as a form of creative expression, which in the literary work presents the facts taken from the author’s life, his thoughts, feelings and beliefs. It can manifest itself in the work in a variety of ways, interalia, in compliance of outlined events and characters with the reader’s knowledge about the author’s biography, a narrator’s or a hero’s membership of the same generation, the way of narration. Unfortunately, almost to the second half of the fifties Belarusian literature, for the well-known socio--political and ideological reasons, could not in principle turn to personal experiences or give preference to individual worldview. The indication of transformations, which took place after the so-called “thaw”, was a return of writers to autobiographical statements. Yanka Bryl’s turn in the mid-sixties to autobiographism was a clear sign of approaching the new spirit of the times. Not without reason Yanka Bryl today is regarded as the precursor of the Belarusian lyrical prose. In the first chapter entitled “Childhood in the works of Yanka Bryl: the presentation of the author’s «I»” an attempt was made to demonstrate in what way autobiographism manifests itself in stories “Orphan’s bread” 1942–1956, “In the family” 1943–1955, “Dawn, seen from a distance” 1978 and in the novel “Lower fairy tales” 1975. We focused attention to the factors that influence individual stages of the formation of the character of a young man and in what way the author is showing them. Childhood and early youth years, as shown by Yanka Bryl, become a pretext for deliberations about the role of mother, country dwellers, school and teachers and, finally, the first literary efforts. We emphasized that in his works the writer presents images of children, who under the influence of difficult personal and social experiences gain psychological maturity. In the second chapter entitled “A novel «Birds and nests»: the specificity of the imaging system” the lyrical novel “Birds and nests” (1964) – the only one in the current Belarusian literature – is analyzed in terms of genre, style and theme. In the novel the writer goes back to the memories of war: service in the Polish army and participation in the defense of Gdynia in 1939. In his magnum opus Yanka Bryl also talks about the years of childhood and early youth, about entering the mature life and the first literaryexperiences of the main character – Ales Runiewicz. We also emphasized that Yanka Bryl is not interested in a chronological record of events, but a man himself. The purpose of the writer is an attempt to reconstruct the progressive development of personality and states of mind of the main character. Also, we drew attention to the role of lyricism and the presence of Polish themes in the novel “Birds and nests”. Moreover, we undertook the comparative analysis of the novel “Birds and nests” and a drama “Germans” by Leon Kruczkowski. Both of these works brought at that time a new perception of the so-called “German problem”. The third chapter entitled “Poetic miniatures of Yanka Bryl: genre-thematic specificity” was devoted to the analysis of short prose works (prose miniatures, poetic miniatures), which the writer practiced during the last forty years of his life, if not during the entire period of his creativity. We concentrated on the evolution of the genre of prose-poetic miniature: the writer begins by ephemeral records of his observations, reflections and thoughts about everyday life and gradually delves into general humanissues – creativity, passing of time, death and destiny. We emphasized the importance of personal experience of Yanka Bryl on his formation as a writer and on the ways of using these experiences in lyrical prose. Yanka Bryl’s autobiographism has its origin in his life experience, which is also shared by his entire generation. Conducted analyses and interpretations concerning the evolution of Yanka Bryl’s artistic works allow you to specify the features of the writer’s individual style and genre specificity of the discussed works. The autobiographism of the analyzed works relates to the elements of the presented world, the occurrence layer, as well as the inner sphere – very valuable for the great writer – feelings, sensations, thoughts, and emotions of the hero. Yanka Bryl perceived a man as an entity valuable in itself, who is trying to discover and understand the mysteries of our own existence. Hence, the plot in his works is generally secondary to the main objective, which is to present the inner world of the hero. In his works, novels, tales and stories, as well as lyric miniaturesthe writer relies on the memory material, which is modified: introduces elements of fiction, violates the chronology of events, emphasizes the importance of certain episodes, and uses the porte-parole. Recalling memory images, constant repetition of certain themes and motifs created a unique opportunity to the author of “Birds and nests” to carry out a kind of reinterpretation of his own life, to analyze his own destiny in order to, raising individual life and fate to the generalized life and fate of his generation, pass this experience to the next generation, to cheer the hearts, and for remembrance. Analyzing Yanka Bryl’s artistic works we meet not only with the narrator and the characters, but also with the real man, who is behind the literary structure of the work. The literary works of Yanka Bryl are a source of inspiration for subsequent generations of authors and literary scholars. Findings made in this dissertation can be a starting point for further research of Yanka Bryl’s works. [Translated by Alina Suchowilska-Geniusz]