Alphabet
Belarus is located between the Eastern and the Western civilizations, Catholic and Orthodox beliefs, as well as Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Originally, Belarusian language was recorded in Cyrillic alphabet. Then, since 16th century Belarusian language started to be recorded in Lacinka (Latin script) until 1850s – when it went back to Cyrillic. Alphabetic changes reflect the diverse political and cultural changes in Belarus. A shift from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet happened with the increased power of Poland and Polish language within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. However, when the Kingdom of Poland fell apart and Belarus ended up under Russian Empire, Russian rulers banned Latin alphabet, fearing that it might prevent Belarusians from embracing Russian identity. Even though Belarusian intellectuals were still using Lacinka under Russian Empire, when Soviets came to power, Latin alphabet totally vanished from Belarusian language.
After the USSR collapsed, the interest in Latin alphabet came back together with the wave of Belarusization. Now, in a country with two official languages, Russian and Belarusian, a modified version of Lacinka is used for transliterating local geographic/street names. Also, people who choose to speak Belarusian in the country where more than 80% of the population speaks Russian, use Lacinka when communicating with each other.
The emergence and development of both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets demonstrate the problem of building and preserving Belarusian national, cultural, and political identity that Belarus, located between two big political players, faces. No wonder, Belarusian intellectuals have even tried to develop another alphabet, neither fully Cyrillic nor Latin, with a purpose of uniting Belarusians.
Sources to be used:
Mayo, P ‘The Alphabet and Orthography of Byelorussian in the 20th Century’, The Journal of Byelorussian Studies, 4/1 (1977), pp. 28-47. ZC.9.a.9127 .
Mechkovskaya, N ‘Belarusian language: sociolinguistic essays’ Specimina philologiae Slavicae, 138 (2003)
“Three Alphabets Of The Belarusian Language – European Studies Blog”. Blogs.Bl.Uk, 2018, http://blogs.bl.uk/european/2018/01/three-alphabets-of-the-belarusian-language.html. Accessed 1 Oct 2018.
Photography
Photography developed in Belarus since the 1850’s, following the general course of development of photography in Europe. There was a documentary photography, which documented different aspects of life, urban development, etc. These photos began to appear on postcards, which were used as a medium of communication. In the paper I could analyze how photos depicting daily life became a message in themselves. Also, I can discuss how now, these photos reinforce history, as they allow us to look at historical development of the country.
Besides, photography was developing as something commercial (portrait-taking in studios), and was also was used for scientific, military and other reasons. Only in the 21st century photography also became art. During the Soviet times photography in Belarus began to serve the ideology and propaganda of the state. If documentation was somewhat impossiblet control, depiction of photographs publically carefully selected and censored. This way, the use of photography under state control contributed to creating and sustaining certain illusions about life in Belarusian SSR, that we might be tricked by even today.
Sources to be used:
Osterman, Mark. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF PHOTOGRAPHY. Accessed 1 Oct 2018.
kozhemyakin.dironweb.com/for_the_waiting_of_photography/for%20the%20waiting%20of%20photography.html