Non-native: reversion

The 1990s were an era of liberation for Belarusian literature from the rigid corset of the Soviet literary tradition, in which only certain themes and forms were allowed. This transitional time was characterized by a swirling variegation of new forms and unusual genre combinations; the boundaries between individual types of art, and even between art and everyday life, seemed to lose their clarity: literature turned into a performance that acquired the features of a theatrical production, only to burst into the measured life of a literary museum the next moment, say, in the form of a domavina with a living poet in it.

The anthology presents for the first time the main groups of that period: "Boom-Bam-Lit" and the Society of Free Writers . The book provides a multifaceted insight into the authors and their works, into mini-dramas and performances, the destruction of aesthetic norms, and innovative writing and staging strategies that were developing in Belarus at that time.

The book was based on the concept of the collection of plays "The Outsiders", which was prepared for publication in the late 1990s and early 2000s by members of the literary and artistic movement "Boom-Bam-Lit", but never saw the light of day.

The current edition contains, along with the plays of the collection, valuable additions: a study of Belarusian theater and performance art in an international context, creative manifestos, a chronicle of cultural life, comments by its active participants, photographs of literary, artistic and theatrical events, and other documents. The anthology is addressed to a wide audience: from specialists in the field of contemporary art to amateurs interested in this topic.

According to Zmitser Vishnev, the relevance of the book lies primarily in the fact that it carries a charge of freedom, which is so lacking in today's Belarus.

The anthology was published in the THINKING ART series of the Center for Arts and Cultural Theory (ZKK) at the University of Zurich (UZH).

The book is published with the support of the Center for Arts and Cultural Theory of the University of Zurich.