Sorbian literature

Last updated August 24, 2019

Sorbian literature refers to the literature written by the Western Slavic people of Central Europe called the Sorbs ^[1]^[2]^[3] in Sorbian languages (Upper Sorbian language and Lower Sorbian language).

Literature, most generically, is any body of written works. More restrictively, literature refers to writing considered to be an art form or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, often due to deploying language in ways that differ from ordinary usage.

The West Slavs are a subgroup of Slavic peoples who speak the West Slavic languages. They separated from the common Slavic group around the 7th century, and established independent polities in Central Europe by the 8th to 9th centuries. The West Slavic languages diversified into their historically attested forms over the 10th to 14th centuries.

Central Europe is the region comprising the central part of Europe. Central Europe occupies continuous territories that are otherwise sometimes considered parts of Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe. The concept of Central Europe is based on a common historical, social, and cultural identity.

Sorbian literature began with the Reformation and the translations of religious texts. The first translation of the New Testament was made in 1549 by M. Jakubica and the first printed book in 1574 was Albin Moller's Zpevnik a Katechism (hymnal and catechism).^[1] See also Bible translations into Sorbian.

TheReformation was a movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Roman Catholic Church—and papal authority in particular. Although the Reformation is usually considered to have started with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Martin Luther in 1517, there was no schism between the Catholics and the nascent Lutheran branch until the 1521 Edict of Worms. The edict condemned Luther and officially banned citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas. The end of the Reformation era is disputed: it could be considered to end with the enactment of the confessions of faith which began the Age of Orthodoxy. Other suggested ending years relate to the Counter-Reformation, the Peace of Westphalia, or that it never ended since there are still Protestants today.

New Testament Second division of the Christian biblical canon

The New Testament is the second part of the Christian biblical canon, the first being the Old Testament. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity. Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture.

Albin Moller German writer and astrologer

Albin Moller was a German author, astrologer, and translator who lived in eastern Germany during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

The British Library houses many copies of early Sorbian literature, the earliest being a copy of the Lord's Prayer dating from 1603. Sorbian is also noted in one of the first multilingual dictionaries: Megiser's Thesaurus Polyglottus, published in Frankfurt in 1603.^[1]

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and the largest national library in the world by number of items catalogued. It is estimated to contain 170–200 million+ items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK. The Library is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father, is a venerated Christian prayer which, according to the New Testament, Jesus taught as the way to pray:

Frankfurt is a metropolis and the largest city of the German federal state of Hesse, and its 746,878 (2017) inhabitants make it the fifth-largest city of Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne. On the River Main, it forms a continuous conurbation with the neighbouring city of Offenbach am Main, and its urban area has a population of 2.3 million. The city is at the centre of the larger Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, which has a population of 5.5 million and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr Region. Since the enlargement of the European Union in 2013, the geographic centre of the EU is about 40 km (25 mi) to the east of Frankfurt's central business district. Like France and Franconia, the city is named after the Franks. Frankfurt is the largest city in the Rhine Franconian dialect area.

Around twenty books were available by 1700, mostly about religion. Little from that early period has survived.^[1]

Jurij Brězan published books both in Upper Sorbian and German and Jurij Koch in Lower Sorbian and German.

Jurij Brězan was a Sorbian writer. His works, especially the novels, narrative works and children's books, were available in the two languages German and Upper Sorbian.

Jurij Koch is a Sorbian writer. He writes in both Sorbian languages as well as German.

Sorbian Poetry

Sorbian poetry flourished in the late 1800s with one of the most notable poets being Handrij Zejler, who published between 1883 and 1891.^[1]

Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

Handrij Zejler Sorbian writer and activist

Handrij Zejler was a Sorbian writer, pastor and national activist. He co-founded the Lusatian cultural and scientific society Maćica Serbska.

Sorbian Journals

The longest running of various Sorbian journals is called the Casopis Macicy Serbskeje, published between 1848 and 1918.^[1]

List of writers

Related Research Articles

The Sorbian languages are two closely related, but only partially mutually intelligible, West Slavic languages spoken by the Sorbs, a West Slavic minority in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany. They are classified under the West Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages and are therefore closely related to the other two West Slavic subgroups: Lechitic and Czech–Slovak. Historically, the languages have also been known as Wendish or Lusatian. Their collective ISO 639-2 code is wen.

Canadian literature is literature originating from Canada. Canadian writers have produced a variety of genres. Influences on Canadian writers are broad, both geographically and historically.

Sorbs (Upper Sorbian: Serbja, Lower Sorbian: Serby, German: Sorben, also known by their former autonyms Lusatians and Wends, are a West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting Lusatia, a region divided between Germany and Poland. According to Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, Lusatians have the same origin as Serbs from the Balkan Peninsula who inhabited the areas between the rivers Elbe and Saale, on the southern coast of the Baltic sea. Sorbs traditionally speak the Sorbian languages, closely related to the Polish, Kashubian, Czech and Slovak. Sorbian is an officially recognized minority language in Germany. Sorbs are linguistically and genetically closest to the Czechs and Poles. Due to a gradual and increasing assimilation between the 17th and 20th centuries, virtually all Sorbs also spoke German by the late 19th century and much of the recent generations no longer speak the language. The community is divided religiously between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism. The former Prime Minister of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, is of Sorbian origin.

Lusatia is a region in Central Europe. The region is the home of the ethnic group of Sorbs, a small West Slavic people. It stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the east to the Pulsnitz and Black Elster in the west, today located within the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg as well as in the Lower Silesian and Lubusz voivodeships of western Poland.

Upper Sorbian is a minority language spoken by Sorbs in Germany in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, which is today part of Saxony. It is grouped in the West Slavic language branch, together with Lower Sorbian, Czech, Polish, Slovak and Kashubian.

Slovene literature is the literature written in the Slovene language. It spans across all literary genres with historically the Slovene historical fiction as the most widespread Slovene fiction genre. The Romantic 19th-century epic poetry written by the leading name of the Slovene literary canon, France Prešeren, inspired virtually all subsequent Slovene literature.

Augustin Josip "Tin" Ujević was a Croatian poet, considered by many to be the greatest poet in 20th century Croatian literature.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Michal Snunit is a journalist, magazine editor, poet and author of books for children.

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.

Räckelwitz is a municipality in Bautzen district, in the state of Saxony, Germany. The municipality of Räckelwitz has a population of 1,170 and is a member of the municipal association "Am Klosterwasser"(Zarjadniski zwjazk „Při Klóšterskej wodźe“).

Kito Lorenc was a Sorbian-German writer, lyric poet and translator. He was a grandson of the Sorbian writer and politician Jakub Lorenc-Zalěski.

"Rjana Łužica" is the Sorbian national anthem. It was written by poet Handrij Zejler. The lyrics were firstly published on August 24, 1827, in the Leipzig magazine Serbska Nowina. Its music was composed in the beginning of 1845 by Korla Awgust Kocor. The anthem was publicly performed for the first time on October 17, 1845, in Budyšin/Bautzen, German Bautzen, formerly Budissin).

Tone Pavček was one of the most influential Slovene poets, translators, and essayists from the first post-war generation. He published numerous collections of poetry, well received by readers and critics alike. He also translated a number of Russian works into Slovene.

Scots-language literature is literature, including poetry, prose and drama, written in the Scots language in its many forms and derivatives. Middle Scots became the dominant language of Scotland in the late Middle Ages. The first surviving major text in Scots literature is John Barbour's Brus (1375). Some ballads may date back to the thirteenth century, but were not recorded until the eighteenth century. In the early fifteenth century Scots historical works included Andrew of Wyntoun's verse Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland and Blind Harry's The Wallace. Much Middle Scots literature was produced by makars, poets with links to the royal court, which included James I, who wrote the extended poem The Kingis Quair. Writers such as William Dunbar, Robert Henryson, Walter Kennedy and Gavin Douglas have been seen as creating a golden age in Scottish poetry. In the late fifteenth century, Scots prose also began to develop as a genre. The first complete surviving work is John Ireland's The Meroure of Wyssdome (1490). There were also prose translations of French books of chivalry that survive from the 1450s. The landmark work in the reign of James IV was Gavin Douglas's version of Virgil's Aeneid.

In addition to English, literature has been written in a wide variety of other languages in Britain, that is the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. This includes literature in Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Latin, Cornish, Anglo-Norman, Guernésiais, Jèrriais, Manx, and Irish. Literature in Anglo-Saxon is treated as English literature and literature in Scots as Scottish literature.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 British Library Lusatian (Sorbian) Collections
↑ John Andrew Reaves (1996). The Development of an Ecologically Critical Sorbian Literature as a Consequence of the German Democratic Republic's Dependence on Soft Coal as an Energy Source. University of Wisconsin--Madison. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
↑ Peter Barker (zgodovinar.) (1993). Some Reflections on the Reception of Sorbian Literature in German After 1945. Böhlau. Retrieved 29 April 2013.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[BL-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 British Library Lusatian (Sorbian) Collections

[Reaves1996-2] John Andrew Reaves (1996). The Development of an Ecologically Critical Sorbian Literature as a Consequence of the German Democratic Republic's Dependence on Soft Coal as an Energy Source. University of Wisconsin--Madison. Retrieved 29 April 2013.

[(zgodovinar.)1993-3] Peter Barker (zgodovinar.) (1993). Some Reflections on the Reception of Sorbian Literature in German After 1945. Böhlau. Retrieved 29 April 2013.