Aliaksandr Paharely. Towards the Problem of Relationship of “Nature” and “Culture” in the West Belarusian Periodical Press

The article is an attempt to trace the relationship of “nature” and “culture” categories in the discourse of Belarusian Christian Democratic periodical press in interwar Poland. Here it is argued that “nature” was, in fact, subordinate to culture if not synonymous to it for Belarusian Christian Democrats. Therefore, it was necessary to focus on the understanding of what “culture” actually meant for them. They emphasized four aspects of the culture such as disciplinary, esthetic, practical and symbolic. The idea of landscape as nature per se was also recognized as one with which Belarusian peasants were related. They were “close” to “nature” and it was unnecessary to separate them from it. However, they had to be protected from chaos represented by the elements, wild animals and insects, dirt, disease and natural disasters.

In order for villagers to be better shielded form chaos but at the same time to be a part of a harmonious and romantic landscape, they were to adopt new methods of agriculture, had to follow the rules of hygiene and cleanliness and not to commit breaches of social decorum. These, and especially the latter, both were largely borrowed from the culture of West European and North American middle classes and played indispensable parts in Belarusian Christian Democrats’ project of modernity. Belarusian villagers themselves had to be transformed into a new social class with new attitudes towards nature\culture and values. However, this had to be achieved via struggle not with other social groups and classes but some of the old traditions and habits. The struggle against chaos itself while not without a sense of urgency, decisively lacked epic and dramatic elements inherent in the battle between the forces of light and darkness. Nevertheless, it was implicit in the discourse of Belarusian Christian Democratic newspapers and magazines.