The monograph is a presentation of the literature of Lemkos, from the beginnings of the awareness of their own cultural-ethnic distinctiveness until World War I. It contains information about the group and its culture, defines the concept of Lemko literature as a minority literature, and describes the cultural situation of Lemkos in the 19th century. The main genres and types of Lemkos writing in 1848–1918 are presented in ten chapters. Literature is shown as one of the key cultural and identity discourses. The extensively quoted excerpts from the texts reveal the linguistic reality and awareness of the Lemko intelligentsia of the time. The monograph also outlines the developmental tendencies in Lemko literature through the successive stages of their community’s history.weiterlesen