Issue 3, 2021

Summary

The article is devoted to reflection on the functionalisations of the topos of Minotaur in the novel The Physics of Sorrow (2012) by Georgi Gospodinov, a Bulgarian writer. The text, which is rich in intertextual references, engages in polemics with the tradition of Western culture and undermines its ossified notions related to the figure of Minotaur and the labyrinth. In the view of the Bulgarian writer, this human–animal hybrid becomes the epitome of melancholy that is generated by the personal and common experience of being in the world and a point of reference for post-anthropocentric reflection. In turn, the space of the monster’s imprionment – the labyrinth – is in the novel an ambiguous metaphor for creative practices or intricacies that the artistic imagination has to overcome. In the article, these issues are analysed using the category of self-reference.

Keywords: Bulgarian literature; post-anthropocentrism; self-reference; Minotaur; labyrinth

Атанас Бучков Атанас Натев – ретроспектива в настоящето
Atanas Buchkov A Retrospective in the Present

Summary

The article dwells on Atanas Natev’s lifetime contributive research on the essence of aesthetic experience. It explores some of his most well-known publications on the forms of interaction between literature and society, as well as the dynamics and multiplicity of the reception of a literary product across a national culture. In addition, the paper tries to limn the contours of authorial intention in the long 20th century, offering insights into the controversial paths of the development of Bulgarian fiction and critical theory. We should also like to propound a strategy for perusing the matter of aesthetic responsibility through a closer look at Nikolay Haytov in view of Mikhail Bakhtin’s polemical perception of the content, material, and form of a literary work as founded on living experience.

Keywords: Atanas Natev; memory; art; fictionality; responsibility; human perception; aesthetic experience

Александър Панов Драматургията на Станислав Стратиев и наследството на commedia dell’arte
Alexander Panov The Playwright of Stanislav Stratiev and the Heritage of Commedia Del

Summary

The article seeks to outline the basic constructive principles in the dramaturgy of Stanislav Stratiev. Even in a superficial overview of his comedies, it is clear that they are not built according to the usual dramaturgical scheme, in which the action is driven by the opposition between a reasoned desire of one of the characters and the obstacles to fulfilling that desire posed by circumstances or by any other character. In most cases, Stratiev's initial situation introduces some sharp provocation to the every lifestyle, which provokes a series of actions following not the course of the dramaturgical action, but the accidental changes in the situation. It is this series of actions, realized in a series of poorly connected episodes in a single plot thread that also carries the main ideological message of the play, presenting various aspects of the main, developed in it, social problem. The theatrical model used by Stratiev is, by this sign, strongly reminiscent of the model introduced in the 16th century by the Italian commedia dell'arte.
The article analyzes the four main features of this theatrical model. First of all, the plot framework in which the spectacle develops is considered. In the case of commedia dell'arte, this function is performed by the so-called canovaccio – a finding description of a series of episodes with a detailed presentation of the actors and their actions. This plot frame arranges a series of poorly connected episodes called lazzi. Their content highlights various absurdities and contradictions in a living subject more to ideological dogmas than to normal human logic. In these episodes, typical figures of public life take part, whose characters and actions define them more as masks than as living people. The only exception is only the couple in love, who are present in each of Stratiev's plays. Those in love, striving for normal human dreams and values, just as they do in the world, usually fall victim to the circumstances in which they are forced to live. And since a spectacle built on a typized plot and typized character-masks must always be fresh and topical, commedia dell'arte uses improvisation, in which typized acts are presented using topicals of the context in which the spectacle takes place, events, and lines. In the case of Stanislav Stratiev, this is the biggest problem facing the current productions of his plays, because, for the most part, they contain the reals, slogans, and problems of socialist society, which are not relevant today. At the same time, the main problems that Stratiev's comedies pose have not lost their relevance. And it's a challenge that's increasingly finding a solution.

Keywords: Stanislav Stratiev; Commedia Dell'arte; dramaturgy

Николай Кирилов Ариадна и Лабиринта. Хипотези около женското начало в двете „салонни пиеси“ на Димитър Димов
Nikolay Kirilov Ariadne and the Labyrinth. Hypotheses about female rudiment in the small-talk plays of Dimitar Dimov

Summary

The article discusses two of the plays of the classical Bulgarian writer Dimitar Dimov: "Women with a Past" (1959) and "The Guilty One" (1961). The female rudiment is seen as a basic for the structure and style of the dialog, also for ‘deheroization’ of male characters. In the sense of Balzac's allegory of marriage as a Labyrinth, the relations of the characters are understood. In the context of socialist society, during which the plays were written, the small-talk in the plays is interpreted as a mask for the dangerous topics. In the two plays of Dimov a parallel, along with the paradox-style of O. Wilde plays, but and with A. Chekhov’s poetics is found. Dimov's works are understood as conquered by the image of the Femininity, as a strong and at the same time weak and charming rudiment. The article discusses two of the plays of the classical Bulgarian writer Dimitar Dimov: "Women with a Past" (1959) and "The Guilty One" (1961). The female rudiment is seen as a basic for the structure and style of the dialog, also for ‘deheroization’ of male characters. In the sense of Balzac's allegory of marriage as a Labyrinth, the relations of the characters are understood. In the context of socialist society, during which the plays were written, the small-talk in the plays is interpreted as a mask for the dangerous topics. In the two plays of Dimov a parallel, along with the paradox-style of O. Wilde plays, but and with A. Chekhov’s poetics is found. Dimov's works are understood as conquered by the image of the Femininity, as a strong and at the same time weak and charming rudiment.

Keywords: Bulgarian dramaturgy; well-made-play; conversation; ethics, Femininity

Николай Аретов Няколко пародийни истории на България (Райко Алексиев, Христо Бръзицов, Асен Христофоров, Георги Константинов, Николай Генчев)

Nikolay Aretov Some travestied histories of Bulgaria (Rayko Alexiev, Hristo Brazitsov, Asen Hristoforov, Georgi Konstantinov, Nikolay Genchev)

Summary

This paper presents almost all of the most important travestied histories of Bulgaria written in 20 century. They present the past of the nation in different ways, some of them prefer to make fun with the great figures and events (Rayko Alexiev, Hristo Brazitsov, Nikolay Genchev) and to amuse the public with ethno-physiological reasoning, other (Georgi Konstantinov, Rumen Daskalov) put a strong criticism on the previous historiography, other present their narratives as fictional literature (Asen Hristoforov). The paper discusses to what extent and which of them are part of the popular literature, and what was the intention of the authors; it compares Hristoforov’s text with other texts on the same topic; and also offers some observations on the illustrations drawn by R. Alexiev and H. Brazitsov for their books, and by Alexander Bozhinov for Brazitsov’s book, and Todor Tsonev for Konstantinov’s book.

Keywords: History; Parody; Popular culture; caricatures; Rayko Alexiev; Hristo Brazitsov; Nikolay Genchev; Georgi Konstantinov; Rumen Daskalov; Asen Hristoforov

Преглед/Book Reviews

Милена Кирова От сянката на историята: Жените в българското общество и култура. Извори за историята на жените: дневници, спомени, писма, белетристика. Красимира Даскалова, Жоржета Назърска, Ренета Рошкева (съставителки), София: Университетско издателство „Св. Кл. Охридски“, 2021.
Milena Kirova From the Shadows of History. The Women in Bulgarian Society and Culture. Sources of Women’s History: diaries, memories, letters, fiction” (Krasimira Daskalova, Zhorzheta Nazarska, Reneta Roshkeva, eds.), Sofia University Press: Sofia, 2021.

Summary

This is a review of a volume entitled “From the Shadows of History. The Women in Bulgarian Society and Culture. Sources of Women’s History: diaries, memories, letters, fiction”; the second book in a sequence of volumes dedicated to the history of women in Bulgaria. (The first book was published in 1998.) Krassimira Daskalova, Zhorzheta Nazarska, and Reneta Roshkeva have edited a large and impressive book of 620 pages; this is the most significant text so far in the sphere of Bulgarian Women's history. The first part of the book presents an overall of six women who graduated from a prominent women’s school founded by American Protestant missionaries in Constantinople: Home School (1871), which later turned into Constantinople Woman’s College (1891). The second part of the book is entitled “Bulgarian Women’s Movement in 20th Century and Its Leaders”. Only one but a very prominent functionary of this movement is presented here: Dimitrana Ivanova. Her biography is presented in detail by Krasimira Daskalova.

Keywords: History of Women; Home School; Constantinople Women’s College; Dimitrana Ivanova

Яна Роуланд Американска литературна теория и критика. Съставителство, превод и предговор Албена Бакрачева. София: НБУ, 2020.
Yana Rowland American literary theory & criticism. Edited by Albena Bakracheva. Sofia: NBU, 2020.

Summary

The current review examines the structure, content, textual and biographical annotation, and the reception of translated texts in the field of American literary theory and criticism in Albena Bakracheva’s American literary theory & criticism (2020). In addition, it offers a comparative platform for the appreciation of the said anthology in view of a selection of contemporary guides in literary theory and criticism published in Bulgarian and in English. Last but not least, there is a thought on Albena Bakratcheva’s overall contribution to the initiation of the Bulgarian reader into American literature, with an especial focus on American transcendentalism – itself a context for the current edition.

Keywords: Albena Bakracheva; American literary theory & criticism; translation; reception; Edward Said; Harold Bloom; Gloria Anzaldúa; American transcendentalism; Henry David Thoreau; Margaret Fuller

Мартин Хенцелман За немското научно издание „Bulgarica“
Martin Henzelmann German academic periodical “Bulgarica”

Summary

The German academic annual “Bulgarica” has been published since 2018. It replaced the “Bulgarien-Jahrbuch” (“Bulgarian Yearbook”). Both “Bulgarica” and “Bulgarien-Jahrbuch” were and are published by the German-Bulgarian Association “Deutsch-bulgarische Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und Bulgarien e.V.” (DBG). The publications include academic papers on Bulgarian studies, highlighting linguistics, literature, culture, architecture, history, documents, book reviews, varia and in memoriam.

Keywords: Bulgarica; Yearbook; Bulgarian studies in Germany; German-Bulgarian Association; Bulgarian language; Bulgarian literature; Bulgarian culture

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