A HISTORY OF THE BULGARIAN LITERATURE
IN THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL REVIVAL

Ivan Radev

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CONTENTS

About the "Histories" of literature and this "History ..." in particular.

L GENERAL ISSUES

THE LITERATURE IN THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL REVIVAL - division into periods.

A brief review of the state of literary life in the 16th - 18th century.
Tardiness of the Renaissance process in our country.

THE NATIONAL REVIVAL AND ITS INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT.

Alternatives for the civilizer's model.
Similarities and differences from the West-European.
Renaissance and Enlightenment. Literary influences.

NATIONAL-SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF THE REVIVAL.

Changes in the collective sensitivity.
Building-up of adequate social milieu.
Personal evolution and general aesthetic development.

MYTHOLOGY AND THE NATIONAL REVIVAL.

Typology and adaptivity. Political myths ("Ilirik", "Elada", "Piemont", "Grandpa Ivan").
Mythologems of the "applied" type ("The Highwayman Who Became a Monk", "The Lame Teacher", "Dionisii, the Cossack"...).

 

II. TOWARDS NATIONAL AWAKENING

PAISII HILENDARSKI.

National-specific, fictional and publicistic aspects of "A History of the Slav-Bulgarians".
Levels of compatibility with other texts.
Movement towards an elaboration of chronicle writing.

A LOOK INTO THE PAST.

Christo Zhefarovich. "Stematography...".
Spiridon Gabrovski. " A History In Brief...".
At. Neskovich. "A History Of the Slav-Bulgarian People".

 

IIL TOWARDS A CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT

SOPHRONH VRACHANSKI. The essence of his work and its historic significance.

"Nedelnik (Collection of holiday sermons)".
A collection of "Short Stories and Reflections".
,,The Life and Martyrdom...".
The "Sophronians" in the period of National Revival: loakim Kurchovski, Kiril Peichinovich and others.

THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS AND LEVELS OF ITS ADAPTIVITY.

Dr. Nikola Pikolo.
Dr. Peter Baron.
Vassil Aprilov.

NEOPHIT RILSKI.

NEOPHIT BOSVELLI.

"Slav-Bulgarian Collection of Children's Textbooks".
Writings in the form of dialogues.
Writings of the memoir type.

THE ENLIGIITENERS AND THE TRANSITION TOWARDS ADEQUATI. AESTHETIC THINKING (Konstantin Ognianovich, Christodul Sichan-Nikolov. Ivan Bogorov, lordan H. Kostadinov-Ginot).

THESES ON THE NATURE OF THE LITERATURE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT.

The original puhlicistic forms.
Approaches to verse.
The book of collections as a literary form; aesthetic potential of prepersonalism.
The first stage of narrative thinking.
Paratexlual aspects of expression and dialogue with the reader.

 

IV. TOWARDS AESTHETIC THOROUGHNESS AND GENRE SYNTHESES OF LITERATURE IN THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE 40s - 80s

ASPECTS OF THE CULTURAL SITUATION.

Folklore and personal poetry, the manuscripts of song collections as a form of literary life.
Aesthetic awareness and mythology. Myths of the poeticized patriotic idea ("Mother Bulgaria", "The Lion of the Balkans", The one who will live... eternally in the Balkan").
Departing points for personal sanctification (Levski, Botev...).
Anonymity and authorship - the status of the creator.
Periodicals and fiction.

THE NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF POETRY AS A FORM OF ART.

Naiden Gerov.
Dobri Chintulov.

PETKO SLAVEIKOV

Directions and type of presence in the literary process.
Intimate and political verse.
"The Spring of Belonogata (the White-legged)" - the folklore basis and the author's viewpoint.
Slaveikov's prose.

GEORGI RAKOVSKI.

THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS AND LEVELS OF ITS ADAPTIVITY.

Grigor Purlichev.
Dimitar Veliksin.
Raiko Zhinzifov.

APPROACHES TO DRAMA.

The "phenomenon" Dobri Voinikov.
"Ivanko" by V. Drumev.
"Hadgi Dimitar lassenov" by L. Karavelov.
Dramaturgic renditions of prose writings.

THE FICTION OF THE 60s AND 70s - THE SECOND STAGE OF NARRATIVE WRITING.

VASSIL DRUMEV.

"The Unhappy Family", prose as a form of art.
"Student and Benefactors" - genre and style.

ILIA BLASKOV ("Lost Stanka", "Miserable Kruslinka").

LJUBEN KARAVELOV.

KARAVELOV'S PROSE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 60s
Variations of the short story - from "Voivode (Chieftain)" to "Crying Crocodile tears on someone else's grave". The poetics of composition. The problems of the genre.
Characters and aesthetic representation of the national style of living...
TOWARDS EXHAUSTIVE REPRESENTATION OF EVERYDAY AND SOCIAL LIFE.
"Bulgarians of old Times" "Mummy's Boy".
"The alien" and the social meaning of generalizations ("Is Fate To Blame "Hadgi Nicho", "An Exceptional Patriot")
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE HISTORICAL NOVEL - the trilogy "Reveng "After the revenge", "This is the end"

CHRISTO BOTEV.

POETRY.
The romantic vein - an analogue of the optimism of the National Revival ("At Parting", "Haidouks", "Elopement").
Personal and biblical verse - analogies and points of divergence ("Elegy", "Struggle", "My Prayer", "Vassil Levski's Hanging").
"Songs and Verses by Botev and Stambolov" - the nature and role of this collections in the poetry of the 70s.
PROSE.
From article-writing to the philosophy of everyday life ("Examples of Tur Justice", "The People Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow", "Petrushan")...
The Bible and Botev's publicistic writings.

 

IN CONCLUSION

THE LITERATURE OF THE NATIONAL REVIVAL. "Missing texts" - reconstruc status, and volume from a receptive point of view.

The problem of completeness/incompletencss of a work of fiction.

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE LITERATURE OF THE NATIONAL REVIVAL

Formation and status of literary criticism in the period of National Revival.
Stages and methods of historical and literary thinking.
Suggestions for further reading.

© Ivan Radev
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© E-publisher LiterNet, 02. 04.2001, № 4 (17)