Perspectivizing World Literature
Marko Juvan Perspectivizing World Literature
Rejecting Eurocentrism of the world literature concept, perspectivism promises an alternative to the center/periphery model. Although perspectivism tends to deny the world-systemic asymmetries, it rightly claims that peripheral cultural interaction may bypass global centers, establishing its networks and centers (e.g., the twentieth-century avant-gardes). Moreover, peripheries enable the reproduction and evolution of global metropolises, even though their contribution is exoticized and anonymized. The modernist poetry of Srečko Kosovel (1904–26) illustrates peripheral productivity and its response to evolutionary processes in the center. It also highlights the systemic obstacles that prevent this information from being globalized.
Keywords: world literature, world-systems, center/periphery, perspectivism, minor literatures, modernism, Srečko Kosovel
Европа и нейните основополагащи митове. Значението на Наполеоновата експедиция в Египет в литературата и в изкуството и Ориентализмът
Michael Bernsen Europe and Its Fundamental Myths. The Significance of Napoleon’s Expedition in Egypt in Literature and in Art and the Orientalism
The military and scientific French expedition in Egypt, guided by Napoleon Bonaparte, lies at the root of the Modern reception and assimilation of the ancient Egyptian culture. The expedition creates a fundamental myth with long-lasting consequences – the will to investigate in depth the dimensions of European culture. In the article, which is a part of a large scientific project, the author retraces how the ancient Egyptian culture was represented during the 19 c. in works of the French writers Nerval and Flaubert and of the painters Gérôme, Vedder, Leopold Müller.
The author discusses Eduard Said’s thesis that the belles lettres in 19 c. and the Orientalistic paintings support the creation of a discourse of domination towards the East. However, only a few works confirm such a that, most of the paintings and the literary works on an Oriental topic cannot plainly confirm Said’s thesis. Bernsen draws the conclusion that the Orientalistic paintings, as well as the literary works, require a differentiated interpretation.
Arts present the pretentions of the West European discourse of domination, called Orientalism, both critically and playfully. The texts of Nerval and Flaubert, as well as the pictures of Vedder and Leopold Müller initially manifest a suspicion towards the pretentions for domination of the West European civilising discourse when encountering the Orient, and then they deconstruct this discourse.
Keywords: Europe, Fundamental Myths, Napoleon’s Expedition in Egypt, Literature, Visual Art, Orientalism
Две монодрами на Боян Папазов за надеждата
Grażyna Szwat-Gyłybowa Two Monodramas about Hope by Boyan Papazov
The article is dedicated to the theme of hope in two monodramas by Boyan Papazov –Nadezhda The Blind [literally ‘The Blind Hope’] and Mad, Cross-eyed and Greedy. United by their common genre convention, theme and character type, they enfold, in a symbolic framework, two periods in Bulgarian history - the era of the communist regime and the period of the so-called political transformation (known in Bulgaria as the transition). The analysis presented in the article aims to discover the theological and anthropological foundations of Papazov's concepts of the sources of human hope in a world of destroyed axiological norms.
Keywords: monodrama, Bulgarian dramaturgy, transition, theology, Papazov
Пренасянето на тленните останки на Г. С. Раковски от Букурещ в София през 1885 г. – Към началото на създаването на националния пантеон
Keta Mircheva Carrying mortal remains of Georgi S. Rakovski from Bucharest to Sofia in 1885 - the beginning of the creation of the national pantheon
Eight years after his death in Bucharest (1867), the bones of the Bulgarian national revolutionary Georgi С. Rakovski were carried to Sofia the capital of the young Bulgarian Principality. Started as a private Initiative of the Volunteer's association in Rousse the event grew into a national hero's commemoration. The commemoration ceremonies include the Prince, ministers, MPs, the army, municipal authorities, craft organizations, teachers, and pupils. Despite the attempts of the ruling Liberal Party and their political opponents to use the event for narrow party goals, no one calls into question the need to pay tribute to the hero. The article tracks how this event contributes to the invention of a nationalistic public tradition and the creation of a new patriotic discourse in the process of nation-building.
Keywords: beginning of the creation of the national pantheon, patriotic discourse, process of nation-building
1935 г. – повествования за Ботев
Anna Alexieva 1935 – Three Narratives, dedicated to Hristo Botev
The paper is focused on ideological modeling of the image of Hristo Botev, regarded as national hero, during the Interwar period. Three particular works are analyzed: “The poet rebel: Hristo Botev” by Theodosy Anastasov, “Veneta” by Fany Popova-Mutafova, “Hristo Botev (Historical novel)” by Georgy Savchev. All these texts were published in the same year – 1935, and this fact could be considered as one of the arguments for grouping them together. They could be seen as representative for various prose genre forms. Authors of them demonstrated different attitude towards the established (canonical) historical and literary-historical narrative, both popular and academic, dedicated to Botev. While interpreting them, the paper is aiming at outlining both points of ideological match and tensions between literature and history as disciplinary fields.
Keywords: Hristo Botev, Interwar period, prose genre forms, ideology
„Малкият човек на фона на голямата история” в романите на Греъм Суифт
Vesela Katsarova “A Small Man at Big History” in Graham Swift’s Novels
The focus in this study is laid upon the problems of the individual in the catastrophic 20th century which are actually the recurrent issues in Swift’s novels. As the author says, his major theme is to depict “a small man at big history”. Next to the experiences mainly during WW ІІ the author is further interested in family relations and conflicts, usually characterized by acts of subordination or passive submission. Usually Swift’s typical protagonists are vulnerable human beings in a state of crisis who are pressed by the urgent need to relate their own stories. Therefore, the author usually employs a first-person narration. Next to the social and ethical dimensions in Swift’s fiction his impressive artistic achievements are further studied. The author usually employs first-person narrations as the protagonists are pressed by the urge to tell their personal drama.
Keywords: war, history, fate, trauma, alienation, family, love
Преплетените истории на Балканите
Nikolay Aretov Entangled Histories of the Balkans
This paper presents volumes 2 and 3 of the collective research project “Entangled Histories of the Balkans” dedicated to the “Transfers of Political Ideologies and Institutions” (edited by Roumen Daskalov and Diana Mishkova) and to the “Shared Pasts, Disputed Legacies” (edited by Roumen Daskalov and Alexander Vezenkov). Modern Balkan history has traditionally been studied by national historians in the terms of separate national histories taking place within bounded state territories. The authors in this volume apply a different approach. They all seek to study the modern history of the region from a transnational and relational perspective in terms of shared and connected, as well as entangled, histories, transfers, and crossings. This goes along with an interest in the way ideas, institutions, and techniques were selected, transferred and adapted to the Balkan conditions and how they interacted with those conditions. The volumes also invite reflection on the interacting entities in the very process of their creation and consecutive transformations rather than taking them as givens.
Keywords: Balkans, Western Models, Liberalisms, Early Socialism, Agrarian Ideologies, Fascism, Communism, Nationalism, Ancient Thrace, Byzantium, Ottoman Legacy, National Revival