Bulgarian literature


Bulgarian literature.

For early ecclesiastical writings, see Church SlavonicChurch Slavonic,
language belonging to the South Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). Although it is still the liturgical language of most branches of the Orthodox Eastern Church, Church Slavonic is extinct today
..... Click the link for more information. . Modern Bulgarian literature stems from the work of Father Paisi, who in 1762 began his history of the Slav Bulgarians. The period of struggle for independence (1840–75) saw the real emergence of a national literature in the work of the poets Sava Rakovski (1821–67) and Petko Rachev Slaveykov (1827–95), the story writer Lyuben Karavelov (1837–79), the dramatist Vasil Drumev (1841–1901), and the great national poet Khristo BotevBotev, Khristo
, 1848–76, Bulgarian poet and patriot. At 17, Botev was sent to Russia, where he became enamored of socialist doctrine. He sought to promote revolution against the Ottoman domination and was killed in action leading a band of his own organizing.
..... Click the link for more information. , who died fighting the Turks. Ivan VazovVazov, Ivan
, 1850–1921, Bulgarian poet, novelist, and playwright, the first professional man of letters in Bulgaria. His work was inspired by the political upheavals of the period from 1890 to 1920 and by indignation over the sufferings of his countrymen before their
..... Click the link for more information.  was the first professional man of letters, writing plays, novels, poetry, and short stories. After Bulgaria's liberation from Turkish rule (1876), its literature became less revolutionary. A group of late 19th cent. regional writers included Todor Vlaykov (1865–1943), Georgi Stamatov (1869–1942), Anton Strashimirov (1872–1937), the satirist Stoyan Mikhaylovski (1856–1927), and Aleko Konstantinov (1863–97). The poet Pencho Slaveykov (1866–1912) introduced other European literatures into Bulgaria; his Song of Blood (1911–13) is an epic of the struggle against the Turks. Other writers of this period were the symbolist poet Peyo Yavorov (1878–1914), the poet and dramatist Petko Todorov (1879–1916), and the story writer Elin Pelin (1878–1949). Bulgaria's losses in the Balkan Wars and World War I gave rise to a poetry whose chief quality was mysticism, evident in the work of Nikolay Liliyev, Dora Gabe, Elisaveta Bagryans, and Dimcho Debelyanov. The prose writers of the early 20th cent. include the novelists of peasant life Iordan Iovkov (1884–1938) and Dobri Nemirov (1882–1945), and the psychological novelist Georgi Raichev. After 1945, the most admired writers included the poets Khristo Smyrnenski (1898–1923), Khristo Radevski, and Nikola Vaptsarov (1909–42), and the prose writers Lyudmil Stoyanov, Georgi Karaslavov, and Dimiter Dimov, author of the popular novel Tobacco. From the 1940s through the 1980s Bulgarian literature was under Soviet influence. Although there was a relaxation of the pressure to conform to socialist realismsocialist realism,
Soviet artistic and literary doctrine. The role of literature and art in Soviet society was redefined in 1932 when the newly created Union of Soviet Writers proclaimed socialist realism as compulsory literary practice.
..... Click the link for more information.  after Stalin's death (1953), controls were reintroduced in 1957. Nevertheless, a less doctrinaire tendency emerged in the decades before the end of Communist rule, evident in the novels of Kamen Kalcev, Emil Manov, and Ivajlo Petrov and the poetry of Pavel Matev, Lubomir Levcev, and I. Davidkov, among others.

Bibliography

See V. Pinto, Bulgarian Prose and Poetry (1957); C. Manning and R. Smal-Stocki, The History of Modern Bulgarian Literature (1960); C. A. Moser, A History of Bulgarian Literature (1972); J. R. Colombo and N. Roussanoff, ed., The Balkan Range: A Bulgarian Reader (1976); M. Matejic, A Biobibliographical Handbook of Bulgarian Authors (1981).