Bulgarian Literature

I

Introduction

Bulgarian Literature, literature created by the inhabitants of Bulgaria. Bulgarian literature began in the second half of the 9th century ad with the translations by Saints Cyril and Methodius of Christian texts from Greek into Old Church Slavonic, the first written Slavic language, after Bulgaria had become the first Slavic Christian nation. From this period until the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria in 1396, Bulgarian literature consisted mainly of similar translations of the Gospels, lives of the saints, sermons, and other religious material. Historical chronicles were also written. While Bulgaria remained under Ottoman political domination and Greek ecclesiastical domination from 1396 to 1878, Bulgarian literature virtually ceased to exist.

II

Literary Revival

The 19th century marked the beginning of modern Bulgarian literature and the awakening of national consciousness. It had its origin in historical works such as Istoria Slaveno-Bolgarska (Slavo-Bulgarian History), completed about 1762 by Paisii of Hilendar, a monk, in a form of ecclesiastical Slavonic mixed with popular language. The book, in effect, restored their past to the Bulgarian people. After 1830, a movement arose in Bulgaria for freedom from Ottoman rule and Greek church domination, the establishment of Bulgarian schools and printing establishments, and the publication of Bulgarian grammars and other educational works. All of these played a part in producing a new Bulgarian literature. At the same time novobulgarski, a new literary language, was formed, based on vernacular dialects of eastern Bulgaria.

Before 1878 writers were concerned with social and political questions, above all with national independence, rather than with literary style or the problems of the inner life of the individual. The most important writers of this preliberation period were two revolutionaries: poet Christo Botev and journalist and novelist Lyuben Karavelov. The principal writer of the next period was poet, novelist, and playwright Ivan Vazov, one of the most prolific as well as one of the most popular of Bulgarian writers. He scored a success in English translation with his novel Pod igoto (1893; Under the Yoke, 1912), which described the years of Ottoman rule and celebrated an unsuccessful rebellion against it, the April Uprising, in 1876. Botev was killed during the rebellion. Two years after the April Uprising, in 1878, Russia defeated the Ottoman Empire and, with Bulgarian forces, liberated Bulgaria. Vazov, considered Bulgaria’s national writer, gave unsurpassed expression to the national spirit even as he scolded his countrypeople for falling short of the standard set by their revolutionary ancestors.

Other important writers of the late 19th century were Stoyan Mikhaylovski and Aleko Konstantinov. The former was a pessimistic philosopher, disillusioned with politics; the latter was a satirist who characterized the Bulgarian peasant in Bai Ganyu (Uncle John, 1895). Konstantinov also left an amusing account of a visit to the 1893 World’s Fair in Do Chikago I nazad (To Chicago and Back, 1893).

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III

The Postliberation Period

In the postliberation period, following 1878, writers increasingly emphasized technique and form, as well as harmony and rhythm of language. Important writers of this third period are the short-story writers Dimitar Ivanov, who wrote under the pen name of Elin Pelin, and Yordan Yovkov; both are noted for their interest in peasant life and the countryside.

The early 20th century saw the rise of a more international outlook, nurtured by Bulgarian critic Krustyu Krustev, who had studied philosophy in Germany and who founded the influential journal Misul (Thought) in 1898. Important contributors to the journal included poet Pencho Slaveykov, prose writer and playwright Petko Todorov, and poet and playwright Peyo Yavorev. Slaveykov produced Kurvava pesen (Song of Blood, 1913), an epic poem on the April Uprising. Todorov created melancholy lyrical prose, such as Idilii (Idylls, 1908), which harks back to Pelin and Yovkov in its focus on nature and rural life. Yavorev, the finest Bulgarian poet of his day, created an inventive poetic language and committed suicide in 1914. Symbolism was central to the work of Nikolay Liliev and Teodor Trayanav. The generation of World War I (1914-1918), in which Bulgaria fought on the side of the Central Powers, was represented by lyric poet Dimcho Debelyanov, who was killed at the battlefront in 1916 at the age of 29.

IV

Between the Wars

Literary life flourished in Bulgaria between the two world wars, in large measure stimulated by the journal Zlatorog, edited by the critic Vladimir Vasilev. Many of the pieces published by the journal dealt with rural life. Expressionism gained ground, notably in the writings of leftist poet and critic Geo Milev. After publication of his poem “Septemvri” (September), about the violence surrounding a Communist uprising in 1923, Milev was arrested. He was murdered in prison in 1925.

Other prominent figures of the interwar period were Elisaveta Bagryana, a poet who wrote about women and modernity, Elin Pelin, and Atanas Dalchev, a poet and critic whose writings are tinged with deep skepticism. The finest Bulgarian prose writer of the early 20th century was Yordan Yovkov, whose tales of rural life were collected in Staroplaninski legendi (Balkan Legends, 1927) and Vecheri v Antimovskiya han (Evenings at the Antimovo Inn, 1927).

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