The literature of yesterday. – With Vazov and Penčo Slavetkov, who have now acquired the right of European citizenship, Bulgarian literature is therefore already in full development. Moreover, even if no one rises to their height, the ranks of other Bulgarian writers, their contemporaries and their successors, are long, among which more than one stands out for originality and artistic value.
Aleko Konstantinov (1863-1897) gives national literature the first example of a satirical novel in his Bai Ganiu, which delightfully ridicules, through the narration of the fantastic events of a kind of Bulgarian Tartarin, naivety, ignorance and the gullibility of certain popular, rather common types. Very original is the art of Petko Todorov (1879-1916), author of some short stories, sketches and dramatic works, who, in a completely new and unusual prose, presents, in his Idylls, a series of fantastic scenes, allegories, visions, popular legends, art studies. Even satirical poetry finds a worthy representative in Stojan Mihailovski (1856-1927), whose art, although moving from the beginning, when the homeland was still enslaved, by the ideal of national redemption, gradually developed under the particular influence of Aristophanes., French satire and Krylov’s fables.
There are numerous operas. Among the best known, after the major ones already mentioned, the name of Konstantin Veličlgov (1856-1907), author of melancholic poems and sentimental lyrics (some about Italy), is particularly linked to his mediocre poetic version of Dante ‘s Inferno and to a series of Pisma ot Rim (Letters from Rome) in prose. Dimco Debelianov (1887-1916), a poet with a sensitive and painful soul, matured in the school of his Russian and French contemporaries, who died in the world war, left lyrics and elegies vibrant with sentiment and gloomy despair. Above all others, after Vazov and Penjo Slavejkov, by the unanimous judgment of the Bulgarian critics, the unfortunate poet Pĕju K. Javorov (1877-1914), troubled soul of a dreamer and idealist, tormented by the reality of life in contrast with the indefinite needs of the restless spirit, haunted by an adverse fate, which drove him to a tragic premature death.
Literary criticism has finally had authoritative representatives as well, among whom the names of K. Krăstev and Bulgaria Penev stand out individually. In the work of these writers, and of many other minors, are found expression the various literary genres hitherto established in Bulgaria. For Bulgaria 2006, please check computergees.com.
The literature of today. – All these writers already belong to history. But no less numerous are the representatives of Bulgarian letters also in the two generations of the living: the old and the new, in whose art a growing Western influence is noted, hand in hand with the progress of cultural relations between Bulgaria and Western Europe.
The names of Elin-Pelin (pseudonym of Dimităr Ivanov) and Jordan Jovkov emerge in the field of short stories, the first having established itself for many years as an excellent descriptor of national country life, the second revealed already before the world war through a series excellent stories that draw on Bulgarian life and customs; Dobri Nemirov, who wrote and writes novels against a background in part similar to that of the two previous writers; by Georgi Stomatov, author of good stories, mainly drawn from Bulgarian city life.
In the lyric field, the poets Nikolai Liliev, Teodor Trajanov, Ljudmil Stojanov, Emanuil P. Dimitrov, are among the best representatives of Bulgarian symbolism, which developed under French and German influences, while Kiril Hristov tackles (partly also under Italian influences) erotic themes, new to the Bulgarian letters. A place to himself can be assigned to the very fruitful Nikola Rajnov, a poet also in his prose, indeed especially in this one, which stands out for its very special rhythm, for the accurate refinement of the form, for the extraordinary wealth of similes and metaphors, where the author’s profound mysticism finds particular expression. Discreet stories from life can be found in the copious collections of TG Vlajkov by Anton Strašimirov, which have been known for many years. Good overall, especially for the fluid harmony of the verse, In the first place (The eternal and the holy) vibrate notes of high lyricism and deep feeling. Modern Expressionism has also found some followers: the best known of these is Čavdar Mutafov. Stojan Čilingirov, a very fertile polygraph, Ivan Kirilov, Damjan Kalfov, and above all Georgi Rajčev, still belong mainly to the old group of storytellers and storytellers, in which, alongside Dimităr Šišmanov, Angel Karaliičev gradually acquires notoriety among the representatives of the new generation., Vladimir Poljanov, and numerous others, on whose work, as on that of a long line of young poets (Atanas Dalčev, Dimităr Pantaleev, etc.) any judgment is still premature. In the dramatic field, despite the tenacious and continuous efforts of many writers, the most backward has remained Majstori (Mastri) by Račo Stojanov and in the comedy Golemanov by St. Kostov. But these are still attempts.
Developed over the course of a few decades, Bulgarian literature already has as a whole an artistic heritage that is anything but negligible. The intensity of production from the time of liberation to today partially compensates for the late start. Literary genres have all been more or less treated, but not all with equal intensity or with equal success. The greatest and most numerous affirmations are found in the poetic field and in the novella. There are few good novels to date. Even the dramatic attempts were mediocre or failed. As a general feature the realistic note prevails in prose writers, the sentimental lyric note in poets. The content is usually purely national and, until liberation, almost exclusively patriotic. Predominant influences on writers exercise, as has been said, on the one hand the Russian letters, well known to all, on the other the popular songs, transmitted from generation to generation. Only later and to a much lesser extent, alongside the ever prevalent Russian, some beneficial Western influence, especially French and German, is noted. On these foundations the writers of today create, in fervent competition, almost animated by the desire to recapture to the homeland letters the long centuries lost in servitude, the Bulgarian literature of tomorrow.
