Bulgarian Literature - Bulgarian Modernist Literature

Bulgarian Modernist Literature

The poet Pencho Slaveykov, the son of the prominent Bulgarian Renaissance poet and teacher Petko Slaveykov, is one of the most erudite writers of his time. He made a conscious effort to set the beginnings of modern literature and Modernism in the country introducing the European philosophical and metaphysical ideas, partly modified and rebuilt upon the traditional linguistic and imagery heritage.

Slaveykov is famous for his philosophical poems, his Epic Songs and the symbolist poetry collection Dream of Happiness. Among others, he wrote a mystifying anthology of poets titled On the Island of the Blissful where he gathered at one place all the traditional ideas of Bulgarian poetry at this time presenting them like belonging to an imaginary island. His epic unfinished Song of Blood (1911–13) dealt with the struggle against the Turks. In his quest, Slaveykov was supported by other prominent intellectuals – scientists, writers, poets and critics.

One of the most remarkable prose writers from the first years after the liberation is Aleko Konstantinov (1863–1897). His humorous and travel writings (Bay Ganyo; To Chicago and Back) are both shrewd and vivid. He is best remembered for his character Bay Ganyo, one of the most controversial and curious characters in the Bulgarian literature, with diverse layers and rich nuances. Similarly to Švejk of the Czechs, Tartarin of Tarascon of the French and Ostap Bender for the Russian peoples, Bay Ganyo is a collective image of many typical Bulgarian features. Although ridiculed, they could never receive a one-sided (positive or negative) evaluation and interpretation. The writer was killed accidentally just when his career was about to surge.

Along with Petko Todorov, Krastyo Krastev and Peyo Yavorov, Pencho Slaveykov established the modernist circle Misal (Thought). Krastyo Krastev is a respected literary critic and erudite. Petko Todorov (1879-1916) is one of the greatest stylists of that time. A person of European education and manners, he manages to modernize the Bulgarian drama and also wrote a series of powerful impressionist stories based on folklore motives, titled Idylls.

Peyo Yavorov (1878–1914) is considered a Symbolist poet, one of the finest poetic talents in the fin de siècle Kingdom of Bulgaria. The poems of Yavorov are diverse in topics but always with a strong impact – both emotional and intellectual. They have diverse and original forms, and rich and refined language; they are largely introspective, express the loneliness of the modern man, the impossibility to reach happiness and love in life, the constant threat and presentiment of death. They focus also on describing historical, mythological and visionary subjects with the same decadent emotional nuances.

Under the influence of the French and the Russian symbolist movements, there were other popular Bulgarian poets, quite a large number, who contributed to the fast-paced literary development in the country in the first decades of the 20th century. Among them were: Dimcho Debelyanov, Teodor Trayanov, Nikolay Liliev, Emanuil Popdimitrov, Dimitar Boyadjiev and many others. Symbolism turned into one of the most influential movements and it can be felt in all the poetry to come throughout the 20th century. In Bulgaria it remains close to the European one: it is again an effort to overcome reality, its burden, monotony and heaviness. The quest for meaning and foundation in a different dimension of reality: an outer, high, spiritual, mystic, unknown and unintelligible one; a new dreamlike reality which is closer to beauty and harmony. The answer is looked for not only in the images, but in the purity and beauty of language.