Bulgarian Modernist Publications in the Database “Books in Russian Published Abroad, 1927—1991”

Abstract

The article is devoted to the reflection of Bulgarian literary modernism of the 20th century in Bulgarian publications in Russian. The relevance of the article is supported by the fragmentary assimilation of Bulgarian modernism by Russian literary studies, which is insufficient to carry out the necessary completeness of the intercultural dialogue, given that the Bulgarian modernists largely focused in their work on the achievements of Russian symbolism and the Silver Age as a whole. The author traces the local features of the development of modernism in Bulgaria, which determine the validity of including in it the trends of symbolism and expressionism, often appearing in Bulgarian literature in syncretism. The article concretizes the stylistic and thematic uniformity of a number of Bulgarian literary phenomena of the 20th century, which proves the self-sufficiency of Bulgarian modernism as a full-fledged trend. Based on the material of Russian-language publications issued in Bulgaria and reflected in the database of the Bibliography Department of the Russian State Library “Books in Russian Published Abroad, 1927—1991”, the article identifies the main representatives of Bulgarian literary modernism: P. Todorov, P. Yavorov, A. Dalchev, A. Strashimirov, N. Furnadzhiev, A. Karalichev, D. Debelyanov, G. Milev, N. Rainov, T. Trayanov. The author attempts to determine a specific place for each of them within the framework of the considered trend. On the basis of individual and collective publications identified when accessing the specified database, the article outlines the main features of the creative method and style of each of the authors under consideration, which are supported by examples from the texts. The author draws conclusions about the degree of completeness of Bulgarian modernism adaptation for Russian-speaking readers, which remains insufficient due to the limited number of translations, the tendentious selection of works for translation in the light of the ideological restrictions of the Soviet era, the disregard of a number of leading authors, and the lack of modern reprints and popularization of the accumulated body of translations.