THE CRISIS OF MASCULINITY AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN GEORGI STAMATOV’S SHORT STORIES

Abstract

This work analyzes the crisis of masculinity in terms of modernization, the change in the relation between the sexes, as well as the crisis of national identity in Georgi Stamatov’s short stories from the perspective of contemporary theoretical works on nationalism and gender, especially masculinity. His male antiheroes sense that traditional values and norms are no longer valid in contemporary Bulgaria and feel nostalgic for the lost masculine and national identity. They all have the feeling that they cannot rely on old norms and values and are trying to find a way out of the crisis. The female characters and feminized topoi of Bulgaria and its capital Sofia usually evoke interpretations connected to the concept of infidelity, which causes an identity crisis in the modern man: while traditional but weak characters Abarov and Malkov are trying to remain faithful, although they have been betrayed by the “new Bulgaria”, “new Sofia” and unfaithful female characters, Viryanov as a modern male achieves an enormous social success by using women in order to climb up the social ladder and betrays Bulgaria with his leaving for Paris, which represents the center of the demonized western modernism.