Инна Пелева

Bulgaria's intellectuals of the National Revival period are not the only ones faced with the "enlightenment or revolution" dilemma. The same issue is of concern to Bulgarian intellectuals throughout the age of socialism. The paper looks into the peculiarities of Tsvetan Stoyanov's stance on the "problem"; these peculiarities manifest themselves in the literary texts and in the criticism written by the erudite author. Tsvetan Stoyanov and Georgi Markov are contrasted as polar opposites in terms of the possible choices for the Bulgarian intellectual before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The part of Ivaylo Petrov"s fiction that usually attracts critical attention today features the texts recreating different aspects of the life of Bulgarian peasants. This article seeks to revive the writer"s other works - the ones he conceived as an attempt to display a different face and to prove that he had overcome his commitment (being of peasant origin himself) to the "conventional patriarchal Bulgarian" mindset. The paper shows how the writer"s resistance to his "inherited identity" subsides with time (especially towards the end of his career) and how he evolves into a champion of the values and the worldview that he used to rebel against in his youth.

The article examines generically diverse post-1989 Bulgarian texts based on crime stories. It compares representations of criminality in the literature of the People's Republic of Bulgaria and in the fiction of local authors from the post-communist era. The focus is on how new narratives about criminals and detectives shape assessments about the present, the legacies of the totalitarian era, and the presence (or absence) of justice within Bulgaria’s contemporary socio-political reality.

By focusing on the communicative strategy of G. Gospodinov’s “Time Shelter”, the paper aims to identify some of the reasons for the success of the novel in a non-Bulgarian environment. The focus is also on the image of Bulgaria that “Time Shelter” builds; in relation to this image, the paper considers concepts such as “pamphlet” and “feuilleton” from a functional perspective.

The article focuses on how state regulations of academic promotion affect research and publication policies. The text highlights other factors that exercise pressure on researchers: the mechanisms of funding research, the political conjuncture, and the dominant ideology. The author claims that excessive regulation in the academic sphere does not stimulate genuine contributions to knowledge, nor does it encourage researchers to enlighten society, i.e. inform the general public about discoveries and ideas in the respective field.