Страшимир Цанов

The article examines a key episode from “Notes on Bulgarian Uprisings” by Zakharii Stoyanov – the suicide of Angel Kanchev, which serves as initiation of the narrator-protagonist. The author analyzes the dialogue between national ideology and Christian religion in the book and presents it as a kind of citation-identification. For Z. Stoyanov the revival patriotic discourse, while incorporating certain elements of the Christian religious system, corresponds with its general significance. The exceptional prestige of the religious and national-ideological systems during the Bulgarian Revival determines the specificity of their relationship as one of mutual identification. The powerful significance of Christian values for the axiological appropriation of patriotic ideas does not allow Christian motives and symbols to be merely quoted; they serve as communion in both life and literature. The ideologized man of the national revival period is not trying to instrumentalize the archetypes – he wants to identify and merge with them.

The paper deals with the rhetoric and narrative models with the help of which Zachari Stoyanov’s biographical work builds up the national-historical myth Botev. There is an interpretation of the functions of the existence of the rationalistic and positivistic point of view in forming Botev’s personality and the irrationalistic point of view that a genius is something inexplicable. The meanings emphasizing the exceptionality, the uniqueness of Botev has been dealt with. The observations that have been made prove that Zachari Stoyanov’s text shows as the nature of Botev’s uniqueness his feeling for freedom. With that feeling the biographical discourse links the poetic identity of the poet-chieftain’s life. The paper interprets the way Zachari Stoyanov’s biography uses poetry’s value to mythologize Botev and his historic significance.There is analysis of the role of the creation of the myth Botev on the, emphasized in the text, identity life – poetry. The research highlights the significance of Zachari Stoyanov’s work on the existence of this myth in the spiritual history of the Bulgarian people.