interpretation

През 1977 и 1978 г. парижкото издателство „Сьой" пусна две от последните книги на Цветан Тодоров (последната - Речеви жанрове" - излезе също през 1978 г.), за мислени и осъществени като изследване в исторически план на семиотичните идеи от позицията на схващанията на автора за езиковия символизъм - територия, която той е определил за себе си, ако можем да се изразим така, след оттеглянето на структураЛистичната вълна. Трудно е да се определи жанрът на „Теории на символа“ и „Символизъм и тълкуване". Речта на Тодоров отново носи белезите на висока теоретичност, която срещаме в почти всички негови книги. Тясно се преплитат теоретичното изложение с дълбокия анализ на възгледите на разглежданите автори и експлецитно или като подтекст - едно постоянно търсене на собственото място сред различните схващания, една дълбока лична равносметка. Историческият материал е подбран, за да докаже вижданията на автора и да ги постави в традицията на схващанията на немските романтици, но заедно с това тази традиция е осмислена от вече извърве ния път на неореторика-структуралист. Във втората книга „Символизъм и тълку ване", базирайки се на дихотомията език реч, видена не в перспективата на Сосюр, а в тази на Бенвенист, Тодоров дава името езиков символизъм на „полето на действие на непрекия смисъл“, като се обръща към индийската традиция. В стария спор за съшността на непрекия смисъл, отричан от линг159 вистите и абсолютизиран от Ницше, Тодоров се старае да заеме с една позиция, да го отграничи и превърне в обект на изследване, зачитайки лингвистичната му природа. „Зна ченията, извикани в съзнанието по непряк път, са значения, каквито са и останалите: различават се само по начина на появяване, който е именно асоциирането на присъству ващото с отсъствуващото. Тодоров счита, че непознаването на специфичната природа на означаването (фр. синификасион), смесването му с асоциацията и налагането по този начин на езиковите категории и терминология на символичния процес скрива същността му от погледа, че да се говори непрекъснато за език" и означаване" може да става само ако тези термини са освободени от специфичното им съдържание - нещо, което обаче е научно недопустимо.

This article is based on the question why Bulgarian classic writer Yordan Yovkov’s short story „Albena“ – featured in the collection „Nights at Antym’s Inn“ – has been subject to so many different interpretations of its main concept. Does it reaffirm the strength of love, beauty, or consciousness as the main principles of being? We proceed from the assumption that its interpretation depends on the correct positioning of the text in its relative context, as well as on the adherence to the correct genre paradigm of the text and on the adequate deciphering of its narrative structure. If we position this text in an inadequate context, we will be misled to read, understand and interpret its meaning incorrectly. This is one of the main laws of literary hermeneutics. This is where the author of this article bases his main task – to analyze all elements and aspects of the story’s narrative structure that define its belonging to a particular genre paradigm. This article analyzes in detail the scheme of the plot shaping the story of „Albena“. It infers that each of its elements poses certain questions, regarding both the depicted events and the manner of their depiction. The dilemma whether the story gives answers to these questions or not, as well as the way this is done, allows the development of the plot scheme into nine distinct genre paradigms: a social novel; a psychological novel; a naturalistic novel; a criminal novel; a play depicting everyday matters; an exemplum; a ballad; a short story; and a novella. Yordan Yovkov has chosen only one of these genre paradigms. It defines the meaning and the potential for emotional effect of the story. The article analyzes the role played by the narrator, the composition and the typology of the characters and infers that the narrator has only minimal and purely technical presence in the fictional universe created in this work. In this manner the author allows his reader to perceive the entire development of the plot, with all its vicissitudes of fortune, revelations and wrongful opinions, as objective and disconnected from the author’s claim of demiurgical control. As a result, the four main humanitarian values discussed in the text – life, beauty, love and family – are allowed at least two possible interpretations, depending on the value system we use to rationalize and evaluate them. In general, these rationalizations and evaluations are made by the crowd in the story which plays the part of an ancient Greek tragic chorus, led by the coryphée Old Man Vlasyu. This technique allows us to conclude that the narrative substrate that serves as the basis of „Albena’s“ storyline is the matter whose main task is to test and reevaluate various everyday situations, as well as the validity of certain societal and moral laws that help people rationalize and evaluate them. Hence the final conclusion of the article – the genre paradigm in which „Albena“ has been developed is not the paradigm of the short story, as most analysts believe, but the paradigm of a novella. This conclusion would allow for an adequate readers’ behaviour and for a correct interpretation of the work.

his paper develops a methodological framework to guide the efforts of a research team united by the task of investigating the reader in contemporary Bulgarian literature. For this purpose, we start from the receptive theory of Wolfgang Iser, but the authors develop, change and adapt this theory to the team's own goals. As a result, The Implicit Reader is seen as a textual program and normative instance in the texts, with which try to control and guide the behavior of their real readers. The categories of analysis with which this program can be approached and explored are grouped into three major groups: “repertoires”, “strategies” and “communicative competences”. They are further divided into finer operational sub-categories and tools, allowing shared methodologies of work between team members and comparability of research results.

One of the most frequently analyzed texts in Bulgarian literature is the story „Indje by Yordan Yovkov. What is striking, however, is the large number of contradictory theses and conclusions, each of which claims to give the most adequate interpretation of the meaning laid down in the text. This turns „Indje“ into a real case that requires an adequate solution. The proposed article attempts to analyze these numerous contradictions, and then, on the basis of a detailed narratological analysis, to describe the receptive paradigm adequate for the story. Particularly complicated is the problem that „Indje“ is in fact a retelling of various songs and legends, but the narrative is conducted from a witness's point of view. In addition, the restored memory of the past is expressed in the structure of the work through three different genre paradigms, each of which has its specifics and social function. What reading behavior will allow the most adequate reading of the impact potential set in the text?