Ivaylo Petrov

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.