literary history

The text is an analysis of the reader's figure in Hristo Karastoyanov's novel “The Same Night” (2014). In accordance with the instrumental framework of the ‘Reader in the Text’ project, the analysis traces the way in which the novel models its implied reader. The figure of this reader turns out to be essentially connected the problems of history and within its framework – the history of literature. Therefore, the key competence that the novel “The Same Night” expects from its reader is the knowledge of the political history of Europe and Bulgaria, but much more of the history of Bulgarian literature and its forms of problematization of the historical after the Liberation of Bulgaria (1878) and onwards.

The article analyses the results of a survey conducted with students, related to the short stories published in the daily newspapers in the 1990s of the XX century. Based on the received answers, a study of the literary field in the reviewed period and the ontological characteristics of the media in which the stories are published is made. The focus is put on the problem of rapid "aging" of the aesthetic patterns, as well as on the issue of the specific "informational archive" in which the works are conserved in the libraries. The article analyses the question of the factors—including political-ideological ones—that form certain receptive readers’ attitudes and expectations towards published literary short stories

Literature is an art studied as a discourse through the discourses of the humanities. Art academies form musicians, artists, etc., whereas the literary academy – teachers and researchers. As a discourse, literature provokes interest through its ability to present while hiding, i.e. as an allegory to unveil, its contextualisation being its flip side. The interpretative approach produces essays that do not satisfy academic criteria because they do not provide teachable knowledge or articulate messages, nor do they refer to or upgrade the existing research field, as they decline continuity and any will for belonging to the academic community through reproducing its language. The integration of the two approaches is possible, however, in the reconsideration of literature as an emerging reality.

The review is devoted to the second part of “Bulgarian Literature of 21st Century (2020 ‒ 2022)” by Milena Kirova. The main thematic and genre fields of interest are highlighted, including migrant literature, the novel and poetry of the second decade of the 21st century, Bulgarian dystopia, etc. The potential of the monograph to favour future, more segmented and in-depth studies of Bulgarian literature from the period is also considered and discussed.