Версии

The text sets out to examine the transformation of folklore and mythological family patterns in the literature of the Bulgarian national revival, concentrating its interest on the way different power and leadership models intertwine throughout this process. The attention is focused on the mechanisms of authority-display, arranged on several levels of power constructions. The first one considers family from an optimistic and utopian point of view. Family is interpreted as a hierarchical structure of subordinations which follow the model of Universal order. The conclusion is that through the sacred comprehension of marriage, through its interpretation as a secular correspondence of the sacred archetype, the matrimonial institution is accepted as an irrevocable stage of the personal development, as a compulsory element of everyone's socialization. The general perception is that relations in family are governed by love, affection, harmony and mutuality. Observing the general line of interpreting power simultaneously as authority, influence, arresting magnetism, on the one hand, and as domination, supremacy, oppression, tyranny, control, on the other, the text unfolds the next aspect of power-roles distribution in the family. The second part concentrates on the pragmatic and realistic uses of power. The attention is focused on the problem of the split symmetry - inequality in family relations. The turns start when the sacred archetype passes through all degrees of desacralization, when authority converts into a form of property - of one person over the other. The profane aspect of the male-female relations debases the "high" concepts and degrades the elevated values to a degree of general negation. The third part examines family as a manifestation of coercion, force, anger, violence and outrage. It turns out that the general moral standards and the noble rules of behaviour are not able to control the mighty world of savage selfishness; that culture and love are defeated and shattered by destructive instincts. The symbolic imagery of marriage is presented by a full-toned scale of evil. Family turns into a total collapse of the social contract.

This paper provides a brief history of the diffusion and spreading of the Book of Sindbad, a medieval Persian collection of tales, in the Slavonic-Balkan area, in particular, in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian, Serbian and Rumanian versions are derived from the Greek printed version, dating from the late 17 th or early 18 th century; therefore, they represent a very late stage in the history of the Book. The book was translated in Bulgarian for the first time by Bishop Sofronij of Vratsa, and included in his Second Vidin Collection, a manuscript dating back to 1802. The collection was transcribed and slightly altered by priest Atanas (Krast'o), in 1850. The second Bulgarian translation, made by Hristaki Pavlovich, was edited in 1844 and in 1854. Such a translation is the basis of numerous adaptations between the late 19th and the first quarter of the 20 th century; the editorial tradition of the Book of Sindbad in Bulgaria is quite impressive. Particular attention is paid to the different ways of translation and interpretation in the Bulgarian manuscript and printed versions.