https://doi.org/10.60056/Lit.2024.33.405-425
https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1306332
Georgi Canev Bulgarian Childrens’ Literature Popularity and Mass Production
Alexandra Antonova
Institute for Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
aantonova@ilit.bas.bg
The subject of the present study is Georgi Canev’s article “Literature for Chil- dren”, published “Art and Criticism” magazine in 1939, which interprets chil- dren’s literature in its role and function as popular literature, with all the nega- tives of popularity that threatens to turn creativity into production. The article poses the important literary-sociological (literary-economic) problem of the in- creased market incentive in Bulgarian children’s book publishing at the end of the 1930s, resulting in “advertising” reviews and overproduction of works with degraded conceptual quality. The emphasized economic stimulus, which di- rected almost all active creators and publishers to the Eldorado of the children’s book in the interwar period, raised an alarm about the financial existence of the Bulgarian writer. The flourishing of children’s book publishing, supported by critical passivity, gives Canev an occasion to pose problems of the critical ethos, marked in a small introductory block with positions of Boyan Penev, Georgi Konstantinov, Konstantin Galabov, Minko Nikolov, Malcho Nikolov, Toncho Zhechev, Stoyan Karolev, Efrem Karanfilov, Boyan Nichev as well as to bring out a number of necessary artistic and pedagogical qualities of the text for children, psycho-profiling the young reader.
Keywords: book for children, market, critics, ethos, responsibility
For citation: Antonova, A. Georgi Canev on Mass Production of Bulgarian Children’s Literаture. // The Literature, Year XVIII, 2024, Issue 33. Sofia: Uni- verisity Press “St. Kliment Ohridski”. (In Bulgarian)
About the author: Alexandra Antonova is doctor of philology, Аssociate professor at the Institute for Literature – BAS. In 2009 she defended her doctoral dissertation “Chavdar Mutafov – in Search of Artistic Image”. Author of the monographs “Chavdar Mutafov – in Search of Artistic Image” (2011) and “Konstantin Konstantinov: Possibilities of Recognition and Self-recognition” (2015), as well as of studies on Chavdar Mutafov, Dimitar Dimov, Nikola Vaptsarov, Svetoslav Minkov, Boyan Danovski, Boris Hristov, Kiril Krastev, Boris Shivachev, Zlatomir Zlatanov, Michalaki Georgiev, Georgi Canev, Efrem Karanfilowv, Toncho Jechev, Minko Nikolov, etc., of reviews and scientific- applied articles. Her research interests are focused on the poetics of avant- guard, as well as on the history and reception of Bulgarian literary critics. Editor and compiler of the scientific collections “Spaces of Word. Collection in honor of prof. Svetlozar Igov” in two volumes (2012), “Pencho Slaveikov. 150 Years since his Birth” (2017), “A Book about Ivan Metodiev” (2018), “My Ports are Gone. New Studies on Ivan Peychev from the Conferences on the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of Poet’s Birth, held in Shumen and Sofia” (2018), “Dimitar Talev – the Code of History and the Labyrinths of Present in Literature” (2019), “Bulgarian Literary Critics – Positions and Contexts” (2020), “Bulgarian Literary Critics – Positions and Contexts. Part 2” (2022), “The Play. The Best of “Svetulka” (1904 – 1947) and “Detska radost” (1910 – 1947)” Anthology (2023), “The Path of Bulgarian Literature for Children and Adolescent” (2024).
Head of “Current Readings of New and Contemporary Bulgarian Literature” project at the “New and Contemporary Bulgarian Literature” Section at the Institute for Literature – BAS (2015), as well as head of “Bulgarian Literary Critics” Digital Library” project (2018) and “Bulgarian Literature for Children and Adolescents 20th – 21st century” project (2021), both financed by the National Science Fund.
Web of Science Researcher ID: AAC-1897-2022
