https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1389177
https://doi.org/10.60056/Lit.2025.35.454–461
Plamen Antov
The review presents an anthological selection of Bulgarian modernist dramas from the first three decades of the 20th century. The publication is the third volume of an ongoing project of the Institute of Literature – BAS entitled “Bulgarian Drama Outside the Canon”. The compilation, scientific commentary and reference material are the work of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marieta Ivanova-Girginova (Institute of Literature) and Dr. Elizaria Ruskova (Sofia University). The volume includes the following works: the tragic poem “Tomiris” by Lyudmil Stoyanov (1924), the tragedy “Omurtag Khan” by Konstantin Mutafov (1925), the tale “Once upon a time…” by Nikolay Raynov (1922) and the tragedy “The Golden Cup” by Ivan Grozev (1907–1908). The review focuses mainly on the way in which the historical theme is symbolically abstracted in the form of a legend in the spirit of the late symbolist-Secession poetics of the magazine “Hyperion” (1922–1931).
Keywords: historical drama, modernism, symbolism, secession, legend
About the author: Plamen Antov is a doctor of science and a professor at the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He is the author of more than 200 scientific publications on a wide range of thematic fields and several monographic studies: “Yavorov–Botev: Modernism and Myth. The Atavistic Memory of Language” (2009), “The Poetry of the 1990s. Bulgarian and Postmodern” (2010), “Bulgarian Postmodernism of XXI–XIX Centuries. Towards the Philosophy of Bulgarian Literature” (2016), as well as the literaryphilosophical comparative research works “Emilian Stanev’s Animalistic Prose. Biopolitical and Philosophical Problems” (Vol. 1, 2019) and “Before the Unattainable: Emilian Stanev and Martin Heidegger” (Vol. 2, 2021). His most recent book is “‘To Chicago and Back’ Beyond the Travelogue. To the Genealogy of Bai Ganyu” (2021).
As the head of the scientific project “Literature and Geography”, he is the author of the collections “Our Americas 1: Latin America and Bulgarian Literature, Bulgarian Traces in Latin America” (2015), “Our Americas 2: The USA as a Metaphor of Modernity. Bulgarian-American Reflections (XX–XXI Centuries)” (2017, in collective) and “Magic Realism” (2019).
Poet and writer, author of books of poetry, stories, fragments, plays; winner of awards for poetry, essayistic and fiction prose, and dramaturgy.
