https://doi.org/10.60056/Lit.2024.33.136-153
https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1306312
Journalism and the Novel – Peter Zavoev, “The Crooked Pear”
Albert Benbassat
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria
albert_benbasat@abv.bg
The mass book in Bulgaria, following the foreign publishing model, starts from the newspaper feuilleton – the so-called novel-feuilleton, as well as the pamphlet novel with a sequel. In the beginning, these cheap sensational readings are only translations, with the main role in their publication and distribution being played by the newspapers themselves. At the end of the 19th and the be- ginning of the 20th century, the daily Bulgarian press relied extremely heavily on sensationalism, on yellow journalism, which applied the same ‘novel’ approach. One of its most prominent representatives is Petar Zavoev, who is also the author of the first original Bulgarian sensational novel “The Crooked Pear” (1908), which was initially published in paperbacks and later as a separate book. It is this novel that is the subject of consideration in the present article, which analyzes the problem-thematic orientation, the plot, the characters and the author‘s visual means. “The Crooked Pear” follows the collapse, the trag- edy of the patriarchal family in the period of the so-called initial accumulation. This social-life issue is widespread in the Bulgarian literature of the time, but Petar Zavoev approaches it with melodrama, which is openly naturalistic – the disintegration of the rich family is not due to social and living circumstances, but due to the will of biological instincts, pathological deviations, incest, etc.
The author relies on the sensational twists, the entanglement of the intimate intrigue, the piquancy combined with eroticism and – more or less – the foretold dramatic-tragic denouement.
Keywords: novel-feuilleton, mass book, sensational novel, yellow press, Petar Zavoev
For citation: Benbassat, A. Journalism and Novel – Petar Zavoev, “The Croo- ked Pear”. // The Literature, Year XVIII, 2024, Issue 33. Sofia: Univerisity Press “St. Kliment Ohridski”. (In Bulgarian)
About the author: Albert Benbassat (b. 1950) is a literary historian, critic, book researcher, publicist and publisher; professor, lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. He is the author of 15 books, including “The Erotica of Kiril Hristov“ (1995), “The Bulgarian Erotiada“ (1997), “Literary Adventures“ (2000), “The Book as a Body and as a Spirit (2004), “‘The European’ Bai Ganyu and the bright myth of Shtastlivetsa“ (2005), “Printed Spaces and White Field“s (2010), “Banknotes and Dreams Between the Covers. Mass Book and Mass Publishing“ (2011), “Alice in Digital World. On the Question of the Book in the 21st Century“ (2013), “The Pseudoscience of the Book“ (2014), “Lost Things“ (stories) (2020), “When the Big Become Small“ (novel) (2023). He has published a number of studies, articles, journalism, stories and reviews in the press and literary publications. He is the editor of Kritika magazine and Kritika Library, editor and compiler of numerous books.
