https://doi.org/10.60056/Lit.2024.33.328-348
https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1306324
Praise of Masculinity: Images of Manhood in Popular Genre Literature
Polina Penkova
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria
pmpenkova@gmail.com
The study deals with the representations of masculinity in Bulgarian popu- lar genre literature. Masculinity is examined as a convention that undergoes changes in different cultural, ideological and social contexts. The attention falls on two plots of masculinity, responsible for different periods of the Bulgarian cultural and historical situation: the eras of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the Transition. The communist idea of the man as a symbol of the regime is explored through the works on Emil Boev by Bogomil Raynov and the novel “The Forward” by Atanas Mandajiev. The ideal of brutal masculinity of the time after 1989. is shown through Hristo Kalchev’s “Vulgar Novels”. The research shows that popular genre literature becomes a means of visualizing and educating the current dominant model of masculinity.
Keywords: Masculinity, gender, stereotypes, ideology, genre literature
For citations: Penkova, P. Praise of Masculinity: Images of Manhood in Popular Genre Literature. – In: The Literature. Year XVIII (2024), Issue 33. Sofia, Univerisity Press “St. Kliment Ohridski”. (In Bulgarian)
About the author: Polina Penkova is a PhD student and first-level researcher at the Department of Bulgarian Literature at the Faculty of Slavic Philology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. Her interests are focused on contem- porary Bulgarian literature and gender studies. She is an author of scientific and artistic texts.
