Tradition and innovation

This is the title of Georgi Tsanev's new book. Compared to "Writers and Problems" (ed. 1961 and 1965) or the latest editions of "Pages from the History of Bulgarian Literature", "Tradition and Innovation" is not as complete, not as representative of the literary work of our prominent literary critic and historian, who turns seventy this year. However, it contains works - first of all, the study "Tradition and Innovation in Bulgarian Literature", as well as the essays on Nikola Furnadzhiev and Asen Raztsvetnikov - which, with their theoretical summaries and the persuasiveness of literary analysis, and with the breadth of literary erudition and the pathos of Marxist critical thought, appear among the best that Georgi Tsanev has left in the last two decades, among the best in our literary history and criticism of that time. He never stood as a dispassionate observer at his literary post, but always perceived the new in Soviet and our literary studies, boldly corrected his own views on the basis of his excellent knowledge of Bulgarian literature. Therefore, he gave his own solution to a number of current literary issues.