Dmitriy F. Markov

The problem of the originality of realism of the 20th century and its relationship to other creative methods attracts the keen attention of literary critics, since it is organically connected with the current and vital issues of our time. The experience of every national literature can serve to resolve this problem. Some generalizations, supporting or supplementing our ideas about the peculiarities of the world literary movement of the 20th century, can also be made on the basis of material taken from the literature of Bulgaria. In 1912, A. M. Gorky noted the characteristic feature in the development of Bulgarian literature - the exceptional intensity of the processes taking place in it. It was in this connection that he wrote: "After five centuries of oppression by foreign nationalities, Bulgaria returned to life, bright with individuality, full of creative forces and quickly took its rightful place in the family of cultural nations." Indeed, in Bulgarian literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such phenomena arose and sometimes manifested themselves with great force, which, when taken into account, are of interest of a fundamental nature - they contribute to a broader understanding of both the general regularities and the diversity of national forms in the world literary process. It is characteristic, for example, that the literature of critical realism in Bulgaria, as well as some other countries of Central and Southeastern Europe (unlike a number of Western European countries) at that time was not on the line of decline, but on the line of rise: in the 90s of the last century, Bulgarian critical realism entered the phase of its flowering, establishing itself as the strongest literary trend. At the same time, developing in conditions of heightened class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the revolutionary proletariat already entering the historical arena, Bulgarian literature acquired other features largely similar to those processes that took place in all European literatures in the era of imperialism.

During the time of the cult of personality, quite a few significant works were written, which are the pride of contemporary Bulgarian literature. And the senseless nihilism that existed among a certain part of the youth in relation to the previous period must be resolutely rejected. At the same time, it cannot be ignored that these successes could have been even greater if it were not for the conditions of the cult, which instilled dogmatism, stereotyped thinking, and hindered the normal development of literature. According to the words of Todor Zhivkov, "dogmatism as a theory and practice introduced stiffness, schematism, patterning, and stagnation into creative work."

The great humanist artists always stand close to the progressive ideas of their era. In our time, many of them reach socialism. And they reach it on their own path, through the internal logic of their development; the humanistic power of their talent brings them to the achievement of revolutionary justice. Emilian Stanev appeared in the 1930s. In all his works from those years there is a reflection on the fate of man. In them one can see not only the animalist artist - the subtle connoisseur and painter of nature and animals. These works tell us about the inequality between people, about the wolfish laws of bourgeois society. They are imbued with a deep sadness for the beautiful in man. But the social views of that time and the humanism of the writer did not allow him to see the real perspective of historical development, he could only express his abstract dream of a better order of the world. Later, Stanev began to see in the revolutionary changes in his country those real conditions that create an opportunity for true emancipation of the human personality. The writer was in a dispute - not a speculative-abstract, but a deeply creative one - with various modernist concepts that isolate man from society. The ideological and artistic evolution that took place in him tangibly and concretely gives answers to the great problems of the century - about the true stimuli of artistic progress, about humanism. The gradual discovery of the new world, the developing revolutionary worldview of Stanev significantly moved his artistic horizons, he saw in the revolution the realization of higher humanistic ideals.