Книжка-5

1968 Booklet 5 Contents

Much has been written about associations, especially in psychological aesthetics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Translating what has already been published, one would be left with the impression that nothing more could be said. And in fact there is a problem directly related to associations, which is quite modern, and at the same time undeveloped: to study the associative flow - its "layers" and character - but with a view to certain changes in the structure of the artistic image. For even such major aestheticians as T. Lips and J. Folkelt think about associations at all, without taking into account that they - in their nature and type - depend too much on certain changes occurring in art. Such a dependence exists and some artists (more or less consciously) perceive it, striving to take advantage of it with a view to achieving a certain aesthetic effect. Below, of course, we will deal with this dependence between associations and the artistic image, but here we must guard against the possible assumption that every work is associative-potential, i.e., that it is capable of associating in the perceiving subject one or another ideas, feelings, etc. subjective states. On the contrary, such states may not arise at all. The reasons for this may be of a different nature: subjective, rooted in the low artistic culture of the perceiver, in his inability to "decipher" the conventional language with which the image is created, etc.; objective, inherent in the work of art itself.

I love to read obituaries, in them you can faintly feel the breath of some foreign, unsuspected, unique life. Once, on a short Sofia street, I read a freshly unzipped obituary. Apparently, my gaze was drawn to the unusual name, the deceased was of Italian origin. Not long after, I encountered this name in a poem by Valeri Petrov, included in his latest book, it is called "Whipped by the Wind". Since I had seen V. Petrov working on his car on that street, I mentally connected these two facts. I simply became an involuntary witness to the birth of one of his poems, or rather, its associative impulse. And as is usually the case in poetry, the most insignificant fact can give rise to emotional reflection. In this case, Valeri Petrov passed by the house, read the obituary, and an emotional idea was born in him, which later grew into a lasting poetic summary. Many passers-by have passed by the mournful inscription about Angelo Ruggeri, but none of them has made poetry out of this fact, has not turned it into a unique emotional experience, into a sad reflection on human destiny.

The problem of the connections of Bulgarian writers with the world masters of the artistic word and more specifically with the Russian ones is of important methodological and practical importance. Today everyone agrees that in the development of Bulgarian literature - classical and contemporary - bright examples of typological and contact phenomena are found. That is why it is especially necessary to indicate the nature of this influence and it is with each individual author, since this will shed additional light on the literary process as a whole. In this sense, the legacy of Aleko Konstantinov hides very interesting, still incompletely studied literary material. His work shows its own specific features, and along with them also carries the common: close acquaintance with the works of Pushkin and Lermontov, Gogol and Turgenev, Nekrasov and Shchedrin, as well as some basic principles in the aesthetics of Belinsky, Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov - help our author to grow as a significant national writer. But they only guide him! Because, as I said, Aleko Konstantinov is an original Bulgarian satirist and feuilletonist. First and foremost, he relies on our national literature, no matter how scarce it was in terms of works and traditions at that time. All his works grow on our soil, they are an exciting echo of the social quests of our people in the 80s and 90s of the last century.

The differences between artistic (concrete-figurative) and scientific (abstract-conceptual) thinking have long been the subject of research. So far, literary science has given us a relatively accurate solution to this problem - starting from the imperfect definition "art is thinking in images, and science - in concepts" and ending with the synthetic definition "in science, the objects described are signs for themselves, and in art - figurative signs for human states". The organicity of scientific thinking presupposes a precise logical construction and precisely derived concepts and ideas. In other words - correspondence between the logical construction and the ability of the human mind to abstraction. The main prerequisite for the organicity of artistic thinking is the harmony between the elements that transform objects into figurative signs. That is, the harmony between the ideological and formal elements. For different arts, these elements are different and enter into the most diverse connections.

The historical fate of the Bulgarian people has not been particularly favorable for the free and full expression of its intellectual and creative potential. Nevertheless, the national conquests in various fields of knowledge, of spiritual life in general, give us every reason to be proud, to present ourselves with dignity to the outside world. In less than a hundred years of independent national and political life, scientific thought has developed with rare intensity and today we can already compete with other advanced nations with dignity. Therefore, all the greater are the merits of those pioneers of scientific research who had to plow virgin lands, to blaze trails, especially in the field of Bulgarian studies. They were destined to overcome innumerable obstacles of every nature, to overthrow layered prejudices, to dispel the fog with which some wanted to veil our nationality. The primary task of the people of humanitarian scientific thought was to bring our centuries-old cultural heritage out of oblivion, to reveal the cultural-historical, moral-aesthetic riches of previous eras, to study and make known the spiritual conquests of new generations, to clear the way and create the necessary prerequisites for further advancement. And considering that the ruling circles in Newly Liberated Bulgaria, caught up in political disputes, in a race to get rich, did not care about the fate of people possessed by higher spiritual impulses, of the creative intelligentsia, the feat of those who, striving for new spiritual horizons, devoted themselves to scientific research activities in order to shed light on the diverse problems related to the past, present and future of our people, will stand out even more clearly. That is why our gratitude to these builders of a new cultural Bulgaria, who went through many trials, but remained faithful to their calling, to their national duty - to elevate our national scientific thought to the level of advanced cultural nations, is today all the greater and historically justified.

Recently, in the Smetana Hall of the National House in Prague, a closed VI International Congress of Slavic Scholars was opened. Nearly two thousand of the most famous Slavic scholars in the world and as many guests had the opportunity, over the course of a whole week, to communicate in debates from the stands or in intimate conversations on the ancient streets and parks of Prague; to exchange scientific considerations and thoughts, searching for the great truth about the past and present life of the Slavic peoples, about their spiritual closeness with other non-Slavic peoples, about their common civic quests and spiritual aspirations, about their closeness in everyday life, in language, in verbal folk and personal creativity... And this great conversation about the peculiar fate of Slavism, which began again in the same hall approximately four decades ago at the First Slavic Congress (1929), is constantly expanding and deepening. More and more participants are making their modest contribution; More and more Slavic scholars are presenting their insights and discoveries, their themes and aspirations, solutions, hypotheses and concepts into scientific circulation... Sometimes - successfully defended and scientifically argued, and sometimes without analysis and based on random signs, without a deep knowledge of the facts and based on data devoid of any scientific systematics.

We know under what circumstances and when Nikola Vaptsarov wrote his two death poems: "Farewell", dedicated to his wife, and "The Fight is Mercilessly Cruel". The poet wrote under them the date July 23, 1942 and the hour - 2 p.m., on the very eve of his execution. The excitement that overwhelms us when we read these two poems of two stanzas is irresistible: they sound in our hearts and memories, vibrate as if each verse is a string, constantly vibrating under the pressure of a feeling, immeasurable in its depth, a sublimation of a shaking lyricism. Perhaps before Vaptsarov, only in Botev - in his "Farewell" - do we find such dramatic tension and feel such a conquering power of the lyrical wave.

Mikhail Tchaikovsky - Sadyk Pasha, one of the most popular Polish writers of the last century and an active political figure, spent 30 years of his life in the Turkish Empire. He first arrived in Constantinople in 1841 as a political agent of Prince Adam Czartoryski. Brave, energetic, mobile, he undertook a number of journeys around the European part of the empire and soon began to orient himself very well on a number of issues related to the political situation and the way of life of the enslaved Balkan peoples. His close connections with Konstantin Ognyanovich (for some time - Tchaikovsky's assistant), Neofit Bozveli and Ilarion Makariopolsky, along with his close cooperation with some prominent Serbian politicians (Vučić, Petronović) and the Serbian diplomatic representative in Constantinople - Lazar Teodorović, deepened and consolidated his knowledge.

No one in our country has contributed so much to revealing the true face of the great Gorky, to the correct interpretation of his revolutionary work, to its translation and popularization, as Georgi Bakalov. For nearly forty years he has been his tireless translator and passionate critic, editor and publisher. This multifaceted and diverse activity of Bakalov has been the subject of research more than once in our country, and recently in the Soviet Union. Very rich and new material was presented in their articles and works by A. Todorov, 105 St. Karakostov, Zh. Avdzhiev, Iv. Tsvetkova, the Soviet Bulgarian scholars V. Zlidnev and L. Erikhonov.

Saturated with intense reflection and feelings, the epic poem by the great Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi "The Madman" is one of the first translations of Hungarian literature in our country. It is associated with the name of the national poet Ivan Vazov. He was the first to translate and print it in his magazine "Dennitsa". Although not very popular in Hungary, in Bulgarian translation "The Madman" became one of the most recited poems in our country. Its dramatic texture, the sharply posed problems in a socio-ethical aspect, the bold and direct conclusions, reaching at some moments a decisive protest conscious and directed in a certain direction, make it not only a relevant, but also a highly influential work for the time. For such great popularity, Vazov also has some merit, who with a sense of proportion and poetic flair managed to give artistic flesh to the hatred for the world of corruption or indolence, which permeates the tragic monologue of the Hungarian poet. In 1967 in "Studia slavica". organ of the section "Linguistics and Literary Studies" of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences published an interesting article by Istvan Pot. 2 In it, the Hungarian scholar poses the question - through the mediation of which language Ivan Vazov translated "The Madman". This question, as I. Pot himself shares, is "still unresolved". Written in an argumentative manner, with a specific analysis of the artistic and literary-historical facts, this article nevertheless calls for an answer to those problems that have not found a place in it, as well as to further clarify the statement considered by I. Pot about the source of Vazov's translation.

In the history of our old literature there are still details to be clarified, some previous assumptions to be re-evaluated, there is a great need to search for and publish new materials on individual writers or periods. But when one proceeds to re-evaluate previous conceptions, it is necessary that the argumentation be more comprehensive and more convincing, so as not to introduce unnecessary or premature disturbances into the course of our literary history, which has to solve such important tasks, to clarify more fully the content, the problematics and the significance of old Bulgarian literature.

In the notes to volume IV of the works of Kiril Hristov, published by BP, 1967, on page 714 it is noted: More significant fiction and journalistic works by Kiril Hristov, which we do not include in the present volume, are the following: (There follow 2 and a half pages, in which the works of Kiril Hristov in question are listed). After them, on page 716, there is a new note, which says: "Of the articles, literary notes and reviews by Kiril Hristov, we do not include the following: (there are ten new pages that list the articles, literary notes and reviews by Kiril Hristov that were not included in this volume, printed at various times in various newspapers, magazines and other publications.) Among the many names of more or less famous authors about whom Kiril Hristov wrote, the name of Lyubomir Bobevski is also found. I was curious to know what Kiril Hristov could write about this once noisy author of numerous patriotic poems and marches, the most popular of which was "O Dobrudzhanski krai", and I looked for the magazine in which the article about him was printed.

Boyan Nichev is one of our contemporary critics who shows a certain interest in problematic thinking, in the complexity of literary phenomena. He combines a subtle critical observation and a talent for generalizing, for getting to the root of the relevant literary facts. In his writing, he is not spontaneous in the least, passion does not pursue him frantically. On the contrary, you feel how the mind slowly but persistently spreads before us the picture of the relevant literary reality, in order to then reach the regularities and new features of the whole. B. Nichev simply revels in the opportunity to enter the literary phenomenon, for him this is equal to an aesthetic experience. Therefore, he strives for the spiritual discovery to receive a corresponding plastic equivalent, to become visible, "visible" to the reader.