Творческа

Those who deal with aesthetics know that one of the most talented representatives of French materialism of the 18th century - Denis Diderot - was also a brilliant defender of realistic art. He hated the otherwise skillful artist François Boucher for his sweet, romantically-influenced allegories and pointed to the crude but truthful art of Chardin as a measure for young artists. And just when he opposed creative "hypocrisy" to naive fidelity to nature, Diderot simultaneously claimed that "exaggeration and falsehood lie at the foundation of the arts." Indeed, at first glance, the contradiction is obvious, and the surprised reader instinctively seeks to restore the broken monolithicity in Diderot's views, declaring the quoted thought to be a random thought or a "pen error." But here is the creator of socialist realism - Maxim Gorky, whose aesthetic concepts were incomparably clearer than those of Diderot, considers exaggeration and fiction to be inevitable aspects of the artist's work. Obviously, here the theory of art is faced with a real antinomy, which must be clearly stated and explained: how to combine the principle of the truthful reflection of reality with the inevitability of exaggeration and fiction? Are not the latter an attempt on the sincerity of the artist, which we in any case solemnly demand of him? These questions - interesting in themselves - have a direct connection with one of the most vividly treated problems of our aesthetic science: the problem of the reflection of reality, undoubtedly in art. It is precisely

Every unbiased reader cannot fail to notice that in his new book of literary-critical articles "Writers and Time" Pencho Danchev embarks on a very interesting discussion about the significant achievements and painful new searches, about the inevitable difficulties, experimental passions and obstacles in the development of our contemporary poetry. He does not hide his justified enthusiasm for the fact that in our contemporary literature there are different and very good poets, broadly reflecting life, its clashes, sharp conflicts and rapid changes. He shares his own reflections, generated by the creative originality of such an outstanding master of lyric poetry as Nikola Furnadzhiev. He analyzes the most significant in the work of the poets Veselin Hanchev, Valeri Petrov, Radoy Ralin and Penyo Penev. He rejoices in the irrepressible impulses and the excited discovery of the "young" - Lyubomir Levchev, Vladimir Bashev, Hristo Fotev and Damyan Damyanov. With concern and love he guides the "youngest" - Stefan Tsanev, Ivan Dinkov, Nikola Indjov, Ivan Trenev, Atanas Mochurov, Konstantin Pavlov, Alexander Milanov, Hristo Katsarov, Krastyo Stanishev, Minko Tsonevski, Slav Hr. Karaslavov.

I think that many Bulgarian poets could rightly take part in this conversation. With the wealth of their literary experience, they would enrich our conversation. I will try to answer the questions posed, based not so much on my personal creative practice as on some observations on our poetry.