Rositsa Dimcheva

The art of small literary genres (proverbs, maxims, aphorisms, maxims, reflections) encompasses the multifaceted figurative sententious phraseology of folklore; the rhythmically condensed figurative formulas of Ecclesiastes, Tacitus, Juvenal; the psychological insights of writers from the “school” of La Rochefoucauld. Coming as an enlightenment and catharsis of the spirit, these works harmoniously unite reflection and feeling, poetry and eternal truth. The organic fusion of vivid impression and reflection connects the sententious to the great questions of life. Pascal’s “Thoughts”, Goethe’s “Maxims in Prose” or the aphorisms of Fr. Kafka reveal an inner penetration between art, on the one hand, and science and philosophy, on the other. Sententious thought proceeds from the fullness of views and accurately captures the nature of things. Depending on the nature of these works, Jul. Petersen places them in the outermost sphere of literature, since they go beyond the limits of purely poetic experience and reach the realm of thought, a moral or theological lesson. Petersen's treatment follows Goethe's classical statements and allows for rich observations on the problematics of literary genres and types. Maxims are seen as a "monologue depiction of a state" and are placed between the epic and the lyric, but remain closer to the lyric.

Dobri Chintulov is our first poet who has a developed sense of the nature of various literary genres and forms. The lyrics and poems of Pushkin and Lermontov, the works of the Russian pseudo-classics and pre-romanticists (Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Baratynsky, etc.) awaken in him the follower, not the imitator. Acquaintance with an impressive literary tradition leads to the manifestation and progress of personal powers. As with any original talent, here too the school suggests above all that which corresponds to one's own nature. Chintulov does not experience the anxiety of P. R. Slaveykov, who has to struggle with weak literary preparation, and marks the beginning of that intimate kinship with the forms of poetic art, with the style and composition of poetic genres, without which any creativity is unthinkable. While Nayden Gerov still struggles with the principle of organization, in Chintulov the motifs find their most appropriate expression in the forms of the hymn, the elegy, and the poem.