Alexander Panov, Prof. DSc.

The article starts from the discrepancy between the visual image of Bai Ganyo imposed by Bulgarian artists and the descriptions of the character in the text of the work, in order to ask the question of what is the model on which the book is built. Is this the model of realistic literature, as the work is usually read, or is it some other? The distinction introduced by Sergey Averintsev between the models of ancient Greek literature and Near Eastern literature has been used to defend the thesis that Bai Ganyu exhibits all the basic signs of literature. The main characteristics of this model are: the allegorical poetics of the parable, not of ekphrasis; the involvement of the word directly in life situations; indexical, rather than iconic, function of verbal descriptions of the visual; the fundamental incompleteness of the work; manifestation of the personages as “ethos” rather than “characters”; functioning of the work as part of a ritual, in which its social function is realized through direct instruction. The analysis of the book in accordance with this model concludes that the allegorical meanings of the two main problematic concepts in it – “European” and “Bai Ganyu” – are different in the first and second parts. Thus, the question arises about the genre of the work, which also determines its place in life – way of perception, cultivated patterns of behavior and social function. The thesis that Bai Ganyu – Incredible Stories of a Modern Bulgarian is a novel has been disputed, and it has been stated that the book is a cycle of stories built on the paradoxical combination of the models of parable and anecdote, and its entirety is organized 100not around a single story, as would happen in a novel, but around the main problem that the book poses. The problem of the difficult transition of Bulgaria and Bulgarians to the conditions, values, lifestyle and social rules of modernity.

The article examines some of the most problematic aspects of genre theory: the relationship between the concepts of architext and genre; the grounds for the existence of genre and its function in the social being of the work of art; the prerequisites that led to the emergence of genre as an important element of artistic communication. For a long time, genre was perceived primarily as a structural entity, serving mainly the needs of classification. Recently the idea that its function is related to the communicative essence of the artistic discourse appeared. In practice, genre fulfills the role of a discursive norm, organizing all aspects and levels of artistic impact. This circumstance also determines the role that genre plays in realizing the social functions of verbal art. Therefore, the main prerequisites that led to the emergence of genre as an important element of artistic activity are considered mainly within the framework of cultural anthropology. The most important prerequisite for the emergence of genre, according to the hypothesis defended by the article, is the appearance of the fiction related to the emergence of narration, dividing artistic discourse into two events – referential (the event that is narrated) and communicative (the event of the narration itself). It is this duality that defines any artistic discourse as fictional, regardless of whether it presents documentary or fictional events. The other two main prerequisites for the emergence of the literary genre are the nature of literature as writing, which is a specific social phenomenon, and on the other hand, the appearance of the idea of aesthetic activity, which in turn leads to the formation of such specific literary institutions as individual authorship and poetics as a manifestation of literary self-awareness.

Книгата, която любознателните читатели държат в ръцете си, е първият брой от поредицата на Института за литература при БАН „Studia Litteraria Serdicensia“, която беше замислена като продължение на излизалия през 50-те и 60-те години на ХХ век годишник „Известия на института за българска литература при БАН“. В този смисъл темата на нейния първи том изглежда напълно закономерна.

The article tries to answer the question of what are the reasons for the emergence of repetition as a sustainable cultural practice. The need for it is derived first of all from the fact that culture is a phenomenon that is not inherited biologically, and therefore in the process of its transmission from generation to generation its norms must be constantly recalled and updated. Hence the need for each new idea to be legitimized as inherited from tradition. However, in the epoch of modern literature and culture, which raises the individual-creative 37principle as its main principle, this need for repetition is a paradox. And especially a manifestation of repetition, known as a remake. Moreover, the definition of this phenomenon is based not simply on the development of sustainable motifs and plots, but on their processing in previous works of art, building a specific fund of culture, which the German researcher Elizabeth Frenzel defined with the term Stoff. To find an answer to this paradox, the article analyzes two typical cases: The two film adaptations of Indro Montanelli’s novel “Il Generale della Rovere” made by Roberto Rossellini in 1959 and Carlo Carlei in 2011, on the one hand, and on the other – the famous novel quatrain of Thomas Mann “Joseph and his brothers”, written on a famous biblical story. As a result of the analysis of these typical cases, the article comes to the answer to the question what is the function of repetition in culture. On the one hand, it aims to bring the existing order of problematization and revaluation in line with the needs of the changing social environment. On the other hand, pointing to the ancient roots of the developed motif, repetition provides identity and continuity of the world. And the phenomenon of remake, as a child of the postmodern era, introduces a very effective rule: Let us not be deceived that our way of seeing and appreciating the world is the only right one. It is much better to compare different ways, which provides a much more reliable basis for free moral judgment, while preserving the stability and identity of the world.