Overview

"Bulgarian Literature as World Literature examines key aspects and manifestations of 20th- and 21st-century Bulgarian literature by way of the global literary landscape. The first volume to bring together in English the perspectives of prominent writers, translators, and scholars of Bulgarian literature and culture, this long-overdue collection identifies correlations between national and world aesthetic ideologies and literary traditions. It situates Bulgarian literature within an array of contexts and foregrounds a complex interplay of changing internal and external forces. These forces shaped not only the first collaborative efforts at the turn of the 20th century to insert Bulgarian literature into the world’s literary repository but also the work of contemporary Bulgarian diaspora authors. Mapping histories, geographies, economies, and genetics, the contributors assess the magnitudes and directions of such forces in order to articulate how a distinctly national, ""minor"" literature--produced for internal use and nearly invisible globally until the last decade--transforms into world literature today."

Full Product Details

Author:   Prof Mihaela P. Harper (Bilkent University, Turkey) ,  Prof Dimitar Kambourov (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic USA
ISBN:  

9781501369780

ISBN 10:   1501369784
Pages:   298
Publication Date:   19 May 2022
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"Foreword - Bulgaria and Its Worlding: A Historical Perspective (Maria Todorova, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA) Acknowledgments Introduction - Modern Bulgarian Literature: Being in the World (Mihaela P. Harper, Bilkent University, Turkey, and Dimitar Kambourov, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) Part I Histories: In Search of a National Profile of World Literature 1. Medieval Bulgarian Literature as World Literature (Diana Atanassova, Sofia University, Bulgaria) 2. Bulgarian Literature in a ""Romaic"" Context (Raymond Detrez, University of Ghent, Belgium) 3. The Bulgarian Literary Space and Its Languages: Monolingual Canon, Plural Writings (Marie Vrinat-Nikolov, INALCO Paris, France) 4. Post-Liberation Literary Quests: From National Nostalgia to Social Anger and Modernist Dreams (Milena Kirova, Sofia University, Bulgaria) 5. Does Bulgarian Literature Have a Place within World Literature? (Amelia Licheva, Sofia University, Bulgaria) Part II Geographies: Bulgarian Literature as Un/common Ground within and without 6. Europeanization or Lunacy: The Idea of World Literature and the Autonomization of the Bulgarian Literary Field (Boyko Penchev, Sofia University, Bulgaria) 7. Anthology Anxieties: Maturity and Mystification (Bilyana Kourtasheva, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria) 8. Anomaly and Distext in Bulgarian Literature: Kiril Krastev (Vassil Vidinsky, Maria Kalinova, and Kamelia Spassova, Sofia University, Bulgaria) 9. Telling History in Many Ways: The Recent Past as Literary Plot (Ani Burova, Sofia University, Bulgaria) 10. Between the Local and the Global: Aporia in Miroslav Penkov’s East of the West (Mihaela P. Harper, Bilkent University, Turkey) 11. Bulgarian Literature: Beyond World Literature into Global Literature (Emiliya Dvoryanova, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria) Part III Economies: Bulgarian Literature on the Global Market 12. Tame Domesticity and Timid Trespasses: Travels and Exoduses (Todor Hristov, Sofia University, Bulgaria) 13. The End of Self-Colonization: Contemporary Bulgarian Literature and Its Global Condition (Alexander Kiossev, Sofia University, Bulgaria) 14. Bulgarians Writing Abroad: Import and (Re)export of the Outsourced Production (Dimitar Kambourov, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) 15. In Between and Beyond: Diaspora Writers and Readers (Yana Hashamova, Ohio State University, USA) 16. Factotum and Fakir: The Translator of Bulgarian Literature into English (Angela Rodel, Translator, Bulgaria) Part IV Genetics: Bulgarian Literature’s Heredities, Affinities, and Prospects 17. Bulgarian Literature’s Localism and (Im)mobility (Darin Tenev, Sofia University, Bulgaria) 18. 1963, 2016: Two Perspectives on Blaga Dimitrova (Julia Kristeva, Université de Paris VII, France) 19. Bulgarian Women’s Literature: Plots and Stories (Miglena Nikolchina, Sofia University, Bulgaria) 20. Writing from the Saddest Place in the World (Georgi Gospodinov, Writer, Bulgaria) 21. Bulgarian Liveliness (Jean-Luc Nancy, European Graduate School, Switzerland) 22. Haide: On a Life that Feels Itself Live (A Response to Jean-Luc Nancy’s ""Bulgarian Liveliness"") (Cory Stockwell, Bilkent University, Turkey) Afterword - Beyond ""Minor Literatures"": Reflections on World Literature (and on Bulgarian) (Galin Tihanov, Queen Mary University of London, UK) Select Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index"

Reviews

This volume is truly a groundbreaking effort that illuminates the often overlooked, but truly multilingual and multicultural nature of Bulgarian literature. Experts, readers with basic knowledge of Bulgarian literature, and those interested in world literature, alike, will benefit from the book, as the diverse contributions gathered here offer a comprehensive overview of the varied approaches necessary to define and evaluate objectively the Bulgarian literary landscape, both at present, in relation to the global literary network, and in its wider historical context. * Maria Hristova, Assistant Professor of Russian and Russian Section Head, Lewis & Clark College, USA * This rich, multifaceted palette of refined, thought-provoking essays interrogates a plethora of concepts--from the literary histories of monolingual national literatures as cannon and anthology, to minor literatures in center-periphery relations, to the cosmopolitan turn of world literature, and finally to the commodification of difference--while at the same time illuminating, with erudite scholarly attention, Bulgarian literature as and in the dynamic processes of multilingual re-interpretation, translation, cross-germination. It will nourish the curiosity of specialists and generalists alike. * Angelina Ilieva, Instructional Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago, USA * How can one write world literature from ‘the saddest place in the world’? The essays in Mihaela P. Harper’s and Dimitar Kambourov’s collection Bulgarian Literature as World Literature provide provocative, sometimes astounding, answers, challenging debates about world literature from cutting edge positions in critical theories today. Reaching back to the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, Bulgarian literatures’ long history informs the volume’s focus on contemporary literatures, including authors from the Bulgarian diaspora who live in a language not their own. The rich array of topics includes literature, nation building, and transnationality; gendered forms of (non-)belonging; economies, global markets, and alternative canons; the anxiety of influence and self-colonization; experimentalism and intertextuality, as well as translation and multilingual writing. With exemplary mindfulness of singularity, the authors demonstrate how so-called minor literatures challenge major literatures from within, ultimately making the distinction obsolete. * Gabriele Schwab, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, USA *

This volume is truly a groundbreaking effort that illuminates the often overlooked, but truly multilingual and multicultural nature of Bulgarian literature. Experts, readers with basic knowledge of Bulgarian literature, and those interested in world literature, alike, will benefit from the book, as the diverse contributions gathered here offer a comprehensive overview of the varied approaches necessary to define and evaluate objectively the Bulgarian literary landscape, both at present, in relation to the global literary network, and in its wider historical context. * Maria Hristova, Assistant Professor of Russian and Russian Section Head, Lewis & Clark College, USA * This rich, multifaceted palette of refined, thought-provoking essays interrogates a plethora of concepts--from the literary histories of monolingual national literatures as cannon and anthology, to minor literatures in center-periphery relations, to the cosmopolitan turn of world literature, and finally to the commodification of difference--while at the same time illuminating, with erudite scholarly attention, Bulgarian literature as and in the dynamic processes of multilingual re-interpretation, translation, cross-germination. It will nourish the curiosity of specialists and generalists alike. * Angelina Ilieva, Instructional Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago, USA * How can one write world literature from 'the saddest place in the world'? The essays in Mihaela P. Harper's and Dimitar Kambourov's collection Bulgarian Literature as World Literature provide provocative, sometimes astounding, answers, challenging debates about world literature from cutting edge positions in critical theories today. Reaching back to the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, Bulgarian literatures' long history informs the volume's focus on contemporary literatures, including authors from the Bulgarian diaspora who live in a language not their own. The rich array of topics includes literature, nation building, and transnationality; gendered forms of (non-)belonging; economies, global markets, and alternative canons; the anxiety of influence and self-colonization; experimentalism and intertextuality, as well as translation and multilingual writing. With exemplary mindfulness of singularity, the authors demonstrate how so-called minor literatures challenge major literatures from within, ultimately making the distinction obsolete. * Gabriele Schwab, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine, USA *

This volume is truly a groundbreaking effort that illuminates the often overlooked, but truly multilingual and multicultural nature of Bulgarian literature. Experts, readers with basic knowledge of Bulgarian literature, and those interested in world literature, alike, will benefit from the book, as the diverse contributions gathered here offer a comprehensive overview of the varied approaches necessary to define and evaluate objectively the Bulgarian literary landscape, both at present, in relation to the global literary network, and in its wider historical context. --Maria Hristova, Assistant Professor of Russian and Russian Section Head, Lewis & Clark College, USA This rich, multifaceted palette of refined, thought-provoking essays interrogates a plethora of concepts--from the literary histories of monolingual national literatures as cannon and anthology, to minor literatures in center-periphery relations, to the cosmopolitan turn of world literature, and finally to the commodification of difference--while at the same time illuminating, with erudite scholarly attention, Bulgarian literature as and in the dynamic processes of multilingual re-interpretation, translation, cross-germination. It will nourish the curiosity of specialists and generalists alike. --Angelina Ilieva, Instructional Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago, USA

Author Information

Mihaela P. Harper is Assistant Professor in the Cultures, Civilizations and Ideas Program at Bilkent University, Turkey. Dimitar Kambourov is Associate Professor in the Literary Theory Division of the Slavonic Studies Department at Sofia University, Bulgaria, and Lector of Bulgarian Language, Literature and Culture at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

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