BOTEV‘S PRAYER – RETURN TO AUTHENTIC MODELS OR TRANSFORMATION OF GENRE
The article examines the potential of spiritual energy invested in one of the works of the great Bulgarian poet – the socalled “Revival prayer“, the role of the individual and his responsibility to God. Central to “My Prayer“ are images, themes, and motifs from the Bible, along with contemporary issues of institutional religion, which have been moved away in many aspects from genuine human care. Attention is paid to the structure of the prayer and all of its components – from the motto to the final metaphor, but also to the reversal and play with the genre, which gave rise to many contradictory interpretations of the text. A question has been touched on some religious motifs, repeated in other works of Botev, incl. the ideological suggestions of the poet’s new testament.
BOTEV‘S PRAYER – RETURN TO AUTHENTIC MODELS OR TRANSFORMATION OF GENRE
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Maria Pileva, PhD
- [email protected]
- Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
- Bulgaria
Maria Pileva, born in 1972, completed her Master's degree in the "Translator-Editor" program at the Faculty of Slavic Studies, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" in 2012. She undertook a research specialization at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (2015), and in 2016 she defended her PhD dissertation titled "Religious Motifs in Bulgarian Translations of English-Language Fiction in the 19th Century" at the Department of Bulgarian Literature, Sofia University.
Her research interests encompass literary studies, religion, and translation theory. She works in editing and translation, and is the author of short stories, non-fiction essays, academic articles, and studies published in Literaturen Vestnik, Literaturna Misal, Literaturata, Littera et Lingua, the Sofia University Annual, among others. She has co-edited several academic conference volumes.
In 2018, she was awarded the Bulgarian Translators' Union Award for Outstanding Achievement in Translation Theory, History, and Criticism for her monograph "Rebellion, Hope, Redemption".
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Abstract:The article examines the potential of spiritual energy invested in one of the works of the great Bulgarian poet – the socalled “Revival prayer“, the role of the individual and his responsibility to God. Central to “My Prayer“ are images, themes, and motifs from the Bible, along with contemporary issues of institutional religion, which have been moved away in many aspects from genuine human care. Attention is paid to the structure of the prayer and all of its components – from the motto to the final metaphor, but also to the reversal and play with the genre, which gave rise to many contradictory interpretations of the text. A question has been touched on some religious motifs, repeated in other works of Botev, incl. the ideological suggestions of the poet’s new testament.
Subject: From myth to literatureKeywords: Hristo Botev poetry God prayer religion genre motif
