THE “TEXTUAL” BAY GANYU AND HIS ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGES, OR WHERE DID THE BELGIAN ROOM, THE VIENNA REDINGOT AND THE PALACE FRACTURE DONE?
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 “TEXTUAL” BAY GANYU AND HIS ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGES, OR WHERE DID THE BELGIAN ROOM, THE VIENNA REDINGOT AND THE PALACE FRACTURE DONE?
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Alexander Panov, Prof. DSc.
- [email protected]
- Institute for Literature – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
- Bulgaria
Aleksandar Panov, born in 1953 in Pernik, graduated in Bulgarian Philology from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" in 1978. He earned his PhD (Candidate of Sciences) with a dissertation titled "Genres in Bulgarian Lyric Poetry at the Turn of the Century: An Essay in Historical Poetics" (1985). He became a Senior Research Fellow (Associate Professor) in 1997. He obtained his Doctor of Sciences (D.Sc.) degree with a dissertation on "The Artistic System of Botev's Poetry" (2011) and was appointed Professor of Literary Theory and History at the Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, in 2012.
His primary research interests encompass literary theory, literary anthropology, genre theory, and the historical poetics of Bulgarian literature.
Major Publications:
"Literary Theory" (1995; 2nd ed. 2000)
"Cultural Issues of Bulgarian Literary Development" (1997)
"The Artistic System of Botev's Poetry" (2012)
"‘Songs and Poems’ by Hristo Botev: Structure, Main Plots, and Symbolic Images" (2012)
"The Literary Image Outside the Space of the Book" (2013)
Alongside numerous academic articles and studies on literary theory, historical poetics, literary anthropology, and genre theory, as well as multiple secondary school textbooks and educational resources
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Abstract: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.
Subject: East of the New AgeKeywords: traditionalism modernity narration cultural function wordliness literature genre -
References
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