Penka Vatova

The article interprets otherness as a distinctive feature of the person, positioning him beyond the scope of the community to which he belongs. That distinction is often behavioural and does not correspond to the moral conven- tions of the social group. It often brings about the rejection of the individual, and dooms him to misunderstanding, aloneness, even death. The following two works of the contemporary Bulgarian literature have been selected for observation: the 125short novel The Barrier by Pavel Vezhinov and the novella “Verse for Her” by Nikolai Vatov. The analytical parallel between the characters in the two lite- rary works has been driven by difference as a viewpoint for their interpretation.

The article addresses the period from the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945 and focuses on the historical events impact on the fate of people from different social layers, as this reflection is recreated in the novels War by Yana Yazova and The Meek by Angel Igov. The central characters’ story in the two novels, who stand on both sides of the line that radically divided Bulgarian society after the Communists took power back on September 9, 1944, is traced. The psycho-emotional profiles of the characters and the narrative strategies, that are used to motivate their personal behavior, are analyzed. The characters’ fate is the basis on which readers are left to value the historical events. The article also emphasizes the narrative techniques, which consider the time distance of the writing in relation to the depicted events, so that the historical narrative is as close as possible to the truth.