Emiliyan Stanev

The text reveals the reckless human attempt to skip the a posteriori – a priori gate and on the side of the finiteness and immediacy of the occasional existence, to deny the infinity of the divine being. Two remarkable authors ‒ Friedrich Nietzsche and Emiliyan Stanev ‒ take this road and frustrate in their efforts to establish the moral rightfulness of the antichrist, including via loading themselves with this ungrateful existential role.

The article offers a comparative reading of two short novels – “Scott Reynolds and the Unattainable” by Emilian Stanev (1973) and “Death in Venice” by Thomas Mann (1913) – ‘comparative’ primarily on a large cultural-civilizational scale, in which Stanev’s novel raises and further develops the main themes and motifs of Thomas-Man’s one. Namely, the global problem of the end of Western humanistic culture 202under the pressure of modern Technique/Machenschaft (Heidegger), collapsing towards the natural-monstrous. The similar structure and the common symbolic topoi of the two works are considered: ‘old man― child’, ‘North/West―South/East’...