The Use of Religious Motifs and Themes in the Short Essays of Georgi Markov and Petar Uvaliev

This paper compares the short essays of two of the most prominent Bulgarian political exiles in the United Kingdom in the second part of the 20th century – Petar Uvaliev (1915–1998) and Georgi Markov (1929–1978).  Both  authors  wrote  their  essays  to  be  aired  on  the  radio – Markov wrote them for the Radio Free Europe, Deutsche Welle and BBC, whereas Uvaliev’s texts appeared in the weekly BBC radio program Five minutes with Petar Uvaliev. Even though the life and writing trajectories of these authors differ significantly, as well as their perspectives on the totalitarian regime in People’s Republic of Bulgaria, their writings find common ground in the exploration of religious ideas and stylistic devices. This article seeks to identify the similarities and the differences in the ways Markov and Uvaliev treat religious themes and motifs in their essays. The paper also highlights the great art of essay writing and their intimate and strong connection to the Bulgarian cultural tradition.