Dr. Maria Kalinova will present her research proposal on the topic: "Cryptography in the Bulgarian Revival Correspondence from the 30s and 40s of the 19th Century. Neophyte Rilski" on 14 January 2015 (Thursday) at 16:30h at CAS Conference Hall.

Summary:

The study will focus on the political and cultural uses of the letter and related correspondence practices during the Bulgarian Revival period. The concentration on the interval between the 30s and 40s of the 19th century is associated with the crucial period in the history of Bulgarian Revival epistolary culture. On the one hand, in the 30s and 40s there can be observed a peak in the art of writing letters, as well as a significant improvement of the rhetorical strategies of the texts (a consequence of the use of Greek models and handbooks which are replaced by Russian ones after 1848 when P. R. Slaveykov and Meletios I Lovchanski translated the manual of N.V. Kurganov). On the other hand, the letters from the 30s and 40s operate as a public reflection and an opportunity for a discussion in the absence of developed Bulgarian press (newspapers and magazines).
Taking into account the whole complexity and the nuances of the practice of writing letters and the cultural forms that they can reveal from this period, what specifically will be the subject of the present study is the problem of censorship and the logic of dissent in the correspondence between the Bulgarian Revival intellectuals. The empirical material that will be taken into account during the analysis are encrypted letters exchanged in the intellectual circle around Neofit Rilski, including diplomats from Bulgarian origin and artists like Michael German, Marko Todorovic, Gero Dobrovich – Mushek, Zachary Zograph, Naiden Gerov Hristo Vaklidov and others.
In my presentation I will show the results of the first phase of my work, which is connected with the study of the documentary archive at:
• The scientific archive of the National Museum Rila Monastery;
• The scientific archive of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences;
• The Bulgarian historical archive at the National Library of Bulgaria "St. St. Cyril and Methodius".
Despite the enormous efforts of Ivan Shishmanov, Ivan Snegarov, Arseniy Stobiyski to search for the Neofits letters and their publication as well as for the numerous single publications of letters to him and by him from different times and by different researchers, there are still letters and short manuscripts1-2 pp., which are not identified and are not known to researchers. It turned out that in the Rila Monastery is stored previously unpublished correspondence of Neophyte Risky from his abbot period, which covers the period from 1860 to 1864.