Projects
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 inerval 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 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.
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 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.