Bulgarian Literature as World Literature

Mihaela P. Harper is Assistant Professor in the Cultures, Civilizations and Ideas Program at Bilkent University, Turkey.Dimitar Kambourov is Associate Professor in the Literary Theory Division of the Slavonic Studies Department at Sofia University, Bulgaria, and Lector of Bulgarian Language, Literature and Culture at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

This volume is truly a groundbreaking effort that illuminates the often overlooked, but truly multilingual and multicultural nature of Bulgarian literature. Experts, readers with basic knowledge of Bulgarian literature, and those interested in world literature, alike, will benefit from the book, as the diverse contributions gathered here offer a comprehensive overview of the varied approaches necessary to define and evaluate objectively the Bulgarian literary landscape, both at present, in relation to the global literary network, and in its wider historical context.

• Foreword - Bulgaria and Its Worlding: A Historical Perspective (Maria Todorova, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)AcknowledgmentsIntroduction - Modern Bulgarian Literature: Being in the World (Mihaela P. Harper, Bilkent University, Turkey, and Dimitar Kambourov, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)Part I Histories: In Search of a National Profile of World Literature1. Medieval Bulgarian Literature as World Literature (Diana Atanassova, Sofia University, Bulgaria)2. Bulgarian Literature in a "Romaic" Context (Raymond Detrez, University of Ghent, Belgium)3. The Bulgarian Literary Space and Its Languages: Monolingual Canon, Plural Writings (Marie Vrinat-Nikolov, INALCO Paris, France)4. Post-Liberation Literary Quests: From National Nostalgia to Social Anger and Modernist Dreams (Milena Kirova, Sofia University, Bulgaria)5. Does Bulgarian Literature Have a Place within World Literature? (Amelia Licheva, Sofia University, Bulgaria)Part II Geographies: Bulgarian Literature as Un/common Ground within and without6. Europeanization or Lunacy: The Idea of World Literature and the Autonomization of the Bulgarian Literary Field (Boyko Penchev, Sofia University, Bulgaria)7. Anthology Anxieties: Maturity and Mystification (Bilyana Kourtasheva, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria)8. Anomaly and Distext in Bulgarian Literature: Kiril Krastev (Vassil Vidinsky, Maria Kalinova, and Kamelia Spassova, Sofia University, Bulgaria)9. Telling History in Many Ways: The Recent Past as Literary Plot (Ani Burova, Sofia University, Bulgaria)10. Between the Local and the Global: Aporia in Miroslav Penkov’s East of the West (Mihaela P. Harper, Bilkent University, Turkey)11. Bulgarian Literature: Beyond World Literature into Global Literature (Emiliya Dvoryanova, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria)Part III Economies: Bulgarian Literature on the Global Market12. Tame Domesticity and Timid Trespasses: Travels and Exoduses (Todor Hristov, Sofia University, Bulgaria)13. The End of Self-Colonization: Contemporary Bulgarian Literature and Its Global Condition (Alexander Kiossev, Sofia University, Bulgaria)14. Bulgarians Writing Abroad: Import and (Re)export of the Outsourced Production (Dimitar Kambourov, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)15. In Between and Beyond: Diaspora Writers and Readers (Yana Hashamova, Ohio State University, USA)16. Factotum and Fakir: The Translator of Bulgarian Literature into English (Angela Rodel, Translator, Bulgaria)Part IV Genetics: Bulgarian Literature’s Heredities, Affinities, and Prospects17. Bulgarian Literature’s Localism and (Im)mobility (Darin Tenev, Sofia University, Bulgaria)18. 1963, 2016: Two Perspectives on Blaga Dimitrova (Julia Kristeva, Université de Paris VII, France)19. Bulgarian Women’s Literature: Plots and Stories (Miglena Nikolchina, Sofia University, Bulgaria)20. Writing from the Saddest Place in the World (Georgi Gospodinov, Writer, Bulgaria)21. Bulgarian Liveliness (Jean-Luc Nancy, European Graduate School, Switzerland)22. Haide: On a Life that Feels Itself Live (A Response to Jean-Luc Nancy’s "Bulgarian Liveliness") (Cory Stockwell, Bilkent University, Turkey)Afterword - Beyond "Minor Literatures": Reflections on World Literature (and on Bulgarian) (Galin Tihanov, Queen Mary University of London, UK)Select BibliographyNotes on ContributorsIndex