Teodor Trayanov’s “Hymns and ballads” (1912):  
Teleologies and Antithesis. The Radicalized Decadence. 
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„Химни и балади” (1912) на Т. Траянов – телеологии и антитези. Радикализираният декаданс.
Teodor Trayanov’s “Hymns and ballads” (1912): Teleologies and Antithesis. The Radicalized Decadence.

Author(s): Bisera Dakova
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Институт за литература - БАН
Keywords: Teodor Trayanov; "Hymns and Ballads"; Decadence

Summary/Abstract: The study of Teodor Trayanov’s “Hymns and ballads” (1912) attempts to restore the book’s authentic poetry which seemed erased forever by the proper styling in teleological perspective in 1929 (“The Free Man”) and later arbitrarily reduced by two works (1966 and 1981). Until now the interpretation of Teodor Trayanov’s poetry had been based on the 1929 canonical text, as well as on the unreserved confidence in the lyric entities - created later by the editors Lyudmil Stoyanov (1966) and Ivan Sestrimski (1981) – entities that were principally subordinated to given criteria and were a serious violation of the author’s will. The insoluble plait of representatives of Trayanov’s text and solid critical perception have found the incontrovertible idea of monolithic and misunderstood poetry where the dramatic double turns were excluded in advance. In this firm interpretative scheme of the book “Hymns and ballads” lies the unenviable place of a transition unit – it is called to mark the first symptoms of a more fresh and constructive attitude to the world. Relying entirely on the original edition of “Hymns and ballads” (1912) the present paper gradually enters in a text reality the structural basis of which is the poetical contrast: between neuropathologic decadence (Felix Dörmann) and Jugendstil (Richard Dehmel), between melancholy and ecstasy, between ominous intonation resembling Schopenhauer’s style and the intensive living along Nietzsche. The study shows that this “transitional” and plain book contains poetry representative of the period until 1912 in a manifest and clear way and brightly defined individualism and the expressionism born it its bosom. It suggests at least two stories to follow: surmounting the suffering I, the enthusiastic, irresistible, and vital WE, and the transfiguration of the ritual language into rude, expressive, and barbarian lexis. In this sense “Hymns and ballads” (1912) apostrophizes the idea of the frozen in Teodor Trayanov’s poetry, painfully revealing the dramatic way to modernity, which Trayanov experienced prematurely.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 67-103
  • Page Count: 36
  • Language: Bulgarian