Vladimir Zarev’s Novel Pop Bogomil i savarshenstvoto na straha as a Postmodern Alchemy of Historiography and Bogomil Mythology
Vladimir Zarev’s Novel Pop Bogomil i savarshenstvoto na straha as a Postmodern Alchemy of Historiography and Bogomil Mytholog

Summary/Abstract: The article offers an analysis of the novel Pop Bogomil i savarshenstvoto na straha (Reverend Bogomil and the Perfection of Fear) by the contemporary Bulgarian writer Vladimir Zarev. The novel is seen as part of a Bulgarian literary tradition that depicts the medieval heresy of Bogomilism. Zarev’s text can be linked to earlier works by Bulgarian writers such as Nikolai Raynov and Emilian Stanev, but its interpretation of history is also reminiscent of works by Thomas Mann and Umberto Eco. I argue that the novel can be read as a postmodern fictionalization of the Bogomil heresy or a postmodern alchemy of historiography and Bogomil mythology. While it is largely a postmodernist experiment, it is also a lengthy philosophical meditation on Bulgarian history.

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