Accuracy and Reception: On Theological and Aesthetic Novelty in Two Novels by Teodora Dimova Cover Image

Accuracy and Reception: On Theological and Aesthetic Novelty in Two Novels by Teodora Dimova
Accuracy and Reception: On Theological and Aesthetic Novelty in Two Novels by Teodora Dimova

Author(s): Ewelina Drzewiecka
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Aesthetics, Bulgarian Literature, Biblical studies, Hermeneutics, Theory of Literature
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Bible; modernity; Bulgarian culture; Bulgarian literature; Teodora Dimova; reception; apocrypha;

Summary/Abstract: This article raises the question of functioning of the Biblical narrative in modern literature in the context of the local/individual experience of faith and the epistemological and existential question of truth. The focus is on two novels by the Bulgarian writer Teodora Dimova (born in 1960): Марма Мариам [Marma, Mariam, 2010] and Първият рожден ден [The First Birthday, 2016]. This case is particularly interesting because the Biblical story about Jesus has not been used here in order to create a parody or blasphemy, which could be expected as far as the postmodern de-contextualisation and re-evaluation of tradition are concerned, but to offer both an aesthetically original and theologically orthodox vision of the Christian God. So how to paraphrase the Biblical story and remain orthodox? How to actualize the existential potential of the Bible and achieve novelty? The analysis is conducted in the perspective of Paul Ricoeur’s existential hermeneutics and phenomenology of memory, especially his concepts of testimony and mimesis, with regard to the question of the reception of Biblical paraphrases in (Bulgarian) modern culture.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 10
  • Page Range: 1-27
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: English