НАУЧНАТА ФАНТАСТИКА И БЪДЕЩЕТО: ПРЕДГОВОРИТЕ КЪМ БИБЛИОТЕКА „ГАЛАКТИКА“ И ДВЕ ЛИНИИ НА ЛЕГИТИМАЦИЯ НА ЖАНРА ПРЕЗ БЪЛГАРСКИЯ СОЦИАЛИЗЪМ
SCIENCE FICTION AND THE FUTURE: THE PREFACES TO THE GALAKTIKA SERIES AND TWO LINES OF GENRE LEGITIMATION DURING BULGARIAN SOCIALISM

Summary/Abstract: The article examines prefaces to science fiction books in the “Galaktika” series as paratexts through which the genre is positioned within the socialist literary field. It analyzes texts by Georgi Krumov, Hristo Stefanov, Agop Melkonyan, Lyuben Dilov, Ognyan Saparev, and others, which, alongside their informative function, also formulate broader theoretical conceptions of science fiction. The study identifies two competing lines of legitimization. The first emphasizes the genre’s prognostic functions and its capacity to depict a plausible communist future, subordinating it to ideological requirements. The second foregrounds its autonomous aesthetic and philosophical potential, establishing it as equal to other literary forms; here, the future is conceived not as prediction but as a means of problematizing universal human questions. The article argues that this tension reflects broader processes in the literary-critical understanding of science fiction (1944–1989) and proposes a reading of the prefaces as a distinct literary-critical narrative.

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