Experiencing historical time: Apocalypse and authoritarianism in inter-war Bulgarian existential philosophy Cover Image

Experiencing historical time: Apocalypse and authoritarianism in inter-war Bulgarian existential philosophy
Experiencing historical time: Apocalypse and authoritarianism in inter-war Bulgarian existential philosophy

Author(s): Nina Ivanova Dimitrova
Subject(s): Philosophy, Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Apocalyptic experience; Interwar period in Bulgaria; Spiridon Kazandjiev; Yanko Yanev; Philosophical essays; Hermeneutics of the life world; “Crisis of our time”

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the sense of the pace of time as reflected in the works of Bulgarian philosophers from the “philosophy of life” school, and of other thinkers active in the humanities. It is shown that the feeling of “condensed” time among the authors of the inter-war period is inevitably associated with Biblical imagery – the “reduction” of time foresees the end of time. Several authors left a lasting mark on Bulgarian intellectual history due to their sensitivity to the sharp turns of the age, and their awareness of the intense “flow” of time. The most prominent among tchem were Spiridon Kazandjiev and Yanko Yanev, authors with right-wing political leanings. This article reveals how the end of time provoked in them not only distress and anxiety but also exhilaration at what lay ahead, as if it were the realisation of a longcherished dream.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 14
  • Page Range: 260-272
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: English