The Sovietization of Bulgarian Literature and the “Bulgarization” of Socialist Realism
The Sovietization of Bulgarian Literature and the “Bulgarization” of Socialist Realism

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the study is to show and analyse the phases and forms of enforcing/functioning of socialist realism as a dominant political and aesthetic doctrine and an institutionalised system in the literature of Bulgaria. Justification is provided for the use of concepts and historical--theoretical constructs, such as “socialist realism,” “domestication of socialist realism” etc., which make possible the emergence of a new history of literature from the times of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. The chronicles of Bulgarian socialist realism between 1948 and 1956 describe a few characteristics of the “method” in the context of the totalitarian People’s Republic, which are a direct repercussion of the practices of sovietisation applied with slight Bulgarian adaptations. The domestication of socialist realism – increasingly noticeable after 1956 – presents a limitation to the allowed freedoms of writing and publishing through authoritative discourses, accompanied by procedures which shorten the distance between the different positions in the literary field. The Bulgarian experience of socialist realist literary production brings into relief a specific model, that warrants the definition home-made socialist realism.

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