The Nature of Sacrifice in Botev’s Poetry Cover Image

Природа на жертвоприношението в поезията на Ботев
The Nature of Sacrifice in Botev’s Poetry

Author(s): Sirma Danova
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Великотърновски университет „Св. св. Кирил и Методий”
Keywords: Sacrifice; Community; Nature; Mythology; Anarchism.

Summary/Abstract: The present study explores two martyrological poems by HristoBotev – “The Hanging of Vasil Levski” and “Hadji Dimitar”. Both of these works are thought of as scenes of sacrifice. In Botev’s poetry it is only in these two works that a landscape, with a sacrificial crisis in its centre, appears. The sacrifice is represented as an event of significant and notable importance to the community. In “Hadji Dimitar”, however, nature takes the place of the community. I focus on the agrarian substrate of the poem in relation to its mythological potential. Botev provides two different models of consecration: Judeo-Christian (“The Hanging of Vasil Levski”) and pagan (“Hadji Dimitar”). Ultimately, the author invents the landscape of a modern sacrifice, based on an anarchistic sensitivity, while indirectly including himself in that same landscape.

  • Issue Year: 27/2018
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 131-145
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Bulgarian