𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑤 by Georgi Gospodinov and Its Reception Outside Bulgaria. Critical-Comparative Readings

Authors:

Pages: 46-63
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/KWBO6306

Abstract:

This article offers an intercultural and interliterary-critical reading of 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑤 by Georgi Gospodinov based on selected foreign literary reviews (75 sources covering 14 different countries and freely accessible on the Internet) and how they relate to the key conceptual-interpretative cores, highlighted by Bulgarian critics as inherent to the original poetics of the novel. The analysis shows the need for additional culturological considerations specifically addressing the central concept of ‘sorrow’ in an intercultural perspective and its relationship with concepts such as ‘nostalgia’ and ‘melancholy’, taking into account two of the building blocks of the history of these ideas: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑔𝑖𝑎 by Svetlana Boym and 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑦 by Robert Burton. Based on a critical reading of the ideas of Thomas Stearns Eliot and Nicholas Hagger, the article proposes that the concept of ‘intercultural work’ should be applied to 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑤 distinguishing it from the ideas of ‘ universal work’ and ‘universal literature’.

Keywords:

Georgi Gospodinov; 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑆𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑤; nostalgia; melancholy; intercultural work; universal literature.

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