Карамфила Стефанова - в сянката на мистификацията
Karamfila Stefanova – in the Shadow of Mystification

Summary/Abstract: The name of the poetess Karamfila Stefanova has been more and more frequently mentioned in the last two decades. In 1874 and 1875 she published mainly poems in the press. The hypothesis constructed in this paper claims that she was not actually a woman, but a man. A hint about such a mystification is the title of a poem signed with the name of Karamfila Stefanova. The hypothesis is supported also by the fact that no personal data for such poetess or established facts of her life have been discovered. Also, no fellow- townsman of her time knew anything about her, and she was not mentioned in the memoirs of Todor Ikonomov, Sava Dobroplodni, Krastyo Mirski, Dobre Ganchev, etc. Her name was only mentioned in an unpublished paper of Anton Frangya. The analysis of the literary patterns of Karamfila Stefanova and Anton Frangya (the common themes, their preferences for genres and motifs, especially satire, the language similarities, some other features of the texts), as well as some facts of Anton Frangya’s life prove that there are reasons for the hypothesis that they are the same person.

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