Adam and Eve, Consubstantial: Model and Myth of the First Biblical Couple in Bulgarian Interwar Novel Cover Image

Адам и Ева, единосъщите – модел и мит на първата библейска двойка в българския междувоенен роман
Adam and Eve, Consubstantial: Model and Myth of the First Biblical Couple in Bulgarian Interwar Novel

Author(s): Aglika Popova
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, History, Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, History of ideas, Recent History (1900 till today), Theology and Religion, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), Biblical studies
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: biblical myth; interwar period in Bulgaria; Adam and Eve; modern novel;

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the first biblical couple as a tool for comparative analysis of the modernist tendencies of Bulgarian novel in the period between the two World Wars. The research focuses on works by Chavdar Mutafov, Anna Kamenova, and Dimitar Dimov, along with examples taken from French and Romanian literary pieces as representatives of the wider, European history of ideas. In the image of Creation, but also the image of the original sin, Adam and Eve are of interest because of their unity, which eventually becomes the basis of the Christian family after they leave the Garden of Eden. The borders of the model given in the Bible are breached with the introduction of a new reading – the figures of Creation can now also be seen as figures of salvation. The knowledge gained by the existing studies of myth in European literature thus becomes the foundation for a revision of the hitherto selective interpretation of works by the Bulgarian novelists. The point of intersection between the different approaches towards the first couple is their arduous integration into the surrounding world, and adaptation to the passage of time. Another prominent feature is the discussion about the possible development of the model; the newly introduced definition of salvation that comes after Creation and the fall of man.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 16
  • Page Range: 422-437
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Bulgarian