Проблема мовчазного героя в сучасній болгарській прозі

Abstract

The paper examines problem of silence and its active subject in the works of the modern Bulgarian writers Yordan Radichkov, Vassil Popov, Nikolai Haitov. The analysis is based on the distinction between two modes of silence: syntactic and semantic (the last one in its tum divided into hermeneutical, negative and elliptic). 'Hermeneutical silence' is acknowledged as а basic feature of so-called 'hero-consciousness' - the pure subjectivity, which is the narrative kernel in Bulgarian prose after its 'personalist turn' in the 1960s. This mode of silence is а necessary condition of any reception though it's rarely thematized itself. 'Negative silence' in its evolution is specifically characteristic for the silent hero of the cycle of stories The Roots bу V. Popov. The last mode ,of silence, 'elliptic', is represented in Y. Radichkov's prose as а meaningful, 'empty' expression, which is the consequence of the gradual semantic regression of language. The paper finishes with short comparative sketch presenting the problem of а silent hero in Bulgarian literature in the context of Western European and Russian existentialist and absurdist literature.