Area Handbook For Bulgaria Part 15

Despite controls, artistic and intellectual life is active. Not all creative effort becomes public, and that which does not meet the prescribed criteria of style and content is known only by its creator and a few select friends; nevertheless, it is produced. Much of what pa.s.ses the censor is of doubtful artistic quality, but works of considerable merit have appeared in all forms of artistic expression.

Gifted artists and writers find ways to express their talent within the confines of government regulations.

THE ARTS AND SCIENCES UNDER COMMUNISM

Since 1944 artistic and intellectual expression have been subject to the cultural policy of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP--see Glossary), which has followed a relatively strict adherence to the concept of Socialist Realism as developed in the Soviet Union. Under this concept art, music, and literature are required to promote communist ideology and present an idealized picture of communist society. In order to impart the ideological message, artistic and intellectual expression must be understood by the common man and, therefore, can only take the form of straightforward representative statements.

During the period of de-Stalinization in the mid-1950s, cultural controls became less restrictive, and artistic and intellectual expression burst into new creativity and life. Although this outburst never reached the proportions it did in Poland and Hungary during the same period, the regime considered it a threat and reimposed strict controls in the late 1950s. At that time the government was preparing for a great push in economic development and, to further this goal, mobilized the cultural community into service as propagandists.

Another thaw in cultural restriction occurred in the early 1960s when several factions were struggling for control of the BKP. After Todor Zhivkov a.s.sumed firm control of the party, writers and artists were again required to serve the needs of the state until the fall of Nikita Khrushchev in the Soviet Union, and an attempted coup in Bulgaria forced Zhivkov to broaden his popular support by relaxing the BKP's control of national life.

This ebb and flow of restriction on artistic and intellectual expression continues and serves as a barometer for the political and economic climate in the country. At no time since the mid-1950s did cultural policy reach the degree of repression of the Stalinist period. The leadership in Bulgaria, as did those in other Eastern European countries, learned that repression was counterproductive. Instead, it adopted a subtler method of control through the publishers, art galleries, theater companies, and other outlets for creative expression, all of which are run by the state in conformity with the guidelines on cultural policy. Because a creative artist must communicate his ideas to an audience in order to achieve fulfillment, he tends to adapt his ideas and principles to what is acceptable to the available outlets for his work. Thus, self-censorship has replaced direct government control for the most part.

From a material standpoint, the life of a creative artist in contemporary Bulgaria is far more secure than that of his counterpart in a capitalist country. Creative expression is seen as a social function; therefore, society owes the creative artist an a.s.sured livelihood. This is provided either through regular salaries from publishing houses, academies of music or art, or other agencies that employ artists or through stipends paid to creative artists who do not have a regular salary to depend on. Free or low-cost room and board are also available to creative artists and their families at special artists' colonies or retreats operated by professional unions in the creative arts and by government agencies for the promotion of the arts and sciences. Under this system, however, the artist is under constant pressure to produce in order to justify his salary or stipend.

In order to qualify for any of the material advantages, in fact, in order to function as a professional artist or scholar, an individual must be a member of the appropriate professional union. The unions are, for the most part, an arm of the BKP and another instrument for enforcing cultural policy (see ch. 9). Only the Writers' Union has demonstrated a certain degree of independence based on the recognized power of the written word. As recently as December 1972 the union again resisted integration into the Committee on Art and Culture, a supradepartmental government agency having a wide range of authority in the cultural sphere. The Writers' Union is the only professional union in the arts that has not been integrated into the committee.

The princ.i.p.al aim of cultural policy since 1944 has been to popularize the arts and sciences by making them accessible to all segments of the population and to utilize those mediums for the promotion of communist values. Popularization of the arts has been accomplished by greatly expanding the facilities that present the arts to the public and by supporting these facilities with state funds. Many new orchestras, theater companies, publishers, and art galleries have come into existence since World War II. Touring exhibits and road companies take the arts into small towns and villages. Radio and television have been extensively utilized to promote the arts and learning. Through state support, the prices of books and admission tickets have been kept extremely low in order to bring them within the reach of as many persons as possible. The traditional library clubs have been reinforced by a network of "houses of culture," which serve as cultural centers in villages and in urban neighborhoods.

LITERATURE

The origins of Bulgarian literature date back to A.D. 855 when the Greek priests Cyril and Methodius designed an alphabet--Cyrillic--suitable for the Slavic languages in order to facilitate the Christianization of the Slavs (see ch. 2). At first the alphabet was used to translate the Bible and other Christian religious texts, but in the Golden Age of the First Bulgarian Kingdom several original religious and secular tests were written by Bulgarians in their own language. In the late Middle Ages a substantial literature in Bulgarian was created. Although the authors were all churchmen, much of the literature was secular. A whole body of apocryphal literature--so-called heretical tales and legends--came into being at that time.

During five centuries of Turkish rule, no literature was produced except the orally transmitted folksongs and ballads. Not until the second half of the eighteenth century, when Turkish rule began to degenerate, did Bulgarian literature revive itself as part of the awakening national consciousness of the people. The first book to appear was Father Paisi's _Slav-Bulgarian History_, a highly nationalistic book published in 1762 that played a major role in the struggle for liberation. During the first half of the nineteenth century, several Bulgarian texts were published in neighboring countries. These were extremely influential in developing the modern Bulgarian language as their publication coincided with the establishment of schools and the spread of education among the Bulgarian people. A number of periodicals were also started by Bulgarians abroad, but most of them were irregular and short lived. Of considerable significance, however, was the collection and publication, first in periodicals and later in book form, of the folksongs and ballads that had kept alive the language and culture of the Bulgarians during the five centuries of Turkish rule. Much of the interest in folk literature came from outside the country from other Slavs in Serbia, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, and Russia, who were going through their own national awakening and had a kindred feeling for the Bulgarians.

The early modern literature was nationalistic and didactic. Its authors were educators involved in the spread of education and in the modernization of the language and revolutionaries fighting for an independent Bulgaria. Modernization and social reform were other strong currents permeating the literature of that time and later. Such poets as Petko Slaveikov, Lyuben Karavelov, and Khris...o...b..tev were strongly influenced by the Russian social reformers and revolutionaries of the second half of the nineteenth century. Botev was the most outstanding poet of this era. His short, intense, and fiery poems continue to arouse patriotic feelings of Bulgarians everywhere. Botev's revolutionary fervor and heroism have been identified by the present-day regime with its own revolutionary movement, and he has been accorded great honor.

In the postindependence period the dominant literary figure was Ivan Vazov, whose influence on subsequent generations of writers has been tremendous. Known as the national poet and father of modern Bulgarian literature, Vazov was primarily a writer and not a crusader or revolutionary as were his predecessors. He was steeped in the great literature of Europe and Russia and used the Bulgarian setting and traditions to write about universal ideas. Vazov's greatest novel, _Under the Yoke_, describing Bulgarian life under the Turks, has been widely translated.

Vazov and his contemporaries Yordan Yovkov and Pencho Slaveikov (son of Petko Slaveikov) sought to direct Bulgarian literature away from its confines of national politics and reform into a more general artistic and philosophical outlook. They were joined in this effort by the somewhat younger Elin Pelin, whose stories have also been widely translated. Although these writers continued to draw much of their inspiration from native scenery, folk themes, and village life, they were writers of universal quality and appeal.

Later, rival literary groups, each with its journal, laid the basis for marked development in poetry, the short story, and the novel between the two world wars. No outstanding literary figure emerged, but writers continued to experiment with a variety of themes and forms.

Realism had always been a strong theme in Bulgarian literature, and in the decade after 1944 the Communists sought to utilize this tradition in imposing Soviet-style Socialist Realism as the desired form of expression. Writers who conformed to the prescribed style were generously rewarded with stipends and special privileges that encouraged a volume of writing heretofore unknown. The novel became the main literary form as it lends itself particularly well to the prerequisites of the prescribed literary style. Nikola Vaptsarov and Khristo Smyrnenski have been singled out by the government as outstanding writers in the style of Socialist Realism.

Most of the literature produced in the late 1940s and early 1950s has been cla.s.sed at best as mediocre, even by Bulgarians themselves. Several works of that period, however, have been recognized as outstanding. The most acclaimed of these has been Dimitur Dimov's _Tobacco_, dealing with the revolutionary movement among tobacco workers before and during World War II. The novel was strongly condemned when first published in 1951 but, after the relaxation of cultural controls in the mid-1950s, it was hailed as the best novel since Vazov's _Under the Yoke_.

Dissatisfaction of the writers with the restrictions imposed on them and discontent of the public with the monotony and lack of literary quality of contemporary writing became evident in the mid-1950s. These feelings broke into the open when a mild form of de-Stalinization was put into effect in 1956 (see ch. 9). Although the so-called writers' revolt never reached the proportions of those in Poland or Hungary, it did bring about a short period of relative freedom in literary expression and a number of outstanding literary works that aroused a great controversy.

Foremost among these was Emil Manov's _An Unauthentic Case_, which describes interparty conflict. Todor Genov's play _Fear_ also received high praise for its treatment of the corruption by power of a once idealistic Communist.

The leaders of the writers' revolt, with one exception, were all loyal Communists who had become disillusioned with what they saw as the hypocrisy and dishonesty of the leadership, which they felt was leading the people into moral bankruptcy. Their main forum was a new periodical, _Plamuk_, edited by Manov, foremost of the rebels. The main demand of the rebels was that an artist should be free to choose his themes and methods of presentation provided he remain loyal to communist ideology.

When the exposure in literature of the spiritual decline of individual Communists and of communist ideals became too embarra.s.sing to the leadership, tighter restrictions were reimposed in the late 1950s. The literature of the early 1960s has been termed cathartic. By writing about long-suppressed thoughts and emotions, writers attempted to purge themselves of guilt for the sins of the system that they had supported.

The poetry, which was very popular with the young, had a ring of disillusionment and pessimism.

The government leadership did not approve of this literature any more than it did of the literature exposing faults in the system. Rather than repress the writers as it had done before, the regime used subtle pressures to guide writers into acceptable subjects. What followed was a wave of naturalistic poetry and novels dealing with purely human problems.

THEATER

A dramatic tradition was developed as part of the National Revival.

Plays intended to arouse the people's national consciousness were written by Bulgarian authors and staged by students and teachers at library clubs in several cities (see ch. 11). After independence in 1878 the National Theater was formed in Sofia, but for several decades it depended heavily on foreign plays and foreign theatrical talent. By the start of World War II, however, government subsidies had helped to develop it to a point where it compared favorably with national theaters elsewhere in Europe.

The present-day government has heavily supported the theater as a "ma.s.s school for the all-round ideological, ethical and aesthetical education of the people." An extensive repertoire of Bulgarian plays conforming to the demands of Socialist Realism and to the prescribed content and interpretation has been built up. It is performed by some forty-six theatrical companies throughout the country. Cla.s.sics by William Shakespeare, Johann von Schiller, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, and others are also performed regularly, as are selected contemporary plays by playwrights from all over the world. Unlike elsewhere in Eastern Europe, there has been no experimental or avant-garde theater in Bulgaria.

The presentations of the Satirical Theater in Sofia are the most daring and innovative theatrical presentations available to the public.

Although their humor is often biting, their theatrical style seems rather ordinary and traditional to a Western theatergoer. The Satirical Theater is, nevertheless, the most popular theater in the country; tickets for its performances are sold out weeks in advance. In addition to satirical reviews, the theater presents cla.s.sical satires by Bertolt Brecht, Nikolai Gogol, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and others. On the a.s.sumption that "people who laugh think no evil," which is an old Bulgarian proverb, the authorities have tolerated greater outspokenness on the part of Satirical Theater productions than in the more serious forms of artistic and creative expression.

FILMS

As a medium of artistic and intellectual expression, Bulgarian films have lagged behind those produced in other Eastern European countries.

They have received little recognition in the West, where they are generally considered old-fashioned in story line interpretation as well as in technical approach. Several attempts at imitation of the surrealism of Alain Resnais and Louis Bunuel or of some of the other contemporary Western cinematic directors, have proved failures in the eyes of the critics at home and abroad.

In common with other communist filmmakers, those in Bulgaria have concentrated for years on the suffering of the people under n.a.z.i oppression during World War II. Most of these films about war and resistance have a propaganda purpose that outweighs any efforts toward artistic or technical excellence. Since the late 1960s most feature films have focused on contemporary life and its problems. It is these films that have shown some experimentation in contemporary cinematic techniques on the part of Bulgarian directors.

Animated cartoon shorts have been better received by Western critics and audiences than have feature films. Those designed and directed by Ivan Andonov, who is also one of Bulgaria's leading actors, have been acclaimed as outstanding.

MUSIC

Bulgaria is best known in the world of music for several renowned opera singers it has produced in the twentieth century. The ba.s.sos Boris Khristov and Nikolai Ghiaurov, in particular, rank among the great singers of all time. A number of other singers are known on opera stages in Europe and the Soviet Union. The country's five opera companies provide a good training ground for young singers. The opera repertoire relies heavily on the cla.s.sics and on contemporary compositions of non-Bulgarian origin; there are few Bulgarian operas. Nevertheless, opera is an extremely popular form of musical entertainment, particularly among the intelligentsia.

The interest in and love of opera among Bulgarians probably has its roots in Eastern Orthodox Church music, which abounds in both the vocal and dramatic elements characteristic of opera. Bulgarian clerics made considerable contribution to the development of this music during the Middle Ages through the introduction of certain rhythmic and structural qualities that give orthodox ecclesiastical music its characteristic form.

The most typical form of musical expression through the ages has been folk music. Through folksongs the Bulgarian language and cultural heritage were kept alive during the centuries of Turkish rule. Turkish influence is evident, however, in the musical quality of Bulgarian folksongs, which are noticeably Middle Eastern in feeling. Although there are many gay dances and happy songs in the folk repertoire, an important segment of folk music has a sad, plaintive quality and sings of the hardships and grief of daily life.

Bulgarian concert music is not well known outside the country. It is, however, regularly performed by Bulgarian orchestras and has found its way into the repertoire of orchestras in the Soviet Union and other communist countries. Outstanding among contemporary composers is Pancho Vladigerov, whose compositions were well received both before and after the Communists came to power.

In the early 1970s the Bulgarian press noted a growing interest in popular music among the youth. Dance bands and popular ensembles proliferated in the high schools and youth clubs. Although the press praised this interest in music as constructive, it decried the kind of music that found most popularity. Instead of heroic "ma.s.s songs" of Bulgarian composers, the youth showed interest only in Western popular music.

FOLK ARTS

A rich legacy of folk arts was developed before and during the five centuries of Turkish rule. On Sundays and festival days and at the end of ordinary workdays, young and old in the villages would gather to dance the intricate steps of the _horo_ (a circular group dance) and to sing about young love, brave men, Turkish oppression, or mythical beasts with strange features. Flutes, bagpipes, and simple stringed instruments accompanied the songs and dances.

History and tradition were pa.s.sed on from generation to generation through legends, ballads, proverbs, and cautionary tales. This folklore has formed the basis of much of Bulgarian literature and art since independence from the Turks.

Other forms of folk arts were woodcarving, highly colored embroidery, rug weaving, and icon painting. Although distinct in their regional variations, the traditional costumes of Bulgarian peasants are simple and drab when compared to those of other parts of Europe. Because any wealth or material possessions were subject to Turkish confiscation, Bulgarian peasants strove to present an image of poverty through simple dress and housing.

In common with other Eastern European governments, the Bulgarian government has striven to support and promote the traditional folk arts as part of the cultural heritage of the people. Artisan co-*operatives produce carved woodenware, rugs, weavings, embroideries, and traditional musical instruments for sale in government shops. Numerous folk dance groups give performances at local tourist centers and abroad. The various folk arts have been free from restriction even during periods of strict cultural controls; therefore, they have afforded the best outlet for individual creativity of the serious artists as well as the folk artists.

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

The golden age of Bulgarian art was, without doubt, the Middle Ages. No art since that time has matched the magnificence and quality of the icons and frescoes that adorn the churches and monasteries constructed during that period. Some of the best and most prized examples of Byzantine painting are found in the Boyana Church near Sofia, in the Zemen Monastery in the mountains along the Yugoslav border, and in several other small village churches. A masterpiece of early Bulgarian art is the icon of Saint Theodor of Plateina near Preslav; it was made of colored faience in the tenth century. True to the Byzantine style, medieval Bulgarian art used muted colors, mostly the earthy tones of yellows and browns, to depict somber saints and other religious figures.

Some of the Bulgarian painters developed a special style known as the Turnovo School of art. In addition to decorating churches and monasteries, Turnovo School artists also painted miniatures to ill.u.s.trate chronicles and religious texts. Several of these are preserved in major European museums.