Boyko Penchev
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2024-6-2P
Abstract. The purpose of the article is to explore the rethinking of the literary-historical narrative in the Bulgarian literature textbooks after 1989.
The main method is a comparative literary-historical analysis of two textbooks, very
similar in terms of authors and content, published in 1984 and 1992 respectively.
The article explores the strategies of re-conceptualization (and dislodging) of the
concept of revolution in these textbooks, as well as the altered functions of literary
movements such as symbolism and modernism in the framework of the literary
history, thought in secondary schools. The “new reading” of literature after 1989
is compared with Jean-François Lyotard’s concept of the crisis of grand narratives
and the shift towards a new type of knowledge legitimation – through the category of “performativity”. The article raises the question of whether the de-ideologization of literature also leads to its de-historicization and whether this is dangerous for its social validity, given the problematic applicability of the performative criterion in dealing with literature within the educational system.
Keywords: literature; textbooks; revolution; ideology; modernism; symbolism
