HOW TO BECOME A WRITER? GEORGI RAKOVSKI AND PETKO SLAVEYKOV. THE DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF AUTOREPRESENTATION

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to throw a new light over the oeuvres of Georgi Rakovski and Petko Slaveykov who are among the first during the Bulgarian Renaissance, and who begin to bring diversity into their writing. It is somewhat hard to specify the nature of Bulgarian Renaissance literature, but this paper will not delve too much into this problem. The two authors whose works are the main objects of this study have left a body of autobiographical pieces that can hardly be called literature. However, one can find in them various autorepresentative strategies, which discuss the very being of the writer at that time. The current paper will look at the different discourses and literary approaches that Rakovski and Slaveykov use in these pieces, and will attempt to clarify whether anyone of them can be considered to be the first modern writer of the Bulgarian Renaissance.