BEYOND MYTHOLOGY AND IDEOLOGY? (THE FEMININE APRIL LYRIC POETRY OF THE 1960S)

Abstract

The myth about the so-called „April generation“ in Bulgarian poetry is a central myth that unites a group of poets whose debut works appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Striving for their integration, they developed ideas and notions of literature as a social institution. Despite the differences in their age and aesthetic quest, these poets generally took on the April connotations in their sense of nationalization and legitimacy – a fact that made many of them wish in the 1970s and 1980s to be included in the list of „April hearts“ as a later echo of this poetic phenomenon, which guaranteed them the acknowledgement that they were essential and important literary figures. Beyond their conjunctoral activities, part of the aesthetic practice of these poets contributed to the „thawing“ and breaking up of some clichés that forcibly constricted literature. If one looks at the lists of „April poets“ from the late 1950s and the 1960s it probably will not be a great surprise that one will not find many female names there. Not a great surprise, having in mind that the women in the Bulgarian literary canon by and large cannot be considered a representative group, regardless of the fact how essential, colourful, and creative their literary works are, or are not.