Abstract Bulgarian literature of the 19th century, although widely unknown abroad, is decisive for the formation of Bulgarian national identity. In this respect, the authority of the ‘national poet’ Hristo Botev has been uncontested for 140 years. Botev has created the Bulgarian mytho-poetic narrative and imposed it as a set of political, social and ethical principles, crystalized to a corrective. Yet, Botev’s poetic agenda is contradictory. His nationalism, based on natural belonging to the people, kin and family, is persistently extended towards social criticism and a utopian longing for class equality. Thus, the prior national unity appears subverted: the representatives of the elite are stigmatized as non-belonging to the nation per se, to ‘the people,’ a collective subject, enslaved, suffering, passive, and mute. Such an irresolvable contradiction between the two struggles – for national liberation and for social emancipation – is additionally complicated by Botev’s third, most intimate longing – for personal unbinding that would take the radical form of self-emerging beyond any kinship and class affiliation. Thus, the mytho-poetic figure of an apocalyptic Motherland had to be re-articulated as the eternal ‘There’ of a coveted death. Finally, Botev’s self-victimization, orchestrated as a rebel raid, is his response to the fallen heroes and their failed sacrifice. Bulgaria’s most powerful national poet gave birth to a national myth of the genius who voluntarily gave up poetry and joined the masses by embracing their role of a victim.

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赫里斯托·博特夫：非归属感和现代之路

摘要 19 世纪的保加利亚文学虽然在国外广为人知，但对于保加利亚民族认同的形成具有决定性作用。在这方面，“民族诗人”赫里斯托·博特夫的权威已经有 140 年的历史了。博特夫创造了保加利亚神话般的诗意叙事，并将其作为一套政治、社会和伦理原则强加于人，具体化为纠正措施。然而，博特夫的诗意议程是矛盾的。他的民族主义建立在自然归属于人民、亲属和家庭的基础之上，并不断地扩展到社会批评和对阶级平等的乌托邦式的渴望。因此，先前的民族团结似乎被颠覆了：精英代表被污名化为不属于国家本身，不属于“人民”，是一个集体主体，被奴役、受苦、被动和沉默。这两种斗争之间无法解决的矛盾——为民族解放和社会解放——被博特夫的第三个，也是最亲密的渴望——以超越任何亲属和阶级关系的自我出现的激进形式——进一步复杂化。因此，世界末日祖国的神话般的诗意人物必须重新表述为令人垂涎的死亡的永恒“那里”。最后，博特夫的自我伤害，精心策划的反叛袭击，是他对倒下的英雄和他们失败的牺牲的回应。保加利亚最有影响力的民族诗人诞生了一个天才的民族神话，他自愿放弃诗歌并通过拥抱受害者的角色加入群众。