Socialist Realism as Cancel Culture for the Bulgarian Scenographic Practice

Authors

  • Albena Tagareva

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46522/S.2022.01.11

Keywords:

Bulgarian theatre history, Vili Tsankov

Abstract

The paper presents some emblematic examples from Bulgarian theatrical history, in which the culture of rejection has been ruthlessly applied even to artists loyal to the regime. One of the most significant ones is with scenographer Svetoslav Genev. For the first time in the history of Bulgarian theatre, a set designer became a managing director. He rose to this position thanks to his personal qualities and ambition as well as to the strong Communist connections his family had. During the period of his directorship, he created one of the most impressive designs for a theatre performance, rejecting Socialist Realism as an official method in arts. Despite his strong positions in Communist Pary, after the Prague Spring everything, he was largely thrown out of public life.

References

DEMAITRE, Ann, 1966. The Great Debate on Socialist Realism. The Modern Language Journal, vol. 50, no. 5, 1966, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/323218

DOYNOV, Plamen, 2011 Bulgarian socialist realism 1956, 1968, 1989. Norm and crisis in the literature of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria [in Bulgarian]. Sofia: Siela

MOZEJYKO, Edvard. 2009, Socialist Realism: theory, development, decline [in Bulgarian]. So-fia: the St. Kliment Ohridski University Publishing House

RONGE, Gerard, 2019, Realism Lives On: On Roger Garaudy’s D’un Réalisme Sans Rivages, Forum of Poetics, winter/spring 2019, no. 15-16,

NIKOLOVA, Rumiana. 2020, The model of functioning of Bulgarian theatre in the period 1944-1989 (in Bulgarian), Sofia

YORDANOV, Nikolay. 2018The Bulgarian dramaturgical canon: its formation and rearrange-ment. Planned project of the Theatre Sector of the Institute for the Study of Arts, Sofia: 2018, submitted to the National Centre for Information and Documentation under №: ND 020180061.

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Published

2023-04-15

How to Cite

Tagareva, A. (2023) “Socialist Realism as Cancel Culture for the Bulgarian Scenographic Practice”, Symbolon, 23(1(42), pp. 139–145. doi: 10.46522/S.2022.01.11.