Письма в жанровой cистемe Болгарской литературы в эпоху Возрождения

Abstract

This article defines the place occupied by epistles in the genre system oi 19 century Bulgarian Renaissance literature. The personal epistles' characteristic peculiarities led the scientifie analysis into two directions: firstly--functionał study of eplistles and, secondly- -specifving epistles as to the entire genre system of Bulgarian Renaissance literature. The basic approach in the analysis comprises differentiation of the primary, leading function (the epistle as a means of social communication and as a document and of the secondary artistically shaping function (transforming the epistle into an artasticałly narrative device). The initial sphere of realizing the epistolarv situation (addresser--epistle — addressce) defines the epistles” monofuncionality. The sultural and historicał situation arising during the 19th century imposes conditions under which the epistles' primary, leading function is realized at a different level of social relations; the presence of the person in the epistle is gradually enhanced, thus leading to the plurality of the addressee. In this way, the second layer in the hierarchy of the epistolary contact is established, this layer being characterized by the epistles' multifunctionality. The appearance of a definite genre formation in epistles is directly dependent upon their function. There arises also the question about the nature of the personal epistle. This article defines two main trends for realizing the epistle's potential <apacity of building up a genre form, and of being included within the framework of the genre system of 19 century Bulgarian literature: the epistles” publistic nature and their transformation into a publistic genre, as well as the epistles' coming closer from a pure correspondence to literary samples, still not fully developed during the first half of the century and not fully specified as genres during the second half — a political treatise or a psychological fiction, a lyrical confession or travel notes. The active factor, conditioning this process is the epistles” multifunctionality.