Slaveykov Yavorov Todorov Krstev (cropped)

Petko Iurdanov Todorov (

Elena Elena may refer to: People * Elena (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name * Joan Ignasi Elena (born 1968), Catalan politician * Francine Elena (born 1986), British poet Geography * Elena (town), a town in Veliko ...

, September 26, 1879 – February 14, 1916,

Château-d'Œx Château-d'Œx () is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut. History Château-d'Œx is first mentioned in 1115 as ''Oit'', ''Oyz'', ''Oix'' and ''Oyez''. Prehistoric settlements Du ...

) was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n writer, journalist, dramatist, poet and critic. He is cited as the originator of the Romantic short story in Bulgaria although this is true only for his earlier texts because he soon progressed to deeper and newer psychological observations and experimental techniques such as

interior monologue In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First Li ...

. As part of the intellectual circle ‘Misal’ (''Thought'') he worked along some of the greatest Bulgarian writers of the late 19th and early 20th century, such as

Pencho Slaveykov Pencho Petkov Slaveykov ( bg, Пенчо Петков Славейков) (27 April 1866 O.S. – 10 June 1912 ( O.S. 28 May 1912)) was a noted Bulgarian poet and one of the participants in the Misal ("Thought") circle. He was the youngest son o ...

and Peyo Yavorov who were his close friends. Together they put a considerable effort to modernize Bulgarian literature through contemporary philosophic, ethic and aesthetic ideas and are cited as the originators of

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

in the country; they are also associated with philosophical individualism. Petko Todorov was born in a prominent

Bulgarian National Revival The Bulgarian National Revival ( bg, Българско национално възраждане, ''Balgarsko natsionalno vazrazhdane'' or simply: Възраждане, ''Vazrazhdane'', and tr, Bulgar ulus canlanması) sometimes called the Bu ...

family (a relative of Stoyan Mihaylovski, the nephew of religious leader Stoyan Mihaylovski, better known as

Ilarion Makariopolski Hilarion of Makariopolis ( ''Ilarion Makariopolski'', el, Ιλαρίων Μακαριουπόλεως, born Stoyan Stoyanov Mihaylovski, bg, Стоян Стоянов Михайловски; 1812–1875) was a 19th-century Bulgarian cleric and ...

). Initially influenced by the ideas of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

, lately he revised his understandings. He studied law in Bern and literature in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, travelled through France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Italy, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Ukraine, and focused on his literary career after the first years of the 20th century. Among his preferred authors were

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

Mikhail Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjurʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲɛrməntəf; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucas ...

and

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...

among others. An important influence was Henrik Ibsen and through Todorov he exercised a strong impact on contemporary Bulgarian drama. While Slaveykov and Yavorov were most famous as poets, Todorov turned into the ''par excellence'' representative of modernist prose and drama in the country. Todorov interweaved the fantastic with the realistic, placing an emphasis on folklore poetic, and is best known for his stylistically brilliance in the short stories ‘Idilii’ (''Idylls'', 1908) and his dramas ‘Zidari’ (''The Builders'' also known as ''Masons'', 1902) and ‘Zmeyova svatba’ (''Zmei’s Wedding'', 1910).Poplawski (2003): p. 391. Among his best known stories are: ‘Ovchari’ (''Shepherds''); ‘Mechkar’ (''Bear-Ward''); ‘Slunchova zhenitba’ (''Sun’s Wedding''); ‘Nesretnik’ (''Unfortunute''); ‘A Memory’ (''Spomen''); ‘Orisnitzi’ (''Fates''); ‘Senokos’ (''Haymaking'').

Bibliography

Лукова, Калина Грозева, ''Петко Ю. Тодоров - концептуализация на междужанровите пространства'', София, Издателско ателие Аб, 1999
P. I. Todorov’s Life and WorksP. I. Todorov’s Life (''In Bulgarian'') ("Речник по нова българска литература (1978–1992)", Хемус, С. 1994; автори на статията: Е. Константинова, П. Ватова)
ttps://chitanka.info/text/17227-zmejova-svatba Zmei’s Wedding ''in Bulgarian''br>The Builders ''in Bulgarian''
The Grave of Petko Todorov

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Todorov, Petko 19th-century Bulgarian poets Bulgarian journalists Bulgarian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Bulgarian poets 1879 births 1916 deaths People from Elena, Bulgaria University of Bern alumni