METAMORPHOSES OF THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE ACHIEVEMENT OF MODERN IDEAS

Abstract

In December 1856, in the town of Lom, Northwestern Bulgaria, the teacher Krustyo Pishurka staged the melodrama "The Sufferings of Genevieve". This was the second performance in Bulgarian lands during the Bulgarian Revival in the 19th century, after the comedy "Mihal", Bulgarianized by the teacher Sava Dobroplodny, was performed in Shumen. The performance in Lom was received with great enthusiasm by the audience and in the following decades the melodrama "The Sufferings of Genevieve" would be performed in almost all Bulgarian territories by amateur troupes of actors, becoming one of the most significant theatrical phenomena in the new Bulgarian culture. The play "The Sufferings of Genevieve" was translated into Bulgarian from Serbian. The plot is borrowed from a medieval legend in which the supernatural (the miracle) plays a fundamental role. The reasons why the highly educated scribe of his time, Krustyo Pishurka, turned to this play were most likely related to the state of the audience. The Bulgarian spectator was yet to discover the art of theatre and to be educated in aesthetics and a sense of artistic convention. In the period of the 1850s, audiences still lived in an environment where the supernatural was accepted as an immediate reality. Additionally, the sense of the presence of the supernatural was reinforced by folk beliefs, hagiographic literature, festivals, rituals, etc. The analysis of the plot, the actant model, and the focus on compositional and signifying elements in the melodrama "The Sufferings of Genevieve" shows how modern ideas and content emerge within traditional notions built on actionable supernatural representations and images.