On 14th, 15th and 16th November 2013 at "St. St. Cyril and Methodius" National Library and at 74th and 15th halls of the Faculty for Journalism and Mass Communication at “St. Kliment Ohridski" Sofia University the National Conference "Our Modernism (Bulgarian literary modernism: authors, issues, concepts) was held. The conference is part of the "Digitalization and Conceptualization of the Literary Heritage of Bulgarian Modernism" project (http://bgmodernism.com/) developed by the "New and Modern Bulgarian Literature" Department at the Institute for Literature - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and included a remarkable number of reports with interpretations of Bulgarian literary modernism in its various stages and manifestations, as also a and jubilee block "130th Anniversary of Sirak Skitnik".
Scientists from the Institute for Literature, "St. Kliment Ohridski" Sofia University, "St. St. Cyril and Methodius" University of Veliko Tarnovo, “Paisii Hilendarski” University of Plovdiv, "Episkop Konstantin Preslavski" Shumen University, “Neophyte Rilski" Southwestern University, National Drama Academy, New Bulgarian University, the University for Library and Information Technologies Studies and the Institute for Slavic Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences read over 60 reports on poetry, fiction and manifest works and critical studies and articles by modern Bulgarian authors. Examined and compared were poets, writers, art historians, critics, theorists and publicists as Pentcho Slaveikov, Peyo Iavorov, Geo Milev, Chavdar Mutafov, Kiril Krastev, Theodore Trayanov Nikolay Raynov, Lyudmil Stoyanov, Nikolai Liliev, Assen Raztsvetnikov, Vladimir Polyanov Matvei Vulev, Ivan Grozev, Alexander Balabanov, Atanas Iliev, Spiridon Kazandjiev, Dimo Kyorchev, Charles Baudelaire, Maurice Maeterlinck, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Wojciech Galonzka, Walter Benjamin. Reports were focused on significant modern issues such as "Zlatorog", "Hyperion", "Vezni", "Plamak", "Democratic Review", "Hudojnik", "Iztok", "Strelec" and others. Cultural phenomena of Bulgarian modernism as the aesthetic features of expressionistic, surreal, cubist and futuristic philosophy in Bulgarian culture were discussed, as also the philosophy of the "Native Art" current and the problematic manifests of Bulgarian Modern and Avant-garde. Attention was also drawn to the female poetry at the end of the XXth century and its problematic immurement to the paradigm of Modernism and Postmodernism. Original points of view – both literary theoretical and literary historical - were explored. They compared the Modernism with the criminal literature as also the Modernism and the contemporary point. Reports aimed to construct comprehensive views on modern and contemporary book reader, as also to conceptualize culturally more comprehensive historical periods as the initial period of Bulgarian Modernism of the late XIXth - early XXth century.
The reports included in the jubilee block dedicated to the 130th anniversary of Sirak Skitnik discussed the path of this original and brilliant writer and artist from the "Mir Izkustva" to the "Rodno Izkustvo" issue, his texts on the "Zlatorog" and “Demokraticheski Pregled” pages, the characteristics of his poetic texts. Institute for Literature marked the anniversary of Sirak Skitnik also by a radio roundtable titled "Sirak Skitnik and Radio" included in the conference and organized by Georgi Gospodinov and Ivan Hristov in "Na Ostrova na Blajenite"(On the Iland of Blessed) on The National Radio, Binary Radio, held on 15.11.13 ( Friday) at 17.00 It can be broadcasted on the following link: http://bnr.bg/sites/hristobotev/Shows/Culture/WhatIsHappening/Pages/131…
A newly issued collection work “Neslucheniqt kanon. Bulgarski pisatelki ot 1944 do dnes” (The Cannon that Never Happened. Bulgarian Female Writers from 1944 to the Present Day) (Sofia: Altera, 2013) was presented during the conference. Prof. Milena Kirova, compiler and editor, and Assos. Prof. Dr.Elka Traykova, Director of the Institute for Literature talked about the book.