[Commlist] New book: Literary Journalism in Bulgaria

Dr. Bissera Zankova and Dr. Ivo Indzhov are pleased to announce that the 
monograph “Literary Journalism in Bulgaria: from the Socialist “Ocherk” 
and the Travelogue through “In Absentia Reports” to Contemporary 
Peripheral Documentary Prose”was recently published by “Media 21 
Foundation”.

Following the Bulgarian version, the book is the first comprehensive 
monographic study devoted to the literary journalistic genre in 
Bulgaria. It situates Bulgarian practices within global traditions 
shaped by famous authors with specific styles, while at the same time 
tracing the distinctive local manifestations which go beyond the corset 
of different “realisms” of the artistic-publicistic genres.

Through empirical analysis, the authors focus on three key case studies 
- Georgi Markov’s “In Absentia Reports” on Bulgaria, Marko Semov’s 
political travelogue “About Japan as about Japan”, and Assen 
Hristoforov’s humanistic travel writings - illustrating how journalistic 
and publicistic texts functioned as revelatory publicistic-artistic 
documents under socialism not only challenged ideological clichés but 
also anticipated the hybrid forms of literary journalism that re-emerged 
after 1989. The study further examines the metamorphoses of the “ocherk” 
and the travelogue during the democratic transition and in today’s media 
landscape.

As such, the book provides a pioneering framework for the critical 
rethinking of Bulgarian journalism and novel journalistic developments.

Table of Contents

Academic Summary for International Readers          5

Introduction: Why the Topic Matters to Us    6

Chapter One: The Value of the Literary Journalism Tradition 14

Chapter Two: Literary Journalism through the Prism of Authors and Styles 18

2.1 Precursors of Literary Reportage and “New Journalism” 19

2.2 Ryszard Kapuściński—The Master of Literary Reportage 20

2.3 “The New Journalism”: Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote 22

2.4 The Woman Creator and Literary Journalism: Svetlana Alexievich and 
Oriana Fallaci  23

Chapter Three: Literary Journalism in Bulgaria          27

Chapter Four: The “Ocherk” and the Travelogue as Artistic-Publicistic 
Forms: An Overview…….. 32

4.1 The “Ocherk”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 32

4.2 The Travelogue………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… .33

Chapter Five: The “Ocherk” and the Travelogue in Bulgaria  35

5.1 The Soviet Model and Its Bulgarian Adaptation  36

5.2. Television Transformations         37

5.3. The Travelogue: Historical Development and Literary 
Functions           38

5.4. The Travelogue in Socialist and Late-Socialist Bulgaria   40

5.5. Television Travelogue and Genre Hybridization  42

Chapter Six: Fighting Propaganda      43

Three Case Studies Illustrating the Emergence of Contemporary Literary 
Journalism in Bulgaria          43

Case Study 1: A Judge of the Socialist Era “In Absentia Reports on 
Bulgaria” by Georgi Markov, the exposing "journalistic-artistic 
document"         43

Case Study 2: The Political Travelogue and the Critique of the Socialist 
System “from within”—“About Japan as about Japan” by Marko Semov    47

Case Study 3: Assen Hristoforov – The Travelogue as a Protective 
Literary Form     50

Chapter Seven: The Fate of the “Ocherk” and the Travelogue in the Late 
1980s and Early 1990s. The Change in the “Otechestvo” Magazine       55

Chapter Eight: The Metamorphoses of the “Ocherk” and the Travelogue in 
Bulgaria after 1989       60

Chapter Nine: Literary Journalism Today       64

Discussion and Conclusions   66

Both versions in Bulgarian and in English are available as open access here:

https://media21.org/en/books/ <https://media21.org/en/books/>

at the foundation website and

https://digital.libsu.uni-sofia.bg/bg/v/65724 
<https://digital.libsu.uni-sofia.bg/bg/v/65724>

https://digital.libsu.uni-sofia.bg/bg/v/65722 
<https://digital.libsu.uni-sofia.bg/bg/v/65722>

at the digital collection of Sofia University “St.Kliment Ohridski”

Contact: (bzankova /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(bzankova /at/ gmail.com)>




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