Archimandrite Pavel Stefanov

Between East and West: The Bulgarian francophone intellectuals — Julia Kristeva, Maria Koleva, and Tzvetan Todorov
by Gougoumanova, Guergana Nikolova, Ph.D., Tulane University, 2007, 235 pages; AAT 3286972

Abstract (Summary)
This study covers the literary, critical, theoretical, and film works of three Bulgarian immigrant intellectuals in France: Julia Kristeva (1940 - ), Maria Koleva (1941 - ), and Tzvetan Todorov (1939 - ). Through their own exile during the Cold war, they reconstruct in their works the way East and West, both flexible constructions, perceive each other. We focus on Bulgaria and France–countries representing East and West respectively. Following the works of these author-creators, the term East refers to the former Soviet bloc and the Near and Far East, while the term West –to the liberal democracies of Western Europe and the United States. Kristeva contributes to this study as a linguist, psychoanalyst, and novelist, Koleva–as an independent director, novelist, and playwright, Todorov, as a linguist who borrows from sociological, political, and philosophical thought.

These intellectuals analyze cultures and counter-cultures in a time when the divisions in Europe and the world are changing. After the fall of communism and the recent European Union Eastern enlargements, the East/West European divide is now gradually waning. This quasi-disappearance reflects a changing political dynamics on an overall international level where new divisions appear (continental, ethnic, South versus North). In Europe, the internal East/West question is giving way to an external question–Europe and the countries that seek accession.

The interdependence, encounter, and friction of East and West are discussed from the perspective of the three francophones. The first chapter concentrates on the impossibility to separate East from West in Kristeva’s works while focusing on the relation between origins and contemporary crisis. Chapter two–on Koleva–accentuates on the importance of personal, artistic, and revolutionary encounters. The third chapter discusses the tension between East and West in Todorov’s thought, while examining alterity, modernity, and humanism.

The subject of this study is the twentieth century Bulgarian francophonie represented in the transition and translation of intellectual thought between East and West. Questions of identity, belonging, and otherness are examined in these works–representations/presentations/analyses. With the admission of Bulgaria in the European Union in 2007, these works can be seen as predicting, preparing, and making possible.

Indexing (document details)
Language: French , FR
Advisor: McCarren, Felicia
School: Tulane University
School Location: United States — Louisiana
Keyword(s): Kristeva, Julia, Koleva, Maria, Todorov, Tzvetan, Francophone, Intellectuals, Bulgaria, France
Source: DAI-A 68/10, Apr 2008
Source type: Dissertation
Subjects: Literature, Slavic literature, Religion
Publication Number: AAT 3286972
ISBN: 9780549293484
Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1425290731&sid=1&Fmt=2&cl ientId=79356&RQT=309&VName=PQD
ProQuest document ID: 1425290731