Nikolay Aretov

Parodies of National Mythology

Bulgarian national mythology was not unified and solid, even in the period of the National Revival. There were different rival variations competing in the sphere of the literature. There were parodies of the main myths too. Interestingly enough they were not only in the texts of radical authors like Luben Karavelov and Chisto Botev, but in the work of writers who build national mythology in other texts. Practically all mythical constructions were objects of parody. The paper is focused only at some cases: mock interpretations of the glorious past, the lives of the new martyrs, and the motif of the unfortunate family. The examples were driven from works of Vasil Popovich, and memoirs of Svetoslav Milarov, Zachari Stoyanov, Stoyan Zaimov, and Mincho Kunchev. The conclusion is that parodying some nationalistic constructions this text did not subvert the mythology as unit.