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Nikolay Aretov Money in Literature: The Novel 'It
Was' by Vassil Popovich
Summary
Traditionally literature treats negatively money and
sees in it mainly source of corruption and evil. From this viewpoint
money is something solid, that can be amassed or missing but is
“fruitless”. It can provoke actions and changes the people that
are in touch with it. Money is treasure, very often a cursed
treasure.
Other approach towards money, one could name it modern,
is also inclined to treat it negatively, but as something dynamic,
as capital. In this case money gets into other semantic sequences
and other plots. Unlike treasure, the capital could be fruitful
and could bring not only corruption and evil, but also income that
could be useful. Unlike treasure, the capital serves for investment
as material for building of rational profitable structures, not
only for securing prestige and luxury. Other difference is that
capital could be created through deliberate and purposeful efforts,
while treasure is usually inherited or found and is often connected
with crime or treachery.
The change in Bulgarian literature from 19th
century, the tracing out of the modern approach towards money could
be spotted relatively late and for the first time in the novel It
Was (1883) by Vasil Popovic.
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