Dantcho Gospodinov

Home - Money - Road - Memory

Summary

The first and most straightforward literary manifestation of novelistic qualities in early modern Bulgarian literature can be found out in the work Life and Sufferings of Sinful Sofronius (1805) by Sofronius, bishop of Vratza, which has been identified, quite inaccurately, as an autobiography, an autobiographic novelette, or as a confessional narrative. But even on cursory reading it becomes obvious that the subject matter of the book has not been constructed out of the typical phases of a life-course (birth, childhood, schooling, marriage, achievements, losses, etc.), it neither fits the specific chronotope of certain types of biographies, nor the more specific one of the so called “biographical novel”. The above-mentioned phases are present but they are drawn in the periphery of the book, they perform only linking or interrelating functions. They are merely mentioned and remain potentially undeveloped plots, given as synopses. The main notion of the plot and the center of narrative composition is the misadventure that puts the main character through a number of trials. The action begins after the first break in the usual “biographical” routine (the Trip to Constantinopole) and ends when the life again runs into its habitual routine (in Bucharest).

Although Sofronius may, according to the genre conventions, appear to be completely passive, a clergyman continuously stricken by misfortune, he cannot hide the active participation in the events. This reveals a true typological resemblance to the late Baroque and Enlightenment novel where the evil where the evil powers as motive forces were replaced by human errors, delusions, and crimes. Sofronius’ misfortunes are caused by his own personal error – that of becoming churchwarden to the treasurer of the Greek bishop. This erroneous step has been presented a s a sin inspired by the Devil but, in fact, it has become possible due to his shortcomings. Even though the actions of the main character are treated hagiographically, the real motives that become apparent are quite distanced from the hagiographic norms of behavior. Sofronius acts as a typical novelistic character – a private, isolated person in a hostile world, homeless, deprived of any support whatsoever, neither from his family or the people around him. More interesting in this case is the motive for leaving his home, his place of security, and taking to the road – it is not simply a thirst for adventure, a search for glory or for the beloved from whom he has been separated by the hand of providence, as in the ancient Greek novel. Nor is it the aspiration to perform fears of bravery for the Christian faith. His motives are equally prosaic and specific both to the new type of person who has sprung from the bosom of the earlier stages of the capitalist era and to the new literary character. Sofronius leave his home with a single aim in mind and that is to improve his financial and social status.

There could hardly be another saint’s life within all the Christian literature in which money is so much talked about as in “life and Sufferings…” Besides being discussed in general terms, finances are also represented in precise figures: debts (“I owe another 400 stivers”), bribes, loans, principal capital and interests, taxes, purchases and sales, losses, etc. This is just a brief example illustrating the picture of the new economic relations which were beginning to develop in Bulgaria in this period and which “Life and Sufferings…” reveals more vividly than any other documents. The act of leaving home can be tackled as an economic and social metaphor of “uneasiness” that John Locke placed at the center of his system of human motives.

Sofronius’ life has its lapses of long and uneventful periods but the way in which it has been presented by the plot line in “Life and sufferings…” it becomes life-on-the-road. Only the events on the road are recognized as worthy to be memorized because just on the road the man can gain and lose money as well as can change his social status and fate.