Nikolay Raynov’s literary works in school textbooks during the interwar period in Bulgaria2. Between the independent and the canonical religious imaginary

Elena Azmanova-Rudarska

doi:10.32798/zl.1700

Published: 2025-12-29

Vol. 62 No. 1 (2025)

Nikolay Raynov’s literary works in school textbooks during the interwar period in Bulgaria2. Between the independent and the canonical religious imaginary

Elena Azmanova-Rudarska

Zeszyty Łużyckie

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.32798/zl.1700

Abstract

Nikolay Raynov (1889–1954) developed a modernist literary corpus that combines orthodox and heterodox religious imagery grounded in mysticism, esotericism, and occultism. This article systematically examines Raynov’s parabiblical texts in cluded in Bulgarian school readers and anthologies between 1926 and 1942. His non-canonical writing reproduces canonical forms while subtly transforming their doctrinal content, thereby preserving creative and spiritual autonomy within an institutionally regulated educational framework. School selections operate along two main horizons—history and religion—through which collective memory and national identity are constructed. Key works (“The Monk”, “The Holy Brothers / Equal-to-the-Apostles”, “The Eyeless Warriors”, “The Gifts of Mercy”) were adapted for different age groups. Mysticism, esotericism, and occultism are approached as para-canonical forms of knowledge with distinct social functions. Raynov’s texts enact a “cultural rupture” (Assmann) between the canonical and the non-canonical, redefining the boundaries of the sacred and the profane. Institutional tensions surface in critical polemics and biographical episodes, such as the cancelled jubilee of 1939. The article argues that, through didactic adaptation, esoteric motifs were effectively institutionalized within school curricula, legitimising Raynov as a formative figure in the construction of Bulgarian cultural memory.

Keywords:

Bulgarian literature, school reading books, chrestomaties, mysticism, Nikolay Raynov

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Azmanova-Rudarska, E. (2025). Nikolay Raynov’s literary works in school textbooks during the interwar period in Bulgaria2. Between the independent and the canonical religious imaginary. Zeszyty Łużyckie, 62(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.32798/zl.1700

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Elena Azmanova-Rudarska

elena_azmanova@swu.bg
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6757-9887

Affiliation:

Neofit Rilski South-West University in Blagoevgrad Bulgaria

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Elena Azmanova–Rudarska, Associate professor at the Faculty of Philology, Department of Literature and Ethnology, Neofit Rilski South-West University in Blagoevgrad; PhD in Bulgarian Literature and author of the following books: [Memoir Works after the Bulgarian Liberation – Figures of the Author, 2010]; [Ritual Words in Bulgarian Lyrics after Bulgarian Liberation, 2013]; [Narodnichestvo in Bulga
rian Literature: Critical Angles, Texts, Educational Materials, 2014]; [Ivan Grozev in Bulgarian Lite
rature: Social, Political, Historical and Religious-Mystical Contexts, Polemics and Dialogues, 2018]. Research interests: the aesthetic and political in Bulgarian literature; cultural history of the Bulgarian National Revival and of the new state; theory of modernity.