VOL. 60, BOOK 1, PART B, 2022 Full text (Bg)
Author: Maria Ruseva
Affiliation: St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia
Abstract
The main objective of this article is to analyze the literary portrait of The Land of the Rising Sun created in the Svetoslav Minkov’s travelogue “Empire of Hunger” (1952). The text analyzes how the negative depiction of Japan is achieved by means of ironic distance toward the so-called “capitalist” and
“imperialist” Japan. Irony as an approach allows for a broader panoramic view of Japanese society – instead of a unilateral portrayal of the life of the Japanese workers who sympathize with the communist idea. The text argues that the book can be seen as a symptomatic example of the inexorable way the socialistic power affects the field of literature in the years 1944 – 1956, when most rigorous ideological control was introduced in Bulgaria.
Key words: travel, Japan, Svetoslav Minkov, irony, ideology
