© Lily Touszek
Dnevnik Express
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The great literary historian Prof. Svetlozar Igov has died at the age of 78, the writer Georgi Gospodinov announced on his Facebook profile.
Svetlozar Igov was also a literary critic, poet, novelist, essayist, anthologist, translator and university professor. He was born on January 30, 1945. He graduated from high school in Sofia (1961) and Slavic philology at Sofia University (1966). He specialized in Zagreb and Belgrade (1967 – 1968). He was an assistant at Sofia University (1967 – 1969).
Svetlozar Igov: Vazov is indeed a patriarch, the god father of Bulgarian literature
Because of his support of the Prague Spring, he was banned from working at Sofia University, from traveling abroad and for ten years he was not allowed to do teaching and scientific work.
Editor in literary publications (1969 – 1977). Lecturer in Slavic literatures and comparative literature at Plovdiv University (since 1978). Researcher (since 1978) and senior researcher (1988 – 2010) at the Institute of Literature at the BAS. In 1978, he defended his doctoral dissertation on “Ivo Andrić – creative development and artistic structure”.
Chief editor of the magazine “Language and Literature” (1994 – 2005). Author of more than 1,000 publications in periodicals and 50 books, including “History of Bulgarian Literature” (in 1981 banned for publication by the Zhivkov regime, after 1990 there were a number of publications), books with literary criticism, two books about Ivo Andrich, as well as books on classical (Botev, Vazov, A. Konstantinov, P.P. Slaveykov, Y. Yovkov, D. Dimov, D. Talev, Em. Stanev) and contemporary (B. Raynov, P. Vezhinov, P. Alipiev, N. Kanchev, Iv. Tsanev, Zl. Zlatanov) Bulgarian writers, on the novels “The Deer” and “There, on the Balkans”, three books with fragments “Prizori” and 125 three poetry collections. “Prizori” was translated into Czech, “A Brief History of Bulgarian Literature” into Serbian, “The Deer” into Russian. Winner of prestigious national and international awards. In 2012, he was awarded the Vase Prize.
“Bright memory of a great mind, a talented and insightful connoisseur not only of Bulgarian literature and generous to the young… Once upon a time, when I had only two thin collections of poems, Lapidarium and Chereshata na eden narod, I received the best reviews from him, I keep them for courage. Bright path, the celestial history of Bulgarian literature will have a chronicler…”, writes Georgi Gospodinov.
