Author: Bogdan Dichev
Charles university, Prague
Published in: Slavyanski dialozi, VII, 2010, 10 – 11
Abstract: The present text’s conceptual framework expresses the idea that the works of Vazov, Konstantinov, Ilf and Petrov, and Hasek present Europe in a new context, in new form, and in transformations that were previously unknown. This is achieved by means of artistic organisation of the comical. The techniques of comic approaches to the formation of a new image of the Old Continent are diverse but could be traced in five basic semantic dimensions. These are: the metaphoric model of Europe; the key expression the understanding of Europe’s cultural context; the key code of literary comics – the primary means of Europe’s game transformation; and the organisation of time-place relations within the literary text. The line of development of travesty in Europe, its appearance in new garment, is present by the chronotope processually in the intertextual bondages among thee five selected works. The analytical observations are generally focused on two aspects: the way Europe is reflected in the artistic world of literary comics; and the way comics itself interprets the characters of this works and their inside worlds against the background of the canonical worldview of Europe’s essential ideas.