Author: Marcel Černý
Institute of Slavic Studies (Slovanský ústav AV ČR), Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
Published in Slavyanski dialozi, XX, 2023, 32.
Abstract: The article addresses the problem of Bulgarian subjects (topoi) in Czech literature as seen in two texts by S. К. Macháček. It starts with a discussion about the supposed Bulgarian subject in the Czech translation of S. К. Macháček’s libretto Elisena, Volgarian Princess (1827) by I. Fr. Castelli, set to music by J. J. Rösler. It contains pseudo-Bulgarian inspirations, with the adjective “volgarian” serving as an exotic touch in the image of the princess. The case of the translation of Macháček’s libretto is an example of how elements of a fictional nature can participate in the construction of intercultural relations.
After that, the article focuses on the one-act play The Bulgarian (1846). Its belated premiere in 1879 shows that, although the work echoes the contemporary interest in Bulgaria in the context of the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation (1878), the central tragic hero, Cvetko Yoachim, reflects Macháček’s strange notion of Bulgarian hostility towards Russians. Macháček’s problematic notion is due to his use of a novel of the same title, Der Bulgar (1835) by the German author Franz Seraphim Chrismar (1806 – after 1858), who has not been identified and is referred to only as ”some “Christmar”. The story was translated into Czech by Josef Procházka under the title The Bulgarian (Bulhar, 1837). The revelation of the identity of the author of the German story, which the present text accomplishes, is accompanied by a brief presentation of his short story The Vampire (Der Vampyr, 1835), in which, for the first time in world literature, the figure of the vampire is identified with the Vlach prince Vlad III Cepes, later Count Dracula, who gained worldwide fame thanks to Bram Stoker’s famous novel.
Key words: Czech-Bulgarian contacts, Bulgarian topoi in Czech literature, S. К. Macháček, libretto, Russophilia, Russophobia, vampire, Dracula, F. С. Chrismar (the alleged Chrismar)