Not Small. Minor

Abstract

The A. challenges the belief in the oppositional potential of “small” literatures. An author’s choice to write in their own ‘minor’ language does not depend on whether the work takes part in the field of a minority, a small, a dominant or a world-hegemonic literature. Bukova conveys her commitment to the belief in a “literary literature” that can evade interpretation, ignore the rules of the market, the political heteronomy, or even the agenda of the discourse that is closest to the literary – of literary criticism. Such writers are generally only supported by translators. Bukova points at a niche that is doubly unprofitable but symbolically promising: to write literary literature in the language of a small literature. For “small” realities like Bulgarian literature, which are supported neither by the State nor by the media, the only chances to be ‘convertible’ consist in self-organisation of a literary field, struggling against market and geopolitical rationales and involving translators.