Marieta Girginova
Institute for Literature,
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Bulgaria)
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2024-4s-8
Abstract. The text analyzes magical and alchemical rituals of different origins, which became conceptual cores in two of Bojan Danovski‘s dramatic visions: “Heart of the Jester” (the creation of the artificial human Humunculus) and “Heart of Scarlet Porcelain” (the revival of the toys – The porcelain doll and sculpture of Pierrot). Both visions appeared in the magazine “Hyperion” in the second half of the 20s of the last century. They are part of a larger corpus of eight visions the author sent from Italy to the magazine in 1922 – 1928. Нe published six of them in a separate book in 1929. Danovski‘s dramatic visions are a specific phenomenon in Bulgarian drama. They represent an expression of artistic synthesis in avant-garde art and offer interesting construction and ideas characteristic of the European avant-garde. The aim here is to show, through an analysis of the two visions mentioned: how B. Danovski creates his theater of marionettes and how he works with the rich cultural intertext embedded in the plays. The dramatic vision in three pictures and one pantomime The Heart of the Jester (1926) examines the transformation of medieval mysticism with its spiritualistic séances and dark magic. A desacralization of the magical through the techniques of avant-garde art stands out. The dramatic vision in three paintings Heart of Scarlet Porcelain (1923) traces the transformation in Maeterlinck‘s symbolist theater with the appearance
of the porcelain toy dolls and symbolic marionette figures of the square commedia
dell‘arte. Magical processes and rituals bind the two visions, in which the heart is a
unifying image and a meaningful object. It emerges from the high poetic symbolism of
Romanticism and Symbolism to become a literal thing – a magical/bloody ingredient
for the action of the alchemical retort in The Jester‘s Heart and a fine porcelain object in
the text Heart of Scarlet Porcelain. The process of reification, literalization of symbols
signals their vituperation and becomes part of the desacralization of occult rituals. The
disenchantment of fairytale magic is a specific feature of Danovsky‘s poetics.
Keywords: dramatic vision; occult; magically; ritual practices; marionette; doll; porcelain; heart; Avant-garde; transformation; irony; parody; Maeterlinck‘s still
theater.
