THE FRACTIONS OF THE CHARACTERIZATION IN DIMITAR DIMOV’S TOBACCO IN THE LIGHT OF J. P. SARTRE’S “COMMITTED LITERATURE”

Abstract

In this article, first of all, in the context of Sartre’s conceptualizations such as “committed literature” and engagement, the relationship between reader, writer and text will be outlined. In addition to this, the possibilities of the reader/recipient responding of the writer’s possible summons in the text and the potential or contributing role of this response in the production of meaning in literature will be mentioned. Subsequently, whether Dimitar Dimov’s Tobacco, a well-known writer of the Balkans and Bulgarian literature, is an example of “committed literature”, as Sartre claimed, which stands out with its transformative quality and invites its readers both to liberate and to improve democratic tendencies in society, will be discussed. Additionally, in search of an answer to this question; the specific characteristics of Socialist Realism in Bulgaria, where does Dimov put himself in this doctrine, and the way he differentiates his poetics from its fixed or imposed principles will be evaluated. The last but not the least, the characterization of the text in question, which highly differentiated from principles of Socialist Realism by choosing the character over type, will be analyzed with the aim of showing the similarities between the novel and Sartre’s theoretical approach.