Technical progress, fashion and nationality(“The watch” by Georgi Zhivkov)

Abstract

This article suggests an attempt to analyse a literary work from the period of Bulgarian National Revival — the dialogue “The Watch” by Georgi Zhivkov. Its aim is to study some aspects of the technical progress which is unconditionally linked to the following of certain cultural and civilizational models, the removal of the boundaries between the Self and the Other, and the unfolding of human creative potential. However, as with almost everything in life, it has a different side, provoking hesitation, uncertainty, and in some cases, a definite denial. “The Watch” is the text that belongs to that other side with the proviso: the rejection of the technical means not in itself as an achievement of the human mind, but of the replacement through it of basic existential categories the consequences of which affect not only the individual but also the relations with the world. In the article the cultural and literary-historical study and ‘close reading’ interpretation are used.