Globalization and Literary Criticism in the Sub-Periphery

The article employs statistical data and discursive analysis to outline the changes in the Bulgarian literary field over the past several years. It traces the discrepancies between market-preferred titles and the choices of critics in the specialized issues of “Literaturen vestnik” and the online journal “Portal Kultura,” based on data from 2024. The focus is on the transformations of the literary sphere under the influence of the “will for the national” of mass audiences and the “will for world literature” of high criticism, with particular emphasis on the defocusing of the latter and its inability to exercise “consecration” (Bourdieu) of literary texts as “high literature.” The article problematizes the effectiveness of concepts such as “globalization,” “world literature,” and “sub-periphery,” seeking to answer the question of whether there is a situational, temporary “return to the Bulgarian” within the national literary field or whether this reflects a structural predisposition toward resistance to globalizing tendencies.