The Erasure of Romantic Imagination (Examples from Bulgarian Literary-Historical and Critical Texts – 1944 – 1956)

This article examines the practices of erasing romantic imagination in the name of realism in Bulgarian literary-historical and critical texts from the period 1944 – 1956. The study focuses on an encyclopaedia, two literary histories, and a preface examining critical texts of various genres. Attention is drawn to cases of the presentation and interpretation of European Romantic literature in which one of its key concepts – the nature of imagination – is attacked and criticised from a Marxist perspective.