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Thus, the above undeniable scientific facts allow us to conclude that the branches of Armenian church building and urban planning art of Artsakh being closely connected with the socio-economic, political and spiritual transformations of the region achieved great success in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
LIST OF USED LITERATURE
1. Barkhudaryan S., Divan of Armenian lithography, vol. 5, Yerevan, 1982 (Pmpfamqmpjmh U., T-^mh hmj ^tfmqpmpjmh, h. V, bpkmh, 1982).
2. Barkhudaryants M., Artsakh, Baku, 1895(Pmpfamqmphmhg U., Upgmfa, PmgnL, 1895).
3. Balayan V., History of Artsakh, Yerevan, 2002 (Pmimjmh Upgmfafr ^mmtfmpjnLh, bp., 2002).
4. Grigoryan H., Harutyunyan G, The Realakan of Shushi, Yerevan, 2001(Qp^qnpjmh -., -mpmpjnLhjmh GnL2№ fl-hmim^mhp, bp., 2001).
5. History of the Armenian people, Yerevan, 1981, vol. 6 (-<mj dnqn^pq^ ^mmtfmpjnLh, bp., 1981, h. 6).
6. Harutyunyan H., Shushi, newly discovered materials on the history of the city, Stepanakert, 2002 (-mpmpjnLhjmh -., GnL2^. hnpmhmjm hjmphp gmqmgfr ^mmtfmpjmh tfmufrh, Umh^mhm^hpm, 2002).
7. Harutyunyan M., Cultural life in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Yerevan, 2010 (-mpnLpjmhjmh U., U2m^mpuijfrh ^jmhgp Lhnhmjfrh ^mpmpmqmtf (Upgmfamtf) 19 -pq qmpfr hp^pnpq ^hufrh k 20-pq qmpfr u^qpfrh, bp., 2010).
8. Hasratyan M., The School of Armenian Architecture of Artsakh, Yerevan, 1992. (-mupmpjmh U., -mj^m^mh fimpmmpm^hmm^mh Upgmfafr q^pngp, bp., 1992).
9. Leo, History of the Armenian Diocesan Theological School of Karabakh 1838-1913, Tbilisi, 1914 (Lhn, ^mmünipimü ^mpmpmq^ hmjng ß-hüm^mü -<nqknp T-^pngfr 1838-1913,
1914).
10. Voskian H., The Monasteries of Artsakh, Vienna, 1953 (üu^hmü <, Upgmfafr ^müfhpp, ^hüüm, 1953).
11. The architecture of the church of St. Amenaprkich of Ghazanchetsots of Shushi, "Shushi as a center of Armenian civilization", conference materials, Yerevan, 2007(GnL2№ ^mqmü^hgng Up. Uühüm^p^. h^hqhgm. fimpmmpm^hmnLpjmüp, «Gni2^ü hmjng gmqmgm^ppmpjmü oppmü», qfrmmdnqn^ hjmphp, bp., 2007).
12. ''Journal of Social Sciences'' (Lpmphp -<mumpm^m^mü Qkmmpjmüühp), 1975, № 5.
13. "Ararat", 1896, N 1.
14. "Ararat", 1895, N 10.
15. "Azgagrakan Handes", 1897, N 2.
16. "Ardzaganq", 1886, N 44, November 30.
17. "Ardzaganq", 1886, N 11, March 23.
18. "Nor Dar", 1903, N 76, May 6.
19. "Nor-Dar",1893, N 17, January 30.
20. "Nor-Dar",1903, N 48, March 13.
21. "Nor-Dar", 1894, N 111, July 1.
22. "Mshak", 1896, N 87.
23. "Taraz", 1919, N 1-12.
24. "Taraz", 1891, N 13.
25. "Taraz", 1892, N 40, October 18.
26. "Taraz", 1913, N 7-8.
27. "Haykakan Ashxarh", 1874, N 1-2.
28. "Literary newspaper", December 1, 1989.
29. "Karabakh", 1911, N 7, N 10, N 13,
30. "Karabakh", 1912, N 1, N 2, N 9, N 13.
31. "Karabakh", 1912, N 3, January 12.
Prof. Rina Lapidus
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
A CHANGE IN LIVES OF PROTAGONISTS AS THE AGENT OF PLOT-DEVELOPMENT IN BULGARIAN FILMS
DOI: 10.31618/ESSA.2782-1994.2021.1.72.109 Abstract. A film plot is built like any other artistic narrative and includes the following parts: exposition; rising action; climax; falling action; conclusion. We find a rich and multifaceted range of plots in Bulgarian films. However, there is always a break or a change in routine of every plot. The change usually emanates from outside the routine described in the film. The external entity, which comes close to the protagonists' routine and intervened in it, creates problems and crisis. This happens when the external changes bring new characters or events into the characters' previous lives, or, alternately, takes them out of their previous routine into a different reality. For example, in the romantic comedy "It Happened in the Street" by the prominent film director (Yanko Yankov), the protagonist Misho (the legendary actor Apostol Karamitev) is a driver of a truck. He meets a girl called Katerina, falls in love with her, and wants to marry her. She is finally convinced that Misho is the right man for her, and accepts his offer. The establishment of a new young family is enabled by the changes that Misho is assigned to take in his life as part of his work. A change in heroes' lives is the main motive-force in Bulgarian cinema. A variety of drastic events may happen to the protagonists, and they have to face the consequences. They often have intense, dramatic experiences which serve as a mental, psychological, social, personal, ideological, and physical test. These govern their fate, forcing them to mobilize their forces and fight for a lofty cause. The change in the heroes' lives allows them to discover their true character and see their lives anew, in a more moral way.
Keywords: bulgarian films; plot; change in protagonist's lives; an agent for the plot development; "It Happened in the Street".
1. Introduction: Plot Structure in Narratives
A film plot is built like any other artistic narrative plots, such as a short story, novel, play, ballet, or opera. A film plot consists of the following five parts:
a. Exposition (or Introduction)
b. Rising Action (or Rise)
c. Climax (or Crux)
d. Falling Action (or Return, or Fall)
e. Catastrophe (or Conclusion, or Denouement, or Revelation)62
These parts can be explained as follows:
a. Exposition (or: Introduction)
The setting is determined in a particular place and time, the mood is created, and the characters are introduced. The heroes engage in a particular routine, whether it satisfies them or makes their lives miserable. The author alludes to a backstory and informs the reader or viewer of something he thinks they need to know before moving on with the plot. In fiction, the exposition is usually embedded in action.
b. Rising Action (or: Rise)
An intriguing event begins immediately after the exposition, leading up to the point of greatest importance (climax, or crux). The narrative plot is based on this, as it sets up the climax and later the ultimate resolution of the entire narrative.
c. Climax (or: Crux, or: Turning Point)
The climax is the third, and most important, part of a plot. It reveals the surprising aspects of the heroes' actions and characteristics. The fate of all the
characters, first and foremost of the protagonist, is reversed. It is the culmination of the entire work and contains hints as to how the plot may be resolved. After the climax, the action in the plot changes direction, stops rising and begins falling or reversing.
d. Falling Action (or Fall)
Falling action occurs when events and complications begin to be resolved. At the beginning of this phase, the antagonist often has the upper hand and the protagonist is far from accomplishing his goal. However, the protagonist overcomes the difficulties and resolves the problem. The reader or viewer can see the result of the protagonist's actions, as the protagonist gradually returns to his normal state or to the new world order in the new reality. The new situation or world order is far superior (in a comedy) or much worse (in a tragedy) than the old one. The falling action phase consists of events leading to the conclusion.
e. Resolution (or Denouement, or Catastrophe)
The protagonist and antagonist have now solved
their problems, and either the protagonist (in a comedy) or antagonist (in a tragedy) wins the conflict. A new reality is established in the microcosms depicted in the work. The protagonist is happy (in a comedy) or dies (in a tragedy). The plot complexities gradually disentangle. The conflict ends, although its heroes continue to remember it.63
The plot structure can be schematically presented as following64:
2. Plot in Bulgarian Films We find a rich and multifaceted range of expositions in Bulgarian films. The exposition can describe the situation of different protagonists - young and old, civilians and soldiers, men and women, Bulgarians and those of other nationalities. The setting also varies - the reality can be one of war or peace, monarchy or communism, in Bulgaria or in other countries. The films presented in this article display a range of possibilities as to how the exposition is created. However, despite all the differences in the situations described and the personalities of the
62 MacEwan, Freytag's Technique of the Drama, p. 115.
63 MacEwan, Freytag's Technique of the Drama, pp. 114-139. See also similar analyses of a plot: Olrik, Epic Laws of Folk Narrative, pp. 129-141; Slavutin, Pimonov, The Minimal Plot
characters, there is one thing they all share - the routine in their lives, whether it is one of calm and peacefulness, or whether one of the bumpy road of wartime. The characters' routine - whatever it is like -is the sole condition for creating this part of the plot.
However, the raising action shows a picture of that routine being breached. Such a break in routine is usually attained by a drastic change at a particular point in the plot. From where does the change begin? It is only in rare cases that it originates in the soul of the protagonist. The change usually emanates from outside the routine described in the film, or, alternatively, takes
Http://www.sadovaya6. ru/multimedia/y -slavutin-v-pimonov-the-minimal-plot/; Steiner, The Roots of Structural Esthetics, pp. 174-219; Шкловский, "Связь приемов сюжетосложения с общими приемами стиля", 24-55.
64 MacEwan, Freytag's Technique of the Drama, p. 115.
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the main protagonist outside of his previous life. Such a change occurs due to the intervention of an external entity in the characters' daily life. The external entity's intervention is made possible by its arrival in the characters' life, or by that character coming to the external entity. Whichever way it happens, at this stage in the story there is physical movement which brings together the described routine, the characters involved, and the intervening external entity. Many times this physical movement is embodied in some kind of a journey. It can be an intervening external entity into to the routine life of the protagonists, or vice versa - the characters and their routine meet the external entity.
The climax is the result of the encounter between the exposition and raising action. The external entity, which comes close to the protagonists' routine and intervened in it, creates problems and crisis. Such crisis is caused by the external entity changing and overturning the protagonists' original routine. Since the external entity interrupted and upset the characters' previous routine, there is resulting discrepancy and friction between the changed routine and the external entity. This happens when the external changes bring new characters or events into the characters' previous lives, or, alternately, takes them out of their previous routine into a different reality. In Bulgarian cinema, this part of the plot is often embodied in the Bulgarian characters meeting representatives of Nazi or Communist ideology who come to Bulgaria, change the previous routine of the Bulgarian protagonists, and lead to new problems and crises.
In the falling action part of the plot the hero is required to solve the problems caused by the intervention of the external entity. The Bulgarian protagonist must cope with the representatives of Nazi or Communist ideology who try to force their worldview and lifestyle on the Bulgarians, usually against their will.
During the resolution the protagonists begin a new routine. The Bulgarian characters faced Nazism or Communism, whether or not they succeeded in achieving their goals. Thus, this part of the plot can be optimistic, should they have succeeded. Alternatively, it can be pessimistic if they were unsuccessful, or lyrical and melancholic if the new routine shows the heroes partially achieved their goals. Sometimes the Bulgarian heroes only partly overcome the Nazi or Communist attempts to force their ideology on them, and also suffer from losses while fighting these foreign weltanschauungs. At other times the Bulgarians must make peace with the foreign ideas imposed upon them, and try to minimize the damage created in their wake. In any event the Bulgarian protagonist creates his own new reality, which is always impacted by what he has experienced during the story.65
3. "It Happened in the Street" (1956)
65 Dibell, Plot; Frye, The Great Code; Шкловский, "Связь приемов сюжетосложения с общими приемами стиля", pp. 24-67; Славутин, Пимонов, "К вопросу о структуре сюжета", 22-30; Todorov, "Some Approaches to Russian Formalism", pp. 6-19.
The romantic comedy film "It Happened in the Street" is based on mistakes in identifying the protagonists while on trips between Sofia to Varna and back. In this film, Misho, a young driver of a large truck, meets a girl called Katerina and falls in love with her in the center of Sofia. But she hesitates between choosing him or an older man, an academic. She is finally convinced that Misho is the right man for her, and accepts him. The very romantic story, Misho's successful marriage to his beloved, and the establishment of a new young family are enabled by the changes that Misho is assigned to take in his life as part of his work.
4. "Stars" (1958)
The film "Stars" is the first Bulgarian film depicting the Holocaust. The film is about Macedonian Jews living in Bulgaria and expelled by the Nazis in 1943. The film begins with a squadron of Nazi soldiers escorting Greek Jews to the Auschwitz death camp and which stops at a small Bulgarian town in 1943. Walter, a Nazi non-commissioned officer, a skeptical and disillusioned intellectual, unexpectedly falls in love with Ruth, a Jewish girl. This new experience gradually makes him stop and reflect on the events taking place around him. He comes face to face with the inhuman nature of Fascism. With the help of Bulgarian resistance fighters, Walter organizes Ruth's escape. But when the time arrives for him to help her, he realizes he has been deceived regarding the exact time of the prisoners' departure, it has already taken place, and he is too late. The train has left. Walter becomes actively involved in the Bulgarian antifascist' struggle.66
The meeting of Walter and Ruth in these tragic circumstances is possible due to the changes in the plot of the film, namely because Ruth was transferred with other Macedonian Jews to the Auschwitz extermination camp. This is a change forced upon the Jews by the evil Nazi forces against their will. However, this tragic change in the is a basic element in the plot which leads the plot to the climax.
5. "Deviation" (1967)
We shall now discuss another film, "Deviation", produced in Bulgaria in 1967. The film is a romantic drama. On the way to Sofia, after about twenty years' separation, Boyan and Neda meet by chance on a journey. Both have a successful career, he as an engineer and she as an archaeologist. In their youth, he was an idealist who dreamed of building Communism in Bulgaria at any price, even at the cost of sacrificing himself and his relationship with Neda, his then girlfriend. At that time, Boyan believed that romantic love such as that he felt towards Neda was a "deviation" from the strict Communist line he ought to follow. Only now, many years after his love affair with Neda in his youth, while encountering Neda by a chance, does he begin to believe that love, rather than building
66Ragaru, The gendered dimensions of "Zvezdi/Sterne"; see also: Ragaru, Socialism by Proxy: Negotiating Past and Present in the Figuration of the Jewish Catastrophe in Bulgaria in the late 1950s.
14 East European Scientific Journal #8(72), 2021 Communism in Bulgaria, brings true happiness. The encounter enables him to break free of the illusion imposed on him by the Communist party and open his eyes to the true values of life such as sincere love and affection between spouses. This encounter changes the protagonist's world view as he reassesses the entire course of his life.
6. "Dangerous Flight" (1968)
"Dangerous Flight" is a Bulgarian detective drama. According to intelligence, a foreign agent, American George Anderson, is about to arrive in Sofia in order to perform his mission of spying in secret governmental facilities in Bulgaria. He is supposed to drive his car from Istanbul to Vienna. He must be tracked down and neutralized. But before the American agent lands in Europe, he accidentally reveals his identity and mission during a conversation which takes place between him and a Bulgarian security man and his ideological opponent Kalinov on their flight to Bulgaria.
The airplane flight creates a unique situation when the American agent inadvertently reveals his anti-Communist views while talking to Kalinov, who he believes to be an innocent traveler and does not suspect of being a Bulgarian security man. Without the plane flight, the American agent would not have been discovered and the development of the film plot would have been impossible.
7. "The Eighth" (Sofia, 1969)
Another film, which includes a change in heroes' lives, is "The Eighth". "The Eighth" tells the story of the beginnings of the Communist guerrilla movement in Bulgaria. The plot relates the story of a group of eight Bulgarian Communist parachutists who had studied in Moscow, and later jumped at night from an airplane in Bulgarian territory. Their commander is nicknamed "The Eighth". Their task was to organize a partisan pro-Communist Underground in the territories where troops were cooperating with the Germans during the Second World War. As portrayed in this proSoviet film, the organization of the Underground movement gave crucial reinforcement to the Bulgarian Communist Party's struggle to liberate the country from the Germans. One of the Communist guerrilla fighters' missions was to catch police officers and policemen, and this was accomplished smoothly and successfully. The officers were captured and shot. The policemen were disarmed but not killed, as they were Bulgarians, like the Communist guerrilla fighters. The citizens saw the Communist partisans as their liberators. They joyfully welcomed the partisans and presented them with an abundance of food and gifts. The film ends triumphantly. 67
This is a pro-Communist propagandistic adventure film. The change that the paratroopers encounter on their way to Bulgaria is the drive that
67 Garbolevsky, The Conformists: Creativity and Decadence in the Bulgarian Cinema, 1945-89. 68See: Clark, "Chronicling Repression: Bulgarian Cinema under Communist Rule".
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opens the story and enables its development. All the events depicted in the film, and the victory of the Communist partisans at the end, are the consequence of this change.
8. "After the End of the World" (1998)
After the End of the World (1998, Sled kraja na sveta) is one of the few films dealing with the topic of Jews in post-war socialist Bulgaria. The plot unfolds in multinational Plovdiv during two parallel periods. The first is shortly after the end of the Second World War when an old Jewish couple, an alcoholic innkeeper Abram and his wife Mazal, are bringing up their grandson Berto. Berto is 10 years old and is in love with an Armenian girl, Araxi. However, fate separates them for many years. When the Communists take over Bulgaria, the girl's family tries to flee to France but is arrested at the border. Her father is sent to a labor camp in Bulgaria and she and her mother are sent to a small village next to the camp. Berto's family flees to Israel.
The second period transports us to a point thirty years later. A well-known specialist in Byzantine history, Professor Albert Cohen, comes from Israel to his native Bulgaria for a conference. Here he meets his old love Araxi, who has become a music teacher. Both of them walk around the city recalling the past and their mutual childish affection68.
The reunion between the protagonists 30 years after their breakup is possible thanks to the change in Albert Cohen's life, when he became a professor and is enough wealthy to travel from Israel to his native Bulgaria. Thus, the heroes meet again 30 years later and experience, although only platonically, the same first love they never had a chance to realize in their youth.
9. "Bulgarian Rhapsody" (2014)
"Bulgarian Rhapsody" is set in Sofia in the spring of 1943. The Jews in Bulgaria must obey the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany, Bulgaria's ally. Moni, a young Jewish artist, and his friend Giogio, a Bulgarian musician, meet Shelli, a Jewish girl from northern Greece. A love triangle unfolds between the three 17-year-olds. These are three young people in the prime of their lives experiencing first love, jealousy, and dreams.
The story unfolds against the backdrop of the fate of the European Jews during the Second World War. A love rivalry develops between the two boys just as the German troops enter the city and the police begin rounding up Jews for deportation. The Bulgarians are forced to accede to the requests to transfer the Jews on the freight trains in Sofia. Giogio is left alone on the station platform, humiliated, lost, and bewildered as his beloved Shelli and his rival Moni are forced into a cattle car sent to Auschwitz.69
The change which occurs in protagonists' lives after the Nazi invasion in Bulgaria is the drive for the development of the plot in the film. All the events
69 See: Nedyalkova, Transnational Bulgarian Cinema - Pieces of the Past, Present and Future; and Ragaru, Socialism by Proxy: Negotiating Past and Present in the Figuration of the Jewish Catastrophe in Bulgaria in the late 1950s.
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center around this gruesome occurrence. This tragic change represents an antithesis to the Utopian idyll depicted in the film as existing before the Nazi occupation.
10. Conclusion
A change in heroes' lives is the main motive-force in many art forms, including Bulgarian cinema. A variety of drastic events may happen to the protagonists, and they have to face the consequences. They often have intense, dramatic experiences, which serve as a mental, psychological, social, personal, ideological, and physical test. These govern their fate, forcing them to mobilize their forces and fight for a lofty cause. The change in the heroes' lives allows them to discover their true character and see their lives anew, in a more moral way.
Bibliography
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Olrik, Axel, "Epic Laws of Folk Narrative", in: Alan Dundes, ed., The Study of Folklore, New Jersey: Prentice Hall College Div., 1965, pp. 129-141.
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Ragaru, Nadège, The Gendered Dimensions of "Zvezdi/Sterne" (1959) 27 January 2016
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Ragaru, Nadège, "Socialism by Proxy: Negotiating Past and Present in the Figuration of the Jewish Catastrophe in Bulgaria in the late 1950s", Communication to the 46th Congress of the ASEEES, San Antonio, Texas, 20-23 November 2014.
Шкловский, Виктор, Теория прозы, "Связь приемов сюжетосложения с общими приемами стиля", Москва: Федерация, 1929, 24-67 This specific fragment 24-55
Славутин, Е.И., Пимонов, В.И., "К вопросу о структуре сюжета", Вестник литературного института им. А.М. Горького, 2 (2012), 22-30.
Slavutin, Yevgeny, Pimonov, Vladimir, The Minimal Plot 10 Jun 2014
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Steiner, Peter, "The Roots of Structural Esthetics", in: Peter Steiner, ed., The Prague School: Selected Writings, 1929-1946, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982, 174-219.
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