Grigor Parlichev

File:Bulgarian high school in Solun teachers and students.JPG, 1888/1889. Parlichev is the third man with the white beard, sitting from left to right in the first row.]]

Grigor Parlichev was born on 18 January 1830 in Ohrid, Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia), the fourth child of Maria Gyokova and Stavre Parlichev, a craftsman.{{cite book |title=Makedonska enciklopedija: M-Š |date=2009 |publisher=Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts |isbn=9786082030241 |editor=Blaže Ristovski |pages=1226–1227 |language=mk}} He was six months old when his father died. His paternal grandfather, a farmer, took over the care of the family. He was taught to read Greek by his grandfather. Parlichev studied in a Greek school in Ohrid.{{cite book |author=Raymond Detrez |title=Криволици на мисълта |date=2001 |publisher=ЛИК |isbn=9546074543 |pages=20–23, 33–35, 140, 147, 205, 227 |language=bg}} He was taught by Dimitar Miladinov, a Bulgarian National Revival activist.{{cite journal |url=https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/ch/article/view/ch.2012.014/43 |author=Jolanta Sujecka |doi=10.11649/ch.2012.014 |journal=Colloquia Humanistica |publisher=Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences |location=Warsaw |title=Profile of Grigor Prličev (Grigorios Stawridis) |date=2015 |pages=239–241}} In 1839 or 1840, his grandfather died. His family lived in poverty. Parlichev's mother worked as a house servant, while he also contributed to the living of his family by selling goods at the market and copying Greek handwritings. In 1848–1849, he was a teacher in a Greek school in Tirana, probably in Greek.{{cite journal |author=Raymond Detrez |title="Албанската връзка" на Григор Пърличев |journal=Литературна мисъл |date=2012 |page=25 |publisher=Институт за литература - БАН |language=bg |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=193213 |trans-title=Grigor Părličev’s “Albanian connection” |quote=През 1848-1849 година дълго време учителства в Тирана. (...) В Тирана Пърличев преподава в гръцко училиште и вероятно на гръцки, но разговорите со лечителката без съмнение се водят на албански. (In 1848-1849, he taught for a long time in Tirana. (...) In Tirana, Parlichev teaches in a Greek school and probably in Greek, but the conversations with the healer are undoubtedly conducted in Albanian.)}} There, he experienced homesickness.{{cite book |editor=Elka Agoston-Nikolova |title=Shoreless Bridges: South East European Writing in Diaspora |date=2010 |isbn=978-9042030206 |pages=56–57 |publisher=Rodopi}} He went to Athens to study medicine in 1849 but lacking money to pay for his studies, he returned to Ohrid the following year.{{cite journal |author=Eleonora Naxidou |title=Competing Representations of Shared Legacies: Greek and Bulgarian Narratives in the 19th Century |journal=Nationalism and Ethnic Politics |date=2015 |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=362–364 |doi=10.1080/13537113.2015.1063920 |publisher=Routledge |issn=1557-2986}} In the 1850s, he worked as a teacher in Dolna Belica, Bitola, Prilep and Ohrid. In this period, he was seen as a "Grecoman" by his contemporaries. In 1858 Parlichev returned to Athens to study medicine in the second year, but later transferred to the Faculty of Linguistics. Adopting the Hellenized form of his name, Grigorios Stavridis, in 1860 he took part in the annual poetry competition in Athens, winning first prize for his poem "O Armatolos" ({{langx|el|Ο Αρματωλός}}), written in Greek.{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Guide to Homer |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107027190 |page=484 |editor1=Corinne Ondine Pache |editor2=Casey Dué |editor3=Susan Lupack |editor4=Robert Lamberton}} Acclaimed as "second Homer" and given a bursary to study abroad, he gave part of it to a poor student and spent the rest of it. Fellow contestant Theodoros Orphanidis accused him of being a Bulgarian and associated him with Bulgarian propaganda. In 1862, he wrote another poem titled "Skenderbeg" ({{langx|el|Σκενδέρμπεης}}) in Greek, with which he participated in the poetry competition, but it did not win an award.{{cite web |author=Raymond Detrez |title=Григор Пърличев и билингвизмът и диглосията на Балканите, Билингвизъм, транснационални явления и транснационални перспективи |website=Академичен Кръг по Сравнително Литературознание |trans-title=Grigor Părličev and Balkan bilingualism and diglossia |language=bg |url=https://calic-bg.eu/conferens/bilingualism/124-grigor-p-rli-ev-and-balkan-bilingualism-and-diglossia.html}} After the death of his teacher Dimitar Miladinov in the same year, he returned to Ohrid.{{cite book |author=Dimitar Bechev |title=Historical Dictionary of North Macedonia |date=2019 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9781538119624 |page=248 |edition=2nd}}

Upon his return, he became familiar with the Bulgarian language and the Cyrillic script. Parlichev continued to teach Greek for a living. He encouraged the Bulgarians of Ohrid to send a petition to the Ottoman sultan for the restoration of the Archbishopric of Ohrid in May 1867. In May 1868, he went to Istanbul (Constantinople) to study the Church Slavonic language. After studying, he returned to Ohrid in November. In the same year, he advocated for the use of Bulgarian in the schools and churches. He also replaced Greek with Bulgarian in the Ohrid school where he was a teacher.{{Cite journal |author=Jouko Lindstedt |url=https://www.academia.edu/6651805 |title=When in the Balkans, do as the Romans do – or why the present is the wrong key to the past |year=2012 |pages=115–117 |journal=Slavica Helsingiensia |volume=41 |publisher=University of Helsinki |language=English}} Parlichev was arrested and spent several months in an Ottoman jail in Debar after a complaint was sent by the Greek bishop of Ohrid Meletius due to his activities.

He married Anastasiya Hristova Uzunova in 1869 and had five children: Konstantinka, Luisa, Kiril, Despina and Georgi. In the 1870s, Marko Balabanov and the other editors of the magazine Chitalishte (Reading room) in Istanbul made him the suggestion to translate Homer's Iliad into Bulgarian. In 1870 Parlichev translated his award-winning poem "O Armatolos" into Bulgarian in an attempt to popularize his earlier works, which were written in Greek, among the Bulgarian audience. Parlichev was the first Bulgarian translator of Iliad in 1871. However, he was criticized by Bulgarian literary critics because they considered his knowledge of Bulgarian as poor. Parlichev used a specific mixture of Church Slavonic, Bulgarian, Russian and his native Ohrid dialect. In 1872, he published the poem called 1762 leto. He worked as a teacher in Gabrovo in 1879–1880 but he was not satisfied with the climate and the dialect there. In 1883 Parlichev moved to Thessaloniki where he taught at the Thessaloniki Bulgarian Male High School from 1883 to 1889. During his stay there he wrote his autobiography between 1884 and 1885.{{cite journal |author=Raymond Detrez |title=Grigor Parlichev's Autobiography as a "self-hagiography" |publisher=Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |journal=Литературна мисъл |date=2015 |issue=2 |pages=56–79 |quote=Summary/Abstract: Among the many Bulgarian autobiographies written in the national revival period, that by Grigor Parlichev one occupies a particular place due to its highly fictional nature. On the one hand, the author provides very little factual information on the historical developments he participated in; on the other hand, he widely elaborates on events with little documentary relevance, inserting dramatic dialogues that cannot possibly be authentic. These particularities of Parlichev’s Autobiography can be explained assuming that Parlichev used the medieval zhitiye (hagiography, vita) as a model for his own biography. Strikingly, nearly all the topoi of the zhitiye as described by Th. Pratsch in his exhaustive Der hagiographische Topos. Griechische Heiligenviten in mittelbyzantinischer Zeit (Berlin, New York, 2005) also feature in Parlichev’s work, moreover in roughly the same order. The most elaborate episodes in Parlichev’s Autobiography ― his victory at the Athenian poetry contest on 1860, which made him a Greek celebrity, and the weeks he spent in prison in Ohrid and Debar in 1868 ― transpire to be secularized versions (in the spirit of national revival) of the main topoi in most hagiographies: the temptation of the saint and his or her suffering for the sake of Christ. As a result, Parlichev succeeds in similarly representing himself in his Autobiography as a “martyr” for the Bulgarian national cause. Happily for the reader, this whole operation is accompanied by a refreshing dose of (unconscious?) self-irony that sometimes makes Parlichev’s Autobiography remind of Sofroniy’s Life and sufferings.}} After his retirement in 1890, he returned to Ohrid, where he lived with a pension until his death on 25 January 1893.

Per historian Raymond Detrez, who received his PhD for his thesis on Parlichev,{{cite journal |quote=More surprising is another omission: there is no entry on Grigor Parlichev, a Hellenised Bulgarian author who, in the course of his literary career, rejected Hellenism and reverted openly to Bulgarian nationalism. This is rather odd, given that Parlichev was the subject of Detrez’s doctoral thesis. |title=Book Reviews |journal=Southeast European and Black Sea Studies |date=2007 |page=178 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.1080/14683850701189915 |last1=Livanios |first1=Dimitris |last2=Veremis |first2=Thanos M. |last3=Kalpadakis |first3=George |last4=Spanou |first4=Calliope |last5=Hatzopoulos |first5=Pavlos |last6=Veremis |first6=Thanos M. |last7=Keridis |first7=Dimitris |last8=Fabbe |first8=Kristin |last9=Marder |first9=Brenda L. |last10=Eric Ford |first10=Christian |last11=Bakiner |first11=Onur |last12=Asatrian |first12=Mushegh |volume=7 }} in his early life Parlichev was a member of the Romaic community, a multi-ethnic proto-nation, comprising all Orthodox Christians of the Ottoman Empire.{{cite journal |author=Yordan Ljuckanov |volume=20 |title=Bulgarian Cultural Identity as a Borderline One |journal=Interlitteraria |date=2015 |issue=2 |page=96 |doi=10.12697/IL.2015.20.2.9|doi-access=free }} It had been under way until the 1830s, with the rise of nationalism in the Balkans. In his youth, he had no well-defined sense of national identity and developed a Greek (Rum Millet) identity (in the sense of being an Orthodox Christian), but as an adult, he adopted a Greek and later a Bulgarian national identity. In the last decade of his life, he adhered to a form of vague local Macedonian patriotism, though continued to identify himself as a Bulgarian. Thus, in the context of discussions about the existence of the Macedonian nation, his national identity became disputed between Bulgarian and Macedonian (literary) historians.{{cite journal |author=Raymond Detrez |title=Canonization through Competition: The Case of Grigor Părličev |publisher=Institute of Literature - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |date=2007 |journal=Литературна мисъл |issue=1 |pages=61–101 |quote=Summary/Abstract: The normal criteria for an author to be included in a national literary canon are that he should belong to the nation to which the canon is related, that he must write in the nation’s (standard) language, and that his work is of reasonable size and aesthetic value. A criterion of secondary importance, valid in societies marked by nationalism, may also contribute to an author’s canonization: the “national” character of his work in the sense that it deals with national themes, displays the national identity, or attests to the author’s devotion to the national cause — a devotion preferably supported by his real-life heroism or martyrdom. Părličev’s canonization has proven to be problematic in all respects. To which nation did he actually belong? In his youth he had no well-defined sense of national identity and probably considered himself a “Greek” in the sense of being an Orthodox Christian. As an adult he explicitly identified himself initially with the Greek and later with the Bulgarian nation. In the last decades of his life, he seems to have tended to exhibit some vague Ohrid-based or Macedonian particularism, though apparently continuing to perceive himself as a Bulgarian. With such an evolution, it is understandable why disputes between Bulgarian and Macedonian (literary) historians flare up around the issue of Parlichev's national identity, which also refer to the debate about the existence of a Macedonian nation. |language=bg}} However, he never identified himself as an ethnic Macedonian.{{cite journal |author=Raymond Detrez |title=Няколко думи за две научни изследвания, както и за един български автор |trans-title=About Two Scholarly Investigations and a Bulgarian Author |page=Abstract |journal=Дзялото |date=2020 |url=https://www.academia.edu/100480957 |language=bg |issn=1314-9067}} As a Bulgarian national activist, he used German historian Jakob Fallmerayer's discontinuity thesis against the Greeks. In his autobiography, he wrote that the Bulgarians had been scorned and abused enough by other peoples and advised them to become aware of themselves, instead of despising themselves, to become confident of their abilities and rely on their hard work to achieve progress.{{cite book |title=Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume One |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGmJqMflYgoC&dq=%22an+alternative+Macedonian+regional+identity,+a+kind+of%22&pg=PA171 |isbn=9789004250765 |year=2013 |author1=Rumen Daskalov |author2=Tchavdar Marinov |pages=171, 167, 227 |publisher=BRILL}} In 1889, under a translation, he signed himself as "Gr. S. Părličev, killed by the Bulgarians"

(Гр. С. Пърличевъ, убитий българами).

As a child, Parlichev learned to write excellent Greek and later wrote in his autobiography that he mastered literary Greek better than a native speaker. However, as an adult, despite his Bulgarian self-identification, Parlichev had poor knowledge of literary Bulgarian, which appeared to him as a "foreign language". He started learning to read and write in Bulgarian only after his return from Athens in 1862. In his autobiography, Parlichev wrote: "I was, and I am still weak with the Bulgarian language,"{{Cite book |author=Grigor Parlichev |title=Автобиография |trans-title=Autobiography |url=http://www.promacedonia.org/bmark/gp/gal/index.html |date=1894 |page=59 |language=bg}} and "In Greek I sang like a swan, now in Slavic I cannot even sing like a donkey."{{cite book |author=Loring Danforth |title=The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World |date=1997 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691043562 |page=62}} His native Ohrid dialect was different from the eastern Bulgarian dialects. He used a mix of Church Slavonic, Russian and Bulgarian words and forms, as well as elements from his dialect, which is known as "common Slavic". Because of this, he was criticized for his translation of Homer's Iliad.{{cite book |title=Slavica Gandensia, Issues: 33–34 |publisher=Rijksuniversiteit te Gent, Department of Slavonic Philology |date=2006 |page=48}} Thus, according to Bulgarian historian Roumen Daskalov, Parlichev reacted against his Bulgarian literary critics by withdrawing into "an alternative Macedonian regional identity, a kind of Macedonian particularism." However, when he came to write his autobiography, Parlichev used the standard Bulgarian language with some influence of his native Ohrid dialect.{{cite journal |author=Raymond Detrez |date=2007 |title=Canonization through Competition: The Case of Grigor Părličev |journal=Литературна мисъл |language=bg |publisher=Institute of Literature - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |quote=И накрая, Автобиографията е написана на приемлив стандартен български, който все пак носи в себе си известно влияние от родния охридски диалект. (Finally, the Autobiography is written in acceptable standard Bulgarian, which nevertheless carries some influence from the native Ohrid dialect.)}}{{cite book |title=Harvard Slavic Studies |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=1953 |page=369}}

File:Григор_Пърличев_-_Автобиография_(Григор_Прличев_-_Автобиографија).pdf, a year after his death in 1893.|link=File:Григор_Пърличев_-_Автобиография_(Григор_Прличев_-_Автобиографија).pdf%3Fpage=6]]

File:The house of Grigor Prličev in Ohrid, Macedonia.JPG, North Macedonia]]

His autobiography was published posthumously in Sofia in a Bulgarian periodical called Folklore and Ethnography Collection, produced by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, in 1894. Parlichev's son Kiril Parlichev became a prominent member of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia and a Bulgarian public figure. After World War II, Macedonian historians started regarding him as an ethnic Macedonian author.{{cite journal |author=Raymond Detrez |title=Canonization through Competition: The Case of Grigor Părličev |publisher=Institute of Literature - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |date=2007 |journal=Литературна мисъл |issue=1 |pages=61–101 |language=bg}} Both North Macedonia and Bulgaria regard him as a pioneer of national awakening. The Parlichev Ridge in Antarctica is named after him.{{cite web |title=Parlichev Ridge |url=https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=137526 |website=Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica}} A digital monument honoring him was set up in the center of Ohrid in 2022.{{cite web |title=Digital Monument to Poet Grigor Parlichev in Ohrid Vandalised 48hrs after Placement |url=https://www.bta.bg/en/news/balkans/311210-digital-monument-to-poet-grigor-parlichev-in-ohrid-vandalised-48hrs-after-placem |website=Bulgarian News Agency |date=12 August 2022}}{{cite web |title=Поправен е дигиталниот споменик на Прличев во Охрид |url=https://novamakedonija.com.mk/makedonija/republika/popraven-e-digitalniot-spomenik-na-prlichev-vo-ohrid/ |website=Nova Makedonija |language=mk |date=12 August 2022}}

• Miladinov Brothers
• Bulgarian Millet
• Macedonian nationalism

{{Commons category|Grigor Parlichev}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• Parlichev, Grigor. Автобиография. Сборник за народни умотворения, наука и книжнина, book IX, Sofia (1894). ({{commons category-inline|Autobiography_of_Grigor_Parlichev

|Parlichev's Autobiography}}) {{in lang|bg}}

• Parlichev, Grigor. Автобиографија. Skopje, 1967 ([http://strumski.com/biblioteka/?id=147 scan]) {{in lang|mk}}.

• Parlichev, Kiril. Към характеристика на Григор С. Пърличев (Towards a Characteristic of Grigor S. Parlichev), Macedonian Review 4, book 2, p. 99 (1928). {{in lang|bg}}
• Matov, Dimitar. Гр. С. Пърличев. Книжовно биографически чертици (Gr. S. Parlichev: A Literary and Biographical Outline), Balgarski Pregled, book 4-5 (1895). {{in lang|bg}}

• Shapkarev, Kuzman. Материали за възраждането на българщината в Македония от 1854 до 1884 г. Неиздадени записки и писма (Materials about the Bulgarian Revival in Macedonia from 1854 to 1884. Unpublished Notes and Letters). Balgarski Pisatel, Sofia (1984) [http://www.promacedonia.org/bmark/ksh/index.html] {{in lang|bg}}
• Sprostranov, Evtim. По възражданьето в град Охрид (On the Revival in the City of Ohrid), Сборникъ за Народни Умотворения, Наука и Книжнина, book XIII, Sofia, pp 621–681 (1896) [http://promacedonia.com/bmark/es/index.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511064021/http://www.promacedonia.com/bmark/es/index.html |date=2019-05-11 }} {{in lang|bg}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parlichev, Grigor}}

Category:1830 births

Category:1893 deaths

Category:Writers from the Ottoman Empire

Category:People from Ohrid

Category:Bulgarian educators

Category:19th-century Bulgarian poets

Category:Bulgarian male poets

Category:Bulgarian male writers

Category:Bulgarian translators

Category:19th-century Bulgarian people

Category:National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni

Category:Greek-language poets

Category:Macedonian Bulgarians

Category:19th-century translators

Category:19th-century Bulgarian male writers