Dimitrov, AleksandarДимитров, Александър2026-08-132026-08-132026-05-222682-9460https://doi.uni-plovdiv.bg/handle/store/1099The article examines the novel “Vazvishenie” through the lenses of the picaresque and Gnosticism – two discourses embedded within the metafictional framework of the narrative which resonate with the author’s own creative disposition. Milen Ruskov persistently strives to narrate tragic events in a humorous register, a tendency that lends his works a distinctly tragicomic complexion. Within this con-figuration, the picaresque operates on the plane of comedy, while Gnosticism unfolds on the plane of tragedy. Just as the comic and the tragic intersect in tragicomedy, the picaresque and the Gnostic likewise converge in what may be called picaresque Gnosticism. The focal point of this convergence is the consciousness of the narrator and protagonist, Gicho, who over the course of the novel undergoes a transformation from picaro to Gnostic. This trajectory is inscribed within the context of the Bulgarian National Revival and determines the subtext of the motif of “elevation,” which has come to stand as the novel’s emblem.otherpicaresquepicarognosisnarrator – protagonistcontemporary Bulgarian literatureArticle