 Slavic culture was centred in both the First and Second Bulgarian Empires during much of the Middle Ages . The Preslav , Ohrid and Tarnovo literary schools exerted considerable cultural influence over the Eastern Orthodox world . Many languages in Eastern Europe and Asia use Cyrillic script , which originated in the Preslav Literary School around the 9th century . The medieval advancement in the arts and letters ended with the Ottoman conquest when many masterpieces were destroyed , and artistic activities did not re @-@ emerge until the National Revival in the 19th century . After the Liberation , Bulgarian literature quickly adopted European literary styles such as Romanticism and Symbolism . Since the beginning of the 20th century , several Bulgarian authors , such as Ivan Vazov , Pencho Slaveykov , Peyo Yavorov , Yordan Radichkov and Tzvetan Todorov have gained prominence . In 1981 Bulgarian @-@ born writer Elias Canetti was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature . 
