Дисертации
Defended PhD theses in Bulgaria in the field of linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography and art studies
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Defended PhD theses in Bulgaria in the field of linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography and art studies
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This article discusses the original translation style of St. Euthymius the Athonite (10th11th centuries), a great Georgian monk working in the Iviron Monastery of Athos (Greece), which was called an ‘omission-addition style’ in the scientific literature, and was entirely conditioned not by linguistic but by cultural-religious context. The main goal of the article is to examine that unique phenomenon we are dealing with in the form of his translations, that sheds light on how a translator may turn linguistic tools into cultural vectors of a society, a country, determining the main path for spiritual and intellectual development of the nation in a particular historical epoch and along the centuries. From the rich Greek theological literature, Euthymius the Athonite selected for translation those works that would best reflect the knowledge accumulated in that field at the time, and presented them to Georgian readers, still less knowledgeable in theological matters, in such a way that would best suit them and strengthen their Christian faith, on the one hand, and introduce them to the advanced Western thought, on the other. Research focus is on the translations of theological content. Based on the comparative analysis of the Greek-Georgian texts, I examine those methods and means that Euthymius the Athonite used to keep the Georgian nation from possible religious threats, misunderstandings, and difficulties that accompanied the misinterpretation of religious texts in the Middle Ages. Euthymius the Athonite laid a solid foundation for the process of Europeanization of Georgian literature and culture, which his descendants continued with dignity.
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“The Law on Freedom of Religion or Beliefs and Legal Status of Religious Communities of 27 December 2019 is becoming a problem of “national survival”. The Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) has not shared or accepted the efforts of the authorities in Podgorica to establish a Montenegrin identity. The authorities have qualified the attacks on the law as a challenge to Montenegro’s national, cultural and religious identity. The opposition claims that the Law is an offhand attempt to expropriate lucrative church properties. SOC has organized mass protests “in defense of the holy places against lawlessness”. Citizens are forced to choose among religious affiliation, national identity and affiliation to patronage networks. In 2020 the ruling party suffered its first electoral defeat in the past 30 years. The new government repealed the contentious provisions on church properties. Nevertheless, the dramatic “conflict of identities” in Montenegro remains unresolved.
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In this paper, we started from relatively simple ideas, often superficially treated, but with strong meanings. Is religion a taboo subject? Many commentators and political scientists don`t talk about the relationship between religion and politics, considering them as two totally opposite things. In the first phase, this is the answer that each of us would give, but approaching the subject in a broader spectrum, we will notice that things are different. It is true that religion has always been a universal factor in shaping human history and shouldn’t be associated with political controversies and disputes.
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The emergence of the first Catholic parishes in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija is related to the development of mining, mainly in the settlements of German miners Saxons and the colony of traders from the coastal parts of the Serbian medieval state (Cattaro, Dubrovnik, etc.). The significance and influence of these trading colonies has experienced its climax at the time of the Serbian despots, while the question of the spiritual and administrative authority over these parishes reflects the pretensions of certain Catholic ecclesiastical centers to protect the interests and rights in the exercise of their obligations.
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The article is devoted to the 1934 philosophical and historical essay by Petar Mutafchiev entitled The Priest Bogomil and St. John of Rila. The Spirit of Negation in Our History (Поп Богомил и Свети Иван Рилски. Духът на отрицанието в нашата история), discussed in the context of both the author’s general historiographic output and the spiritual and cultural explorations of Bulgarian intellectuals in the interwar period. The study examines certain external influences on Mutafchiev’s scholarly work, first and foremost Benedetto Croce’s views on ‘absolute historicism’. It also investigates three central historiosophic concepts of the Bulgarian medievalist: 1) the ‘saltatory’ development of Bulgarian history, 2) the destructive impact of Byzantinism on the political, religious and cultural life of medieval Bulgaria, as well as 3) the superficial character of the Bulgarian people’s religion – the effect of receiving ‘foreign’ Christianity from the very same Byzantine hands. In this regard, Bogomilism appears to be an ‘external’ doctrine, having incorporated older dualist ideas, which passed through Byzantium and therefore also reflected the destructive Byzantinism to some extent. Mutafchiev’s original conception goes off the beaten paths of earlier views and testimonies, attesting to the excellency of both the essay itself and the historian’s overall vision of Bulgarian history.
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The aim of this article is to analyse the religious, social, and political situation of Christians in Muslim countries in the MENA region (North Africa and the Middle East). The first part of this article presents considerations and definitions. In addition to the historical outline, information relating to the contemporary situation during the COVID-19 pandemic is presented. The focus of the research was to answer the question of how the situation of Christians has changed. Did the restrictions introduced affect the celebration of religious practices? Were Christians discriminated against in accessing health care and social assistance? Attention was also paid to the statistical data published both by the Christian non-profit organisation “Open Doors” and by the American non-profit organisation “Freedom House.” This article uses the historical method, also known as the genetic method. Its main purpose is a chronological description of the evolution of the status of religious minorities in Muslim countries. A comparative method devised by Arendt Lijphart was also used. Romanian religious scholar Mircea Eliade was also a proponent of combining the comparative and historical methods. Eliade believed that religious studies should use two mutually complementary methods: the phenomenological description of religious structures and the historical-comparative method – a holistic approach to religion. In the context of research, the general concept of man, according to which he is a religious being (“homo religiosus”), is relevant. Reference was made to relevant Spanish-language. The last part of the article compares the persecution of Christians with the phenomenon of Islamophobia to show the similarities or differences between the two negative phenomena.
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In this paper, the motif of wedding in the novel Nečista krv (Impure Blood), by Borisav Stanković is analysed from the viewpoint of erotological theory of George Bataille. The wedding is observed as a celebration resulting in psychoerotic release of the individual. The erotica manifested here has a key role in profiling two different cultures, the urban culture and the rural culture, personified in the Effendi Mita’s and Gazda Marko’s families. By comparing the urban and rural weddings, distinctive erotic features of the two cultures are perceived, as well as differences in character and aim of the celebration.
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The present article deals with the translations of Hebrew and non Hebrew but presented as Hebrew anthroponyms and oikonyms in the work of Konstantin Konstenechki “Treatise of Letters” dating back to the first decade of the 15th century. Up to this moment excluding Jagić the researchers have not pay significant attention to this part of work and according to common opinion Konstantin did not know Hebrew language. However the careful language and textological analysis indicates that a big part of the translations of names and words loaned from the Old and New Testaments are identical or stay close to the etymologies including in the modern dictionaries and other are result of phonetic comparison to Aramaic. There are also translations influenced by Midrashes and the works of Philo of Alexandria.
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The article discusses two historical events taken from texts from the Holy Scripture – the Old and the New Testaments, and a spiritual view on human soul, as found in the Holy tradition of the Orthodox church: they support the thesis that, according to the method of allegorical interpretation, the three evidences point to three inner stages through which human soul passes in its transition to a holistic spiritual development: from the act of the Holy Baptism to the entry into the Kingdom of God.
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In this article I return to St. Marina, on whose folkloric image and faith I worked many years ago. My goal is to supplement my previous observations with new ones and to expand the territorial scope. Special attention is paid to the veneration of the saint’s sacred relics in the Mediterranean and the reactivation of her cult. I also consider the transformational models in the believers’ notions of the cave and nature, and the periodic renewal of those notions through archaization and return to archetypes personified in the cult of St. Marina.
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The presentation addresses issues related to the construction of the socialist canon in the Bulgarian theatre on the basis of certain postulates and ideologemes that provoked the creation of new totalitarian mythologems (Jung, Kerényi). By its very nature, European totalitarianism of the 20th century did not tolerate gods other than those whom it had named itself. Rejecting the centuries-old faith in the Christian god, the system had to elevate its idols. Here the magic that art and artistic image possess was put into reconsideration. Totalitarian culture and art incorporated the powerful tradition of esoteric notions of image in order to create a new religion with new rituals that affect consciousness through the archetypal in a grand spectacle (Debord). In this theatre, the stage incarnations of totalitarian mythologems about the party leader, the positive hero, the youth, the masses, etc. became the main means of forming the type of socio-political thinking necessary for the power.
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The period V–VIII cent. AD is particularly dramatic in the history of Bulgarian lands. Cardinal changes occur on the Balkan Peninsula, but up to this day it is lively debated whether and to what extent these changes are accompanied by cultural and ethnic continuity. The present study offers a number of facts expressing such continuity.
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We consider the process of taming space, turning a profane place into a sacred one, mythologizing, overgrowing with legends and rituals on the example of objects in the southern Urals: Arkaim, the rock complex “Steppe Madonna”, makeyevskaya arbor, the island of Faith, etc. We distinguish three types of “sacralization” of space: political, commercial, and spontaneous. We note the commercial type of sacralization in Arkaim. The spontaneous type includes the sacralization of other listed objects. We note a tendency to hierotopical elements of the cultural landscape. It 45 reflects, first, the desire of modern man to understand the past, a protest against the Erasure of national identity, and secondly-an eclectic picture of the human world, including both elements of traditional religion and pagan components.
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The funerary chapel of the Bachkovo monastery stands out among other Byzantine sanctuaries especially for the specific symbolic meaning of its iconographical programme. Conceived in accordance with the liturgical use of the building, its frescoes served as visual support to the celebration of commemorative and funerary services for salvation of the souls of departed monks of the monastery. By introducing a selection of rare representations from the Bachkovo ossuary, I will exemplify the interaction between performed rituals and painted iconography, based on written liturgical sources. Furthermore I will discuss the role of figurative liturgical objects in the definition of sacred space in Byzantine culture.
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Invariable parts of the Bаchkovo Monastery history are the clerics, who ruled the holy cloister through the years. These people are part of the surrounding region history also. The Monastery priority and connections have spread beyond the state borders. The Monastery government, spiritual life and its economic development have been а top priority for the Monastery council, who’s chairperson has been the abbot. Some of the abbot’s names have been lost in the dynamics of time, for others we do not have firm dаtаs. My attempt to make this chronological list turn out to be difficult. There will be added more names; years and dates will be corrected to all this that I have managed to collect and write. This theme will stay open in the future, and each addition or correction will be а contribution to this attempt for chronological list of the Bаchkovo Monastery abbots.
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