We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
This article reconstructs the history of the Bulgarian section of the International PEN. The PEN (initially standing for Poet, Essayists and Novelists) remains a global society of writers, founded in London in 1921, with the intent of promoting international understanding and higher social standing for writers and literature. The Bulgarian PEN was formed in 1926 by authors seeking to break the international isolation of Bulgaria, a former member of the Central Powers. The International PEN enabled Bulgarian literati to engage as non-state agents in cultural diplomacy of their own and to expand their intellectual and professional networks. Based on a variety of sources, the article analyzes the hopes, real limitations, and actual achievements of the Bulgarian PEN until its closing in 1941. It uses the organization’s interwar history to examine the workings in eastern Europe of what Akira Iriye called “cultural internationalism.” It demonstrates that while global literary and cultural relations remained inherently unequal, as discussed by Pascale Casanova, the International PEN did afford opportunities to smaller nations and literatures to establish regional and global contacts and become integrated in continental literary networks.
More...
"Dictionary of the Bulgarian language" by Naiden Gerov is an encyclopedia of the Bulgarian language from the second half of the XIX century. The study of vocabulary from the dictionary continues to this day. The different variants of the words, their relations to the subsequent stages of the development of the Bulgarian language are studied. A fruitful way to study the vocabulary of the Bulgarian language is the inclusion of individual words in lexical-semantic groups and fields and their internal relationships. One field of undeniable interest is the field of animal voices. Naiden Gerov reflected the wealth of words used by the people when describing how the animal "speaks". The subject of the article is precisely this field. In general, it can be noted that, as in any characterization of the vocabulary, general and special names stand out here. A possible next stage of research is the enrichment or impoverishment of the field in the next stages of the development of the Bulgarian language.
More...
The dialogue of Bulgarian writers with the sea has always been subject of the historical epoch, the political conditions and the literary-aesthetic criteria, determining the creative messages and the ideological-thematic scope of their works. In the first half of the twentieth century he followed not only the intention to describe the new latitudes, but also the desire for aesthetic and philosophical understanding of their own and others, for immersion in the waters of the „inner self“, for metaphysical contemplation of the vast horizons. Their creative pursuits will lead to a dynamic development of the travel writing genre with the introduction of new imagery, stylistic and linguistic techniques and original compositional solutions.
More...
The aim of our paper is to point out the presence of such Bulgarian writers who have been translated into Slovak after 1989 and whose life and work touch on certain aspects of the “poetics of dislocation” and the issue of “migration” and thus open questions of existence abroad, emigration or exile. Such authors and their literary characters, for example, are precisely aware of where they come from as well as the "otherness" of the new space. The presentation and interpretation of these selected translated works should then be representative and unique to the scientific field in which the research was carried out in terms of translation and original production (but in this case only with particular reference to the novel 18% Gray by Zachary Karabashliev). The study therefore aims to become a reliable document on the character, personality and intended forms of the presence of Bulgarian literature in the Slovak cultural environment. By means of summarized research we bring to the expert public new detailed knowledge about the more recent literary works of Bulgarians and their current trends and at the same time we present to the Slovak cultural public a comprehensive output about the newer literary and cultural references of Bulgarian literary works and the importance of individual artistic book translations of Bulgarian literature in Slovakia. Inevitably with such an initial "diagnosis", the first step is to name the problem, as "naming the problem" is the first stage of overcoming it. Therefore, our primary task is to testify to the whole and only later to examine the problem in detail and eventually reach the necessary and desired results.
More...
This work analyzes the crisis of masculinity in terms of modernization, the change in the relation between the sexes, as well as the crisis of national identity in Georgi Stamatov’s short stories from the perspective of contemporary theoretical works on nationalism and gender, especially masculinity. His male antiheroes sense that traditional values and norms are no longer valid in contemporary Bulgaria and feel nostalgic for the lost masculine and national identity. They all have the feeling that they cannot rely on old norms and values and are trying to find a way out of the crisis. The female characters and feminized topoi of Bulgaria and its capital Sofia usually evoke interpretations connected to the concept of infidelity, which causes an identity crisis in the modern man: while traditional but weak characters Abarov and Malkov are trying to remain faithful, although they have been betrayed by the “new Bulgaria”, “new Sofia” and unfaithful female characters, Viryanov as a modern male achieves an enormous social success by using women in order to climb up the social ladder and betrays Bulgaria with his leaving for Paris, which represents the center of the demonized western modernism.
More...
In the end of the 9th century, with the direct participation of Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I the Great, the Zlatostruy (“Golden Stream”) book was compiled – an anthology of homilies by and excerpts from John Chrysostom. Since then, numerous Slavic Studies and Old Bulgarian Studies experts have taken interest in the Zlatostruy – with Alexander H. Vostokov, Victor I. Grigorovich, Izmail I. Sreznevsky, Vasiliy N. Malinin launching scholarly research of the prominent anthology. It is not our purpose to conduct a complete review of all research but rather to outline our thesis of the real, prototypical contents of the Zlatostruy, comprising only 45 homilies.
More...
The report examines the ancient Bulgarian writers' vision of the ruler, reproduced in various literary works, in which the problem of the moral strength and purity of the king is sharply posed. The idea of the "divinity of power" explored through the gaze of the compiler of the short Zlatostruy and the Tarzhestvenik from 12th-century, created in the era when Christianity was established in our country in the struggle against Old Bulgarian paganism. In the translation and in the original words are exposed pride, greed and the unrighteousness of those who have departed from God and are sins of the earthly rulers who are called to humility and repentance. The Bible and Gospel examples suggest that sin is overcome if a person, be it king or servant, is conscious and repentant to earn the forgiveness and salvation of his soul.
More...
As a result of years of research in different in structure and origin manuscript octoys, as well as a comprehensive study of the compositions, grouped by purpose and subject, not according to the days of the week within the same voice, M. Yovcheva reaches the discovery of indisputable proof of the presence of a considerable share of the Old Bulgarian writers in the Slavic Octoih. In one of the copies of the liturgical collection, in 1999 Maria Yovcheva comes across works by St. Climent Ohridski. One of these works is the Canon of St. John the Baptist, on Tuesday in voice 1. The beginnings of the canopies of the canon were published by M. Yovcheva by the copies in Paraclitic (Syn. Type 80) from the manuscript collection of RGADA. During the process of researching the Clementian hymnographic heritage, it turned out that, in fact, some of the works attributed to the works of the Old Bulgarian hymnograph were actually signed by other writers, probably by his co-authors. This is also the case with the Canon of St. John the Baptist, since the acronym Prof. can probably be read in the accordance with the canonical model. In this case, too, it turns out that the work is a teamwork of the writers from the Golden Age.
More...
The article presents the ideas of Clement of Ohrid about concept of holiness and the ideal model of the Saint. Cyril-Constantine, teacher of Clement, is the real example of such phenomenon. An additional research’s interest lies in fact, that Clement’s combines in his attitude the personal motive of the follower to his leader with the generalized idea of holiness.
More...
The article examines a newly discovered dated signature of the ethnographer Dimitar Marinov, left in the marginal field of a transcript of the Tale of Barlaam and Joasaph (PM 3/14). A hypothesis is expressed for the most probable year written in the note. Relationships between the public activity of D. Marinov, Rila Monastery and A Tale of Barlaam and Joasaph are outlined.
More...
In this work, the pattern of initiation in Macedonian and Bulgarian epic poems about Banovic Sekula was considered. It was done according to the customs that appear only in the eastern area of poems about this hero. The basic reason for Sekula’s inclusion into the pattern of initiation is his youth. Therefore, the differences in typological determination of Sekula as a young hero, in the eastern and western area of poems, are studied. The ritual base of the pattern of initiation is recognized, typical for the eastern cultural and historical areal –ʻsnihacestvo’ and ʻprvice’.
More...
The primary focus of this article is on the travels through several established European cultural centres (Greece, Italy and Czechoslovakia) through the 1920s and 30s. The modern man in Bulgarian interwar literature takes the role of a receptive subject of different foreign cultures that gains through the process of familiarization and reflection a global or European sight to the world.
More...
The article explores selected examples of the fantastic prose in Bulgarian literature in the 1970s and 1980s in the context of the socialist realist canon. It focuses on the dynamics of social and cultural attitudes in society, under the influence of which some of the finest works of Lyuben Dilov, Emil Manov and Pavel Vezhinov appear, which represent a kind of departure from the dominant style and thematic tendencies. The text examines the changed understanding of the function of literary creativity and the breakdown of monologic language within an ideologically homogeneous literary field.
More...
The researchers of Smirnenski’s poetry discover a connection between some of his works and A. Blok’s poem The Twelve (the image of the revolutionary as Christ with both poets). The text studies other modes of closeness between Blok and Smirnenski: the interpretations of the themes of the feast, the factory, and the harlot, included in the wider theme of the City. Kinship can be found in the opposition of two worlds - the sublime and true, versus the base social reality - by means of the contrast between the poetics of symbolism, and the linguistic means as social reality signs intended to break this poetics. Unlike Blok, however, Smirnenski breaks down the poetics of symbolism externally – through parody in his humorous works. Thus both poets, through similar but also distinct strategies, outline the limits of symbolism and imply its ending.
More...
The paper discusses the issue of intertextuality in modernist poetry by means of a comparative reading of two highly intertextual poets in English and Bulgarian literature: T. S. Eliot and Geo Milev. Despite the many differences between the two, substantial parallels can be found. The paper compares the character, the sources, and functions of intertextuality in their corpus of works. Close attention is paid to the representations of modern metropolis as hell, heavily based on Dante’s intertext in both cases (The Waste Land and Inferno, respectively). This shared characteristic is particularly significant for the interpretation of both poems. The paper also discusses the two poets’ critical stances, searching for the motivation behind the markedly intertextual character of their work.
More...