Bulgarian Literature as World Literature, edited by Mihaela P. Harper and Dimitar Kambourov (Review Essay)

Author(s): Petya Tsoneva / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The essay reviews a recent collection of seminal critical readings of Bulgarian literature as “world literature.” Published by Bloomsbury Academic, the volume under discussion contributes to the study of the dynamic interaction of “minor” literatures with local, regional, and wider manifestations of global literary space. It is organized in four sections of thematic contributions authored by scholars from Bulgaria and beyond that discuss historical, geographical, economic, and genetic processes in the development of Bulgarian literature. The review follows the sections closely, and is attentive to specific phenomena, positions, texts, and contexts that render the concept of “minor literature” negotiable and open to reformulations. As most of the static labels are nowadays flushed into the conglomerate of “marginocentricity” and the reality of “quality literature” is no longer a criterion in the admission of local literatures to worldwide prominence, literary circulation has, to a great extent, become a function of the global market. The publication of the reviewed volume is the outcome of a vigorous effort to establish Bulgaria’s literary location within these processes and beyond them.

Вазов в българското кино

Author(s): Vladimir Donev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The article analyzes the artistic features of the best film adaptations of several works by Ivan Vazov – the novel Under the Yoke and the novellas Characters and Outcasts. It also examines the dialogue between the literary original and the scripts, the cinematic means of expression and the literary techniques. The paper also discusses the director’s concepts and acting achievements in the respective film adaptations.

Milena Katsarska. 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠: 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 1948–1998

Author(s): Vakrilen Kilyovski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

𝐸𝑠𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠

Рилската преправка на „История Славянобългарска“ – текстологични добавки, отсъстващи в двата основни източника

Author(s): Atanaska Tosheva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian,Old Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

In the article have been studied the text’s additions in the Rila’s remake, which are not found in the historical work of Paisii Hilendarski and Spiridon Rilski – the two main sources of compilation. The interpretation of the systematized new information is in direction of finding new likely sources and of principals and ways, with which the remake’s author forms a new historical work, as well.

Паисий, „История Славянобългарска“ в контекста на балканската историография от епохата на Възраждането

Author(s): Elisaveta Stoycheva-Yancheva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

The article interprets Paisius of Hilendar’s Slavo-Bulgarian History. The book is situated in the context of the other historical works of Balkan historians of the 15th and 18th centuries (Chroaten, Serbian and Bulgarian). Slavo-Bulgarian History is interpreted in connection with their historical works. The article highlights those accents, for which Bulgarians from the Revival period preferred Slavo-Bulgarian History.

Бесарабските хроники на Aнна Малешкова и Николай Куртев

Author(s): Elena Nalbantova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The article is dedicated to the prose works of two contemporary Bulgarian Bessarabian authors. The first part of the paper presents biographical and thematic details about the authors, and the second part considers their common fiction books.

Характерология на българския смях

Author(s): Vladimir Donev / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The text analyzes three volumes of the large-scale scientific project of Prof. Radoslav Radev on Bulgarian laughter culture: 1) The Joker in Bulgarian Literature and Culture; 2) Bulgarian Jokers as Real Personalities and Artistic Images; 3) Malapropisms and Iotovisms in Bulgarian Literature and Culture. The author uses a complex interdisciplinary approach on the border between folklore, literature, and culture. Apart from characterology, the scientific series turns into culturology and folk psychology of Bulgarian laughter. R. Radev is not only a scholar, but also an essayist, a philosopher of laughter and a master of the word.

Притчата за бялата патица

Author(s): Rumen Goranov / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

Parable of the White Duck from the collection Peyzazh s Kuche (Landscape with Dog). It is considered an ironic allegory of the past (before and after 1990). References are made to the texts of Yordan Yovkov, Emiliyan Stanev, Yordan Radichkov, Nikolay Haytov, etc. The introduction of Odata na radostta (Ode to Joy) as a main marker in an attempt to entice the duck to be happy is interpreted in two ways: as a negation of the time of totalitarianism on the one hand, marked by restrictions and domestication of wild rabbits, and, on the other hand, as a sarcastic allusion to the new time of freedom, reproducing a snobbish way of thinking, of complete union with the golden calf, a time of desecrated moral values, the change of elites and the naive illusion for change.

Литературният кръг „Мисъл“. Литературноисторически очерк с мемоарни елементи

Author(s): Mihail Nedelchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 45/2022

Национална научна конференция „Интерпретации и контекстуализации в българската литературна критика“

Author(s): Alexandra Antonova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 45/2022

Академик Любомир Милетич – щрихи към портрета (По случай 160 години от рождението му)

Author(s): Encho Tilev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2023

Professor Lyubomir Miletich (1863 – 1937) is one of the linguists of the first generation of Bulgarian scientists, who left a significant mark in the history of Bulgarian linguistics. His contributions in various fields of knowledge – linguistics, history, ethnology and others – were highly appreciated by his contemporaries and to this day serve as a basis for the development of further research in these fields. Of particular importance for linguistics are his studies „Das Ostbulgarische“ and „Die Rhodopemundarten der bulgarischen Sprache“, which describe the features of some Bulgarian dialects at the end of the 19th century. In 2023, when the160th anniversary of L. Miletich's birth will be celebrated, his contributions to the development of Bulgarian science are increasingly indisputable.

La première édition bulgare de l’Enfer de Dante : représentation verbale vs représentation visuelle

Author(s): Irena Kristeva / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2023

The article problematises the connection between the verbal representation and the visual representation in the first Bulgarian edition of Inferno (1906). It aims to demonstrate that Gustavе Doré’s drawings, which illustrate Konstantin Velichkov’s translation, contribute to the better reception of Dante’s masterpiece. Thus, I will try to explore the relationship between the text and the iconic paratext, between the interlingual translation and the intersemiotic translation, by bringing out the empathy of the translator.

НИКОЛА ЙОНКОВ ВАПЦАРОВ – ЯРКА ПОЕТИЧНА ЗВЕЗДА СРЕД ВАРНЕНСКАТА ИНТЕЛИГЕНЦИЯ И БЪЛГАРСКОТО МОРЯЧЕСТВО

Author(s): Iliya Peev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The report examines Nikola Vaptsarov’s poetic talent development and his personal progress during his training in the Marine Engineering School (1926–1932). The spiritual connection in the poetry of Nikola Vaptsarov—The Sailor, between the people, the sea, and machines is being revealed in the paper. A proposal has been made about establishing a presidential award—Vaptsarov International Prize "The Sea and the Machines", which will stimulate the development of marine sciences, the education and upbringing of maritime personnel, achievements in the field of navigation safety. The international significance of the personality and poetry of Nikola Vaptsarov to the world culture is presented in an argumentative manner.

Гоце Делчев в българската литература от първото десетилетие на XX век

Author(s): Mihail Nedelchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

There are biographies that are extremely important for the strengthening and consolidation of the Bulgarian national ideology. The biographies of Levski and Botev, Gotse and Yavorov, which are part of the great Bulgarian system of biographies, are exactly like that. Even during his lifetime, and immediately after his heroic death, the Bulgarian literary culture made its worthy contribution to the perpetuation of the memory of Gotse Delchev – the second great Apostle of the Bulgarian national revolution. Through his inclusion in the sacred quadruple system of biographies, he is forever embedded in the national heroic martyrology.

Многострадална Парашкева в дебрите на другостта

Author(s): Hüseyin Mevsim / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 30/2023

In 1934, Nikola Nachov, better known for his research on spiritual centers during the Bulgarian Renaissance, under the pseudonym Nancho Donkin, published the travelogue “To Brusa and Back”, in which he described his journey from Plovdiv, through Edirne and Istanbul, to the Asia Minor city of Bursa in the turbulent year 1879. The specific purpose of the then 19-year-old young man’s trip to the old Ottoman capital was to sell the offices in the commercial inns owned by his father, a famous abadji craftsman who had died suddenly before his birth. During the journey which lasted several months, the son, together with his uncle, went around the city and the surrounding villages to collect his father’s money. Thus, the author founds himself in the village of Susurluk, where a compatriot of his from Kalofer had settled down and lived for some time with his family. The proposed text contains observations on the abyss of otherness in which the completely innocent Parashkeva, the daughter of the family, finds herself.

Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry in Romania: A Case of Inter-Peripheral Literary Circulation

Author(s): Camelia Dinu / Language(s): English Issue: 30/2023

Документалното наследство на акад. Пантелей Зарев – извор за епохата на социализма

Author(s): Ilonka Koleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 30/2023

The following text aims to present to the literary circles the abounding documental heritage of acad. Panteley Zarev, which is stored in the University Archive of Sofia University. In the span of a few years his son Vladimir Zarev submitted a rich collection of letters and notebooks of high historical value to be preserved and used by researchers. Correspondents of P. Zarev are various Bulgarian and Soviet writers and literati, in whose letters you can find interesting information, while as a whole they constitute a substantial source for the literary and cultural life in the country during the Socialism. The notebooks contain personal notes from P. Zarev from meetings at a high state level, impressions from traveling abroad with government delegations, etc., which demonstrate a different point of view from the official information about these occasions.

Симетрични структури на произведенията на Ивайло Петров: „Мъртво вълнение“, „Преди да се родя и след смъртта ми“ и „Хайка за вълци“

Author(s): Zhan Yanyi / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 29/2022

The text examines three works of Ivaylo Petrov – “Ground Swell”, “Before I was Born and After My Death”, “A Hunt for Wolves” – and their different innovative narrative structures, perspectives and narrative styles. The article presents a structuralist view and shows the process of symmetrical perfection of their narrative structures in the period from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Гео Милев и Сесар Вайехо – диалогични прочити

Author(s): Desislava Dincheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 29/2022

The current course paper represents two poets who, at first glance, would struggle to find a common perspective. However, resemblance exists in their understanding of literature, the world, and their creative works. The sociocultural context in Peru and Bulgaria from World War I until the 1930s portrays significant connections and contrasts in the topics and motives of Geo Milev’s creations and those of Peruvian poet César Vallejo – widely regarded as one of the brightest representatives of avant-garde literature. Topics of exploration are the views of the two poets regarding modern poetry and the works of the new generation. Another focal point in their creations is the attitude towards religion and God’s displays. Object of research is also the connection with folklore. Lyrical prose is another essential point of interest in the course paper. In their poetry, similarities are abundant. The differences in their newer style of writing are highlighted on a language basis – play with punctuation (missing dots and commas), graphical experimentation (unusual usage of small and large letters, new lines). Regarding structure, the leading concept is fragmentariness. Geo Milev and César Vallejo are among the most distinguished representatives of avant-garde literature in Bulgaria and Peru, respectively, while the countries are peculiarly adjacent in their literary tendencies. Dialogic readings aim to support this statement.

Един мъдър грешник по име Иехуда от Кериот: Образът на Юда в романа на Николай Райнов „Между пустиня- та и живота

Author(s): Preslava Peneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 29/2022

The following interpretation of Nikolay Raynov’s novel “Between the desert and the life” (1919) aims to analyze in depth the character of Yehuda of Keriot (Judas Iscariot), to bring out the main similarities and differences between the character of Nikolay Raynov and other literary and apocryphal interpretations of the betrayer of Christ, as well as to propose a new direction for analysis of the named character based on different psychological and philosophical models. The first part of the text examines the influence of Miriam of Migdol (Mary Magdalene) on Yehuda of Keriot and the parallels between her image and the figure of the Devil. The second part interprets the image of Yehuda through the lens of the Nietzschean theory of Dionysian and Apollonian characteristics. The third part examines the relationship between Yehuda of Keriot and Yeshu bar Yosef (Jesus Christ) and how this relationship transforms Yehuda’s essence in the direction from unbelief to self-sacrifice. The interpretation offers juxtapositions and parallels to other literary works that feature interpretations of the biblical Judas Iscariot, such as Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” (1320), Leonid Andreev’s “Judas Iscariot” (1907), Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” (1928) and “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1955) by Nikos Kazantzakis. Present are references to other literary figures, such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Victor Hugo, Jean-Baptiste Moliere, Sergei Yesenin.