“Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted”. Vladimir Bartol’s Novel “Alamut” – Belated Entry in the Modern Balkan Context

Author(s): Malamir Spasov / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2015

“Alamut” (1938) is a novel by Vladimir Bartol (1903 – 1967) – Slovene author from Trieste. It has been defined as both “marginal literature” and “brilliantly written work”. However, only in the 1980s and 1990s Bartol’s novel became the most internationally successful and bestselling work of Slovene literature, partly due to its strangely contemporary relevance. And yet there has been surprisingly little comparison between “one of the most original works of Slovene literature” and the modernistic literary creativity of contemporaries of Bartol’s generation elsewhere in Southeast Europe – for instance authors such as Bulgarian Boris Shivachev, Romanians Camil Petrescu, Anton Holban and Mircea Eliade, and even Serbian Miloš Crnjanski. Regrettably, “Alamut” is not translated in Bulgarian or Romanian yet. Apart from the fact that it is a gap which needs to be filled, such a juxtaposing seems to be quite alluring, loquacious and valuable. This study represents an attempt to commence similar comparison and to initiate a broader discussion between both extremities of the Balkans.

В „Бодлеров костюм“: щрихи към някои модни тенденции и тяхното значение през 20-те и 30-те години на ХХ век

Author(s): Nadezhda Stoyanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 15/2014

The article is focused on some fashion trends and their relation to the modernistic self-reflection of the person from the interwar period. The research is based on publications from important Bulgarian fashion and cultural periodicals. A few main trends are outlined: the slender figure, the clothes “á la garçonne”, the shorter skirts and lower necks, the so called “edyptomania” or “tutmania”, etc. Fashion is seen as a manifestаtion of the chance of humans to try different modes of living, as well as the possibility to have plural existence.

От ХХI назад към ХVII век през морето български дамаскини

Author(s): Olga Mladenova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2015

This formal lecture was delivered by Olga M. Mladenova at her Doctor Honoris Causa award ceremony in Aula Magna of the Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski“ on 13 May 2015. It outlines the author’s approach to the study of Bulgarian vernacular literacy of the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries and lists some of the outcomes of her research.

Лексикални бележки II

Author(s): Olga Mladenova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2015

The second instalment of this series of lexical notes consists of notes three and four, offering corrections to the treatment of two hapax legomena in the Dictionary of the Seventeenth-Century Written Bulgarian Language on a Vernacular Basis (2013). Note three argues that in the early modern Bulgarian version of John Chrysostom’s Life there is a noun opačina which means ‘misfortune, ordeal, hardship’ and compares the seventeenth century usage with that by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors. Note four shows that toitu in Mary of Egypt’s Life is the dative case form of To(v)it ‘Tobias’.

Τьȥнца

Author(s): Andrej Boyadzhiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2015

Prayers and Spells Against Unholy and Evil Spirits in a Nineteenth-Century Prayer Canon

Author(s): Ivona Karachorova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

In this article, the object or research is a block of six apocryphal prayers from the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century. Among them, there are several prayer charms, of which two are supposedly written by Basil the Great, and four by John Chrysostom. On the basis of four transcripts in manuscripts from SS Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia, the inclusion of this block of prayers into prayer canons against evil spirits and demons, which have a diverse composition and are composed according to the regulations of the Orthodox Church, is traced. Among the above-mentioned prayers, for the first time, prohibitive prayers are attested, which so far have not been included in the classification of apocryphal prayers.

Редки думи в старобългарския превод на книгата на пророк Исаия

Author(s): Tatyana Ilieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

The subject of the research are the yet unregisrated in the Old Bulgarian language lexicographic referrences words or such words, just noted with an example in the same context of the book of Isaia with interpretations, based on manuscript F.I.461 from the National Library of Russia – St. Petersburg. The analysis of the hapax legomena and the rare words is performed in the composition of semanthic categories (groups) and lexis and wordforming paterns. The wordforming models of the terminative and rare words in IsF.I.461 are being analysed, in order to elucidate their connection with the lexis of the classic Old Bulgarian manuscripts and the indirect sources of Old Bulgarian language.

Названието за обущарския занаят според Житието на Никола Софийски от Матей Граматик (XVI в.)

Author(s): Mariyana Tsibranska-Kostova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

The article aims at analyzing the fourfold use of words with root оусм- as a denomination for the tanned leather and the relevant craft, exercised by the hagiographic hero. They occur in two different parts original and translated of the manuscript № 1521 from 1564, located in the Church Historical and Archive Institute in Sofia. The manuscript itself contains the unique copy of the Nikola of Sofia’s Life by Matthew the Grammarian, which testifies the spread and the spiritual fundaments of the Sofia new martyrdom during the 16th century. The profile of the new martyrs in the name of Christ chares some common features, among which their professions, or crafts – an undoubted sign of realistic description and historical plausibility. The forms оусмошьвьчьство, оусмошьвьчьскъ, оусмотворьць, оусмы шити enrich the lexicographic interpretation of the motivating word оусма, оусъмиѥ, оусмъ, and allows the analysis to be carried out in the light of the biblical and the cultural tradition.

“I travel myself” – nomadic motives originating from the Balkans

Author(s): Darina Felonova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

The article examines the special role of the journey - spiritual and physical, in three novels by immigrant authors from the Balkans: Paris-Athens by Vassilis Alexakis, Hotel Europe by Dumitru Tsepeneag and Murder in Byzantium by Julia Kristeva. Represented is the idea that, by leaving his motherland, the immigrant could never attach himself the same way to any place and be fully accepted in the new community. Thus, his constant movement appears as a peculiar reaction to this specific ‘uprooting’ and becomes a way of life and thinking – i.e. a modern ‘nomadism’.

Как да компенсираме загубата на красивото?Непознати сравнения от историята на европейския натурализъм

Author(s): Roumiana L. Stantcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

This article examines Southeast-European stories and novels, where for the first time a rejection of the Beautiful in favour of scientific perception can be observed: "Dimo the Orderly" by Gheorghi P. Stamatov (1869-1942), "Parasites" by Barbu Delavrancea (1858-1918), "Rich and Poor" by Grigorios Xenopoulos (1867-1951) are compared with Emile Zola’s (1840-1902) "Nana". These similar themes and topics (the class division of society, the interest in the poor, heredity, pathology, symbolized by money, illness, and death) provide arguments in order to emphasize the existence of a common "system of European values" in a much broader perimeter than that of Western literatures.Thanks to the ideas of literary Naturalism, the materialistic view of life, scientifically legitimized during the Nineteenth century, obtained the credibility to be seen as a literary value. From a literary perspective, we are faced with an objective position of the narrator, adopted by writers (at the expense of the Beautiful, considered until that point as an intrinsic aesthetic value and essential to the art).This article applied the Triangular Pattern, introduced by the author, which implies a constant referring to the phenomena, common to European literatures and does not recommend that scholars remain incarcerated within the study of parallels between Southeаst-European literatures.

Women‘s Literature and the Canon. How to Write History of Women’s Literature Today?

Author(s): Milena Kirova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

The paper opens by briefly outlining the development of women’s literature in the ex-„East European” countries since 1989. Then it turns to feminist literary theory tracking two different periods of its reception by, and adaption to, literary criticism in post-communist academic research. The concepts of women’s generations and women’s literary canon, vital for the western tradition of gynocriticism, are closely analyzed in line with their relevance to present-day women’s literature in post-communist culture. The paper closes by outlining a threefold model of the prospective to speak of women’s literature imbedded in, or in counter stance to, the traditional literary canon.

Les contes folkloriques dans la dramaturgie symboliste francophone et slave

Author(s): Dina Mantcheva / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2015

The paper examines the selection, structuring and dramatic rendition of the fairy tale plots in the Francophone and the Slavic symbolist dramas, to point out their typological resemblances and inner richness. The study finds out that rewriting the magic stories and their syncretic approach characterize both theatres and mark out their similitudes. However, the Francophone symbolists attempt to intensify the universal and mystical meaning of the folktales. On the other hand, the Slavic authors insert some national and parodic trends in their plays, strengthen the art synthesis and anticipate, in that way, the dramatic experiments in the European vanguards.

ХХІІ интердисциплинарен колегиум по старобългарска литература и култура

Author(s): Lilly Stammler,Gergana Athanassova Nikolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 29/2014

Научни Форуми

Author(s): Nikola Kazanski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 27/2013

Data about scientific events in the field of the humanities in Bulgaria in 2013

Петдесет години българистика в Киевския национален университет „Тарас Шевченко“

Author(s): Marieta Girginova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 27/2013

Замфира Михаил на 75 години

Author(s): Vasilka Aleksova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 27/2013

Beati possidentes. Юбилеен сборник, посветен на 60-годишнината на проф. дфн Боряна Христова

Author(s): Dilyana Radoslavova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 26/2013

Сведения за създаването на славянската азбука в българските кратки хроники от XV–XVI в.

Author(s): Denitsa Petrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 35/2025

The Creation of the Slavic Alphabet, dated to 6360 = 852, is among the significant events in Bulgarian Short Chronicles. Sources of this act are texts from the Golden Age of Bulgarian Literature. In the Belopol and Sarandapor Chronicles beginning with The Creation, as in most Serbian texts, it is associated with the reign of the Byzantine emperor Michael III and his mother Irina,. In the Hilendar and Gabarevo chronicles, the beginning of the story is precisely a note about the work of St Cyril. This information does not agree with the Serbian Chronicles, but a similar text appears in several later texts. In Bulgarian Literature, the information about The Creation of the Alphabet can be found until the middle of the 18th century as an evidence of the important role that the event has in historical memory. Nowadays the scholars have more information that allows the notes to be analyzed in a broader literary and historical context.

Актуални проблеми на изследванията върху Супрасълския сборник

Author(s): Nely Gancheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 35/2025

The article presents an analytical survey of the contemporary trends in the study of the Codex Suprasliensis in the following main areas: research of the history of the Old Bulgarian literary monument; study of its paleographic and orthographic-linguistic features; tracing and publishing its Greek sources; analyzing the Old Bulgarian translations of the texts in the codex; study of the contents and composition of the manuscript; determination the place of the Codex Suprasliensis among the other Old Bulgarian miscellanies, as well as whether his language is indicative of the earliest state of the Old Bulgarian literary language; research and publishing the literary monument with computer tools. The analysis leads to the conclusion that contemporary studies not only supplement and expand our knowledge of the Codex Suprasliensis, but also provide material for a critical revision of established and conventional concepts in Palaeoslavistics.

Уникат или част от богослужебен комплект? Още веднъж за типологията на Супрасълския сборник

Author(s): Krassimir Stantchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 35/2025

The author focuses on the questions who, when, where, and why wrote the Old Bulgarian Codex Suprasliensis. The first question, according to him, is and will always remain open: the hypothesis that the name Retko that can be read in the note on f. 104 of the manuscript is the name of the copyist is not convincing enough. To the question “when”, the majority of scholars are willing to accept the answer “to the last part of the 10th century”, and that seems to be the most probable dating. The same applies to the question “where”: in a writing center linked to the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire Preslav, but not to the region of Panagjurishte, as hypothesized by A. Marguliés, because in the 16th century, a mass population moved there from Macedonia and the present dialect is not that of the 9th–10th century. The answer to the question “why”, “with what purpose” the manuscript was written would seem to be the easiest, suggested by the manuscript itself, but in reality, it turned out to be quite complicated. It is to which the author devotes the most attention. That the manuscript can be divided into two parts, one hagiographic and the other homiletical, has always been known and commonly accepted. The problem is how to define the typology of the two parts. Definitions have recently been proposed that include the concept of ‘martyrologion’: ‘martyrological part’ for the first, ‘panegyricomartyrologion’ for the entire codex. The author finds these definitions not well motivated and anachronistic, therefore he proposes to stick to the more descriptive and more neutral definitions: Hagiographic part (the 1st) and homiletic or, wanting, panegygiric-homiletic part (the 2nd). In the end of the article, he expresses his conviction that the Codex Suprasliensis is the result of result of a conscious but mechanical, non-structural union of the two parts and in no way is it a harbinger of the hagiographical-panegryrical (macro)genre that will be born much later in the tradition of Slavia Orthodoxa.