Czytelnicy i społeczne obiegi książek

Author(s): Zofia Zasacka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2023

The article contains analyses of the reading expectations and reading tastes as well as the thematic and genre structure of Poles’ declared reading choices. It presents the most important trends in reading activity and book reading choices with the widest reading circulation and socio‑demographic determinants of Poles’ reading preferences. The article uses the analysis of the results of the annual nationwide survey of the readership of books among Poles over the age of 15 carried out by the National Library, especially two surveys from 2021 and 2022.

Between the Communist Past and Early Democracy: The Power of the Autobiographical in C. G. Balan’s 𝐶𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝐿𝑡𝑑 (𝐸𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑐 𝑆. 𝑅. 𝐿.) and 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 (𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑡𝑢𝑙)

Author(s): Hristo Boev / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

This article examines some of the autobiographical elements in two novels by Romanian writer C. G. Balan. These elements serve as a potent tool for creating culturally significant autofictions that act as testimonies of pivotal moments in the author’s life. Moreover, these autofictions are embedded within larger social contexts that hold historical significance, specifically related to Romania’s communist past and early democracy. Balan’s method of shedding light on these events through satire of the key figures representing authority while simultaneously infusing the narrative with intense personal moments as experienced by the individual (narrator) produces striking contrasts. These serve as poignant literary depictions of life under a totalitarian regime and the uncertain beginnings of democracy, a time when numerous Romanians chose to emigrate abroad or migrate to the country’s capital in search of better living conditions. The article also suggests that autofiction can be seen as a broader concept that encompasses more than just the incorporation of autobiographical elements into fiction.

Joseph Conrad as an Intercultural Mediator

Author(s): Joanna Skolik / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Joseph Conrad, a British writer of Polish origin living and writing on the borders between cultures, worlds, and traditions, was perfectly aware of his interstitial position. In his letters, he succeeds in translating his native Polish cultural tradition into cross-cultural experience to suit western readers’ tastes, as well. Along with being a writer, Conrad was a seaman who saw the contentious consequences of colonization while travelling to distant locations. He reveals the brutal and dishonest colonial methods as well as the suffering of the indigenous people in a large portion of his works. His message to western readers was that indigenous cultures might differ from, but not be inferior to, the cultures of Europe or North America. He urges readers to be discerning in their responses to such political practices and to avoid objectifying the inhabitants of colonial regions. Conrad’s narratives of intercultural mediation inspired other artists who borrowed from and reworked his experience and ideas into their own works. Peter Fudakowski, for example, references 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑟 in his Conrad-inspired film adaption, which is concerned with, among other things, making Chinese culture and Polish experience, as well as Chinese lifestyle and philosophy, intelligible to the west.

Дисертации 2024

Author(s): Nikola Kazanski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 48/2024

Defended PhD theses in Bulgaria in the field of linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography and art studies.

Деница Петрова. Историческите съчинения в българската книжнина (края на XV–XVIII век)

Author(s): Ilia G. Iliev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 48/2024

Przekład a twórczość własna w świetle tłumaczeń polsko-czeskich XVI i XVII wieku

Author(s): Klaudia Koczur-Lejk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2023

The subject of considerations in the article are translations from Polish into Czech made in the 16th and 17th centuries. The author presents the cultural differences between Poland and the Czech Republic at that time, which determined the selection of works for translation and also influenced the reception of the translations. The main attention is focused on the figure of the Polish emigrant writer Bartłomiej Paprocki, who had the greatest contribution to the creation of subsequent translations. Paprocki attempted to instill trends characteristic of Polish Renaissance literature in the Czech Republic. Since this was not positively received, the writer began to convert his works, trying to adapt them to the habits and expectations of Czech readers. The aim of the article is to try to capture the connections between Paprocki‘s own work and the works of Polish poets that he chose for translation into Czech.

За дистопично-утопичното и жанра дистопия-утопия

Author(s): Nikita Nankov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

The essay presents two ideas. First, the philosophical-aesthetic category of the dystopian-utopian is the basis of the literary-philosophical genre of dystopia-utopia in classical socio-political works. And second, it outlines some features of the genres dystopia-utopia and dystopia. The first idea is derived from European critical philosophy. The second is based on Plato, mostly on the Republic, a work that serves as a starting point for the analysis of the dystopia-utopia and dystopia genres. Classical and more recent works, some of which have not been examined as dystopia-utopia, illustrate these theoretical ideas. The essay pays particular attention to the novels Resurrection by Tolstoy and Bend Sinister by Nabokov.

Literackie sny zwierząt po psychoanalizie. Przypadek psów. Studium porównawcze

Author(s): Piotr Krupiński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2023

The main objective of the paper is to compare two short stories: “Dog’s Dream” by Stefan Flukowski and “Waiting for the Dog to Dream” by Jerzy Ficowski. The element that both narratives have in common, as their titles indicate, is the question of their onirism. This is especially evident in Flukowski’s story, which almost in its entirety is a record of a “literary dream of psychoanalysis” (to use Inga Iwasiów’s phrase). The short story represents a fascination with Sigmund Freud, common to many writers of the interwar period, especially when it comes to his “Interpretation of Dreams.” Yet, an additional difficulty for the author of this article is the fact that the main characters of these stories – those who dream – are animals, i.e. dogs. This type of a narrative experiment demands an interpretative transgression beyond literary studies, towards natural sciences. The study includes many references to such disciplines as neurobiology, aetiology and evolutionary cognitive science.

Експлоатация на природния свят в българските научнофантастични утопии и антиутопии от социалистическия период

Author(s): Anton Nikolov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

The article examines the exploitation of the natural world and its individual consequences as they are presented in a number of utopian and dystopian novels of Bulgarian science fiction during the socialist period. Attention is first given to the post-1956 scientific and technical utopias that depict the future communist world. In these texts, nature is the enemy and victim of man; there are many scenes of ecocide and of severe industrialisation which changes nature’s landscape in accordance with the to human needs and desires. This exploitation is seen as positive and necessary for the construction of the new human world. However, later, towards the end of the 1970s, Bulgarian science fiction began to develop a more ecological attitude towards nature. The exploitation of the natural world became something characteristic of dystopian texts and the capitalist regimes described in them, albeit this time seen in its destructive aspect.

De la consommation à la consomption. Ignis (1883) de Didier de Chousy ou quand la maison Terre brûle

Author(s): Laure LÉVÊQUE / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2024

This article deals with an underrated novel by Didier de Chousy, Ignis (1883), published during the craze for scientism and positivism. This anticipation novel, fraught with grating irony, went against the optimism that defined the craze, as the author used the boundless technical possibilities flaunted by the industrial age to imagine a robot-assisted “augmented humanity”. Utopia was thus turned into scathing social dystopia and, a few years before Jules Verne’s novel, a “topsy-turvy” world on the brink of self-destruction was depicted. This ground-breaking work, which tackled both social criticism and the need for environmental awareness, heralded many of the themes that inspired H. G. Wells and the “brave new world” Chousy imagined was just as relevant as the ones of our modern dystopias: the model of development that largely remains ours found itself relentlessly questioned, as a call for immediate change was issued.

‘The Other Dream’ of Erewhon: An Essay on the Machines’ Discreet Rebellion

Author(s): Nikolay Genov / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of Samuel Butler's seminal work, Erewhon: or, Over the Range, and Vladimir Poleganov's contemporary novel, The Other Dream. The analysis centers on the discreet influence exerted by technology in the pursuit of territorial survival. The study delves into the catastrophic consequences arising from both the success and failure of this technological endeavour.

Третият Рим: дистопия и архаика като история на настоящето в Пътешествие до Елевсина на Виктор Пелевин

Author(s): Vladimir Sabourin / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

This article is an introduction to the close reading of Victor Pelevin’s novel Journey to Eleusis (2023) as a paradigmatical example of the Russian dystopian literature from the beginning of the 21th century. Journey to Eleusis is the final part of a trilogy whose previous installments include the collection of short novels Transhumanism Inc. (2021) that set the dystopian universe, and the sequel KGBT+ (2022) taking place already in the wartime sociopolitical reality. I argue that starting with Vladimir Sorokin’s Blue Lard (1999) the contemporary Russian dystopia intertwines idiosyncratically futurism and archaism into a retro-dystopian frame, which I discern in Pelevin’s trilogy. As I view it, this specific dystopian blend aims at the representation of a history of the present of the Putin era with its neo-totalitarian version of the Russian imperial concept of the “Third Rome” which is crucial to Journey to Eleusis.

Traduire le néologisme: étude comparative du roman Zazie dans le métro de Raymond Queneau et de sa traduction bulgare

Author(s): Irena Kristeva,Galena Dobreva / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2024

The study seeks to determine the level of adequacy of the transfer into Bulgarian of the neologisms coined by Raymond Queneau in the novel Zazie in the Metro (1959). To this end, we examine the translation strategies implemented in Зази в метрото (2001). Starting from the assumption that, while translation is possible, the degree of translatability of a neologism is variable, we evaluate the relevance of the equivalents proposed by the translator.

Compte rendu: Калин Михайлов. Християнство и литература. Фигури на (не)благородното. София, УИ „Св. Климент Охридски“, 2023, ISBN: 978-954-07-5726-1. [Kalin Mikhaïlov. Christianisme et littérature. Figures du noble et de l’ignoble.]

Author(s): Miryana Yanakieva / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2024

Book review: Калин Михайлов. Християнство и литература. Фигури на (не)благородното. София, УИ „Св. Климент Охридски“, 2023, ISBN: 978-954-07-5726-1.[Kalin Mikhaïlov. Christianisme et littérature. Figures du noble et de l’ignoble. Éd. de l’Université de Sofia, 2023, ISBN : 978-954-07-5726-1 ; Christianity and Literature. Figures of the (Ig)Noble.]

Compte rendu: Velinova, Malinka, Antoaneta Robova, Teodora Tzankova (dir.). Normes et réécritures/ mythes et reformulations.

Author(s): Anastasia Marinova / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2024

Book review: Velinova, Malinka, Antoaneta Robova, Teodora Tzankova (dir.). Normes etréécritures/ mythes et reformulations. – Philologuitcheski forum, Issue 1 (15), 2022,ISSN 2534-9473. [Велинова, Малинка, Антоанета Робова, Теодора Цанкова (съст.).Норми и пренаписване/ митове и преформулиране. –Филологически форум, брой 1(15), 2022, ISSN 2534-9473; Norms and Rewritings/ Myths and Reformulations].

Живописният псевдоекфразис – функции и значения в романа „Бел ами“ на Мопасан

Author(s): Sonya Aleksandrova-Koleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2024

This text is a part of bigger research of different premodernist characteristics in the works of Maupassant. It is focused over a part of picture images in the novel Bel Ami, interpreted as a game coding of dominant themes of the work and Maupassant’s works in general through the figure of pseudo-ekphrasis. The text presents our understanding for ekphrasis together with the reasons for choosing the term of pseudo-ekphrasis. We analyze pseudo-ekphrasis as a sign of modern thinking of mimetic technics, because it succeeded to present whole phantasm images as iconic. The text presents thematic analysis of the images of the character Walter collection in order to introduce the functions of technical figure on a semantic level in the narration.

Co je konceptuální literatura? Úvod k textu Pascala Mougina

Author(s): Julie Koblížková Wittlichová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 69/2024

The article by Pascal Mougin, a French literary scholar, delves into the concept of "conceptual literature" within the broader context of the relationship between literature and contemporary art. Mougin contrasts the modernist focus on form and autonomy with the contemporary shift towards intermediality and conceptualism. He discusses the influence of American art critic Clement Greenberg and the evolution of artistic practices from the 1960s onwards. Mougin identifies four pathways for conceptual literature, examining its connections to modernist and contemporary paradigms. He critiques the notion of "literature with constraints" and explores the integration of conceptual art principles into literary texts. The article highlights the unique synthesis of appropriation and constraint in contemporary conceptual writing, emphasizing its departure from traditional literary values. Mougin's work underscores the nuanced and multifaceted nature of conceptual literature, advocating for a critical examination of its various manifestations.

Příspěvky Václava Řezáče v časopisech Český svět, Eva a Svět ve filmu a obrazech

Author(s): Lucie Postlová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 44/2024

Václav Řezáč is primarily known for his novels, but in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he made his mark with poems, short stories, and theater criticism published in magazines like Český svět, Eva, and Svět ve filmu a obrazech. His critical reviews, often signed with the initials –vč– or vč., showcased his broad cultural insight and were complemented by notes on current theatrical events. These reviews provided comprehensive evaluations of contemporary staging practices, considering dramaturgical choices, artistic direction, and the interplay of various theatrical elements. Writing his own works took Řezáč some time, and his criticism helped him clarify his artistic criteria, reflecting on societal and political events between the world wars. His theater criticism offers a significant glimpse into his aesthetic and ideological views, which have been partially documented by previous literature but not systematically. This bibliography compiles Řezáč's contributions, particularly his theater reviews, from 1928 to 1934, providing a foundation for further research in interwar literature and theater history.

Polskie interpretacje dramatu Elektra J. Giraudoux – w translacji i na scenie

Author(s): Krystyna Modrzejewska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2024

The poetics and metaphors in the play Électre (1937) by J. Giraudoux pose a significant challenge for the translators and creators of a theater performance. Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s translation in 1941 emphasized dialogue and style – tragedy blending humor and fantasy, unknown in the Polish theatre tradition. The drama, directed by Edmund Wierciński on the Poetic Stage of the Polish Army Theater (Łódź, 16 II 1946), with a numerous cast, wonderful decorations and costumes, marked a great artistic event. The audience was delighted, but critics, unable to accept the ambiguities of the play, attacked the creators. This led to a political decision to close the stage, turning success into failure.

Хармония и идеология: творчеството на украинските и руските класици в света на идеите на Григорий Сковорода (Тарас Шевченко, Павло Тичина, Фьодор Достоевски, Антон Чехов и др.)

Author(s): Olga Tabachnikova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 31/2023

The article compares the range of ideas and feelings of the outstanding religious philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda with the work of a number of Ukrainian and Russian classics (such as Taras Shevchenko, Pavlo Tychina, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Mikhail Lermontov, Anton Chekhov, Yuri Dombrovsky and Vasily Grossman). First of all, we are interested in contrasting the inner sense of the harmony of existence, the ability to feel the immutable joy of being, on the one hand, and ideologized consciousness, speculative, abstract thinking, on the other. The connection of these phenomena with the concepts of nihilism, theomachism, atheistic worldview in their historical development is considered. At the same time, the philosophical problems of faith and faithlessness, the tragedy of existence and attempts to overcome it, the life of the spirit and soul are touched upon. Conclusions are drawn about the commonality of the spiritual branches of Slavic culture.