Завръщане в социалистическото минало. Опит за очертаване на една тенденция в новия български роман

Author(s): Mihaela Ilieva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

The paper examines one of the most popular topics in the Bulgarian novel over the last 20 years – the past of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. The text also traces the decades that writers prefer to choose as the background of their plot, and discusses what is the value of the historical period and how authors “return” to it – through the autobiographical or by choosing a specific historical event.

MARK TWAIN`S HUCKLEBERRY FINN - A LESSON OF THE RIVER IN THE SPIRIT OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION AND AN INVENTION OF LANGUAGE IN AN EMERSONIAN SENSE

Author(s): Lucian Radu / Language(s): English Issue: 35/2023

This paper illustrates that Mark Twain`s Huckleberry Finn survives mostly because Huck`s search for a freedom of “consciousness”, which takes the form of a journey and transforms itself into a life lesson in terms of progressive education as it was conceived by John Dewey, in his educational theory, and because it is an invention of a language for American fiction as it was envisaged by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Les jeux d’enfants dans Les Rougon-Macquart

Author(s): Shoshana-Rose Marzel / Language(s): French Issue: 13/2023

This article examines children’s games in Les Rougon-Macquart while relying on a typology that includes toys, symbolic plays, and a children’s ball. In addition to their educational and recreational functions, childhood games play various narrative roles, such as constructing a referential universe, creating key moments in the plot, exploring the complexity of child and parental psychology, parent/child relationships and much more. Furthermore, the author, Émile Zola, employs toys and children’s games to inform his reflections on the joint influence of heredity and environment on the fates of characters, in alignment with the principles of the naturalist movement. This approach offers valuable insights into how Zola utilizes children’s games as narrative and symbolic elements within his grand literary tapestry.

Jeux et hasard dans l’écriture de Patrick Modiano

Author(s): France Grenaudier-Klijn / Language(s): French Issue: 13/2023

Many of Patrick Modiano’s novels involve the motif of the game – predicate and space – in the narration, at characterization, thematic and structural levels. The introduction of this minor element – it never reaches the level of a trope – nonetheless informs us both about the novelistic techniques employed by Modiano and about the metaphysical considerations underpinning his writing. As such, a close reading of various episodes articulated around the motif of the game allows us to better understand the methods adopted by the novelist in the development of his characters and in the architecture of his texts. Furthermore, the insertion of the motif of the game allows us to identify and analyse the value given to chance and indeterminacy in all its forms in the Modianian novel, from which a true metaphysics, if not an ethics, of indeterminacy, can in turn be deployed.

Jeu de sens, jeu de forme, ou les (en)jeux intertextuels de l’écriture de Sophie Divry

Author(s): Anna Opiela-Mrozik / Language(s): French Issue: 13/2023

This paper analyzes various aspects of game in the novels of Sophie Divry, a contemporary novelist as well as a social activist. Her protean work develops the idea of literary ludicity which ensures pleasure for an author and engages a reader but, at the same time, transmits a message about society. In the essay Rouvrir le roman the writer proposes to reinvent the novel genre by means of the spirit of unseriousness which plays a role as a stimulant for literature. Founded on intertextuality, Divry’s writing renews in an original way well-known models such asthat of Madame Bovary (La condition pavillonnaire) or Robinson Crusoe (Trois fois la fin du monde). Narrative games lead the novelist to develop polyphonic writing.The study of the novel Quand le diable sortit de la salle de bain demonstrates the link between game and self-reflexivity and highlights the potential of ludicity at the linguistic, typographical and formal level.

LITERARY AESTHETICS, CRITIQUE AND HISTORY IN THE PAGES OF FAMILIA MAGAZINE, THE FIFTH SERIES, FROM 1965 TO 1989

Author(s): Ruxandra Gavra / Language(s): English Issue: 36/2024

The fifth series of “Familia” magazine, from 1965 to 1989, under the direction of Alexandru Andrițoiu, is notable for its retention of established, permanent columns as an element of identity. The large number of collaborators ensures that all components of culture are covered. The direction of critique and the foregrounding of the essay constitute a benchmark of this series. The “Familia” writers defend ideas or values, theorizing on the basis of the concepts of aesthetic canon, aesthetics and the direction of critique.

Професорският роман – едно ново явление в българската литература

Author(s): Milena Kirova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

The article presents a phenomenon that until now has not been the subject of an independent and systematic study in Bulgarian literary studies. Tracing the development of the Bulgarian novel over the last three decades, it brings out the presence of a relatively homogeneous group of works that share common literary characteristics and ways of communicating with the reading audience. Systematizing and summarizing observations on more than ten novels published by contemporary Bulgarian writers, all of them university professors, the paper defines several specific features that are common to them. The phenomenon of the Professorenroman is examined briefly in the historical context of its emergence in the 19 th century, and in more detail as an effect and consequence of the development of Postmodernism in Bulgaria since the end of the 20 th century. Novels published most recently, including in 2022, are in focus.

Cartography of a Refugee Camp in Mohammed Hanif’s Red Birds: Transformation from a Place of Subjugation into a Space of Agency

Author(s): Syeda Memoona Ali / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2023

The presence of war refugee camps around the world and their development into places of political resistance for identity formation, alternate governance systems and lives has been part of academic studies for quite some time now. Less attention has been paid to frame refugee camp spaces for studying the complexity of the concepts of resistance and indifference for reclamation of human identity. Despite attention to the mass movement of refugees-asylum seekers, there is a huge gap in scholarship to understand the center-controlled and marginalized refugee existence in camps because refugees are often silenced, insignificant obscure figures in the grand war discourse of reports and case studies—lives not worth saving. Furthermore, refugees’ resistance against the center’s anti-humanity beliefs, ideologies and practices calls for a reengagement with the camp space because it has become a source of material and knowledge production for the center to profile and subject all types of refugees to any physical, mental and psychological testing-experimentation whenever it develops a new weapon, therapy, theory or technology. This paper intends to cover these gaps and build its analysis of a refugee camp, through the text Red Birds (2018).

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.

Д. I. Дроздовський. Проблемно-тематичнi комплекси й філософсько-естетичні параметри британського постпостмодерні-стського роману

Author(s): Margreta Grigorova / Language(s): English,Ukrainian Issue: 1/2023

Nicole C. Dittmer and Sophie Raine, Editors. 𝑃𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑦 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑐: 𝐼𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑇𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟

Author(s): Galina Devedjieva / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Baltic Nations in Soviet Dissident Literature: The Compromise by Sergei Dovlatov

Author(s): Deniss Hanovs / Language(s): English Issue: 51/2023

The article reflects on the images of the Baltic nations in the novel The Compromise (1981) by Soviet dissident author Sergei Dovlatov. The novel is analyzed within the framework of Baltic post-colonial studies, which are supplemented by the history of Soviet dissident literature of the early 1980s. The narrator, a Soviet journalist, acts in two roles: he is a Soviet subaltern and a dissident author, yet a staff member of a Soviet newspaper, and therefore a colonial tool. The narrator discovers his in-between status when he discovers his colonized status while at the same time his revelation does not produce any change in his image of the Baltic cultures. They, the Baltic nations, remain unknown to the narrator. His fragmented discovery of Estonian and Latvian history and culture leads to no real contact with the groups. Selected chapters of the novel analyzed in this paper suggest that the orientalized Estonians and Latvians remain as silenced groups with stories unknown to the narrator, as the language tools necessary for a dialogue are missing. The narrator also participates in the process of orientalizing the Baltic cultures, as the case of a milkmaid shows.

Îndreptarea unor erori din ediţiile ştiinţifice ale Istoriei ieroglifice (1705) de Dimitrie Cantemir. Ediţia Panaitescu-Verdeş (vol. 1-2, 1965)

Author(s): Ștefan Șuteu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2023

The Hieroglyphic History, written by Dimitrie Cantemir in 1705, is considered the first Romanian (historical) novel. Beyond the veil of allegory, the exotic topos and animal-related fantasy, the historical events between 1685 and 1705 are revealed through characteristic deciphering, representing valuable data for a historian. The work, first published in 1883, then in 1927 and 1957, in a few nonscientific editions, was finally republished in 1965 in a scientific edition elaborated by P.P. Panaitescu and Ion Verdeș. This 1965 edition is of very high historical value, but it also has a number of lacunae, especially in the field of theology. The editors don't reference certain biblical quotes, they hint at certain psychological ideas when mentioning quotes that are clearly derived from the Bible, they ignore the biblical source, which was the very foundation of Cantemir’s maxims, they overlook the study of certain toponyms with biblical origins (Euphrates, Tarshish, Babylon etc.) and don’t realize that some of his ideas have biblical origins. Furthermore, they don’t distinguish certain elements of Christian iconography from their biblical counterparts, leading to confusion (according to the editors, Saint Veronica’s Veil is attributed to Magdalene!). To edit the text correctly, it is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of biblical sources and familiarity with Romanian and European biblical traditions.

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.]

THE FACILITIES AND DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSLATING PROUST À LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU MASTERPIECE

Author(s): Paul-Cristian Albu / Language(s): French Issue: 37/2024

The purpose of the paper is to offer a panoramic view of the difficulties of translating an epic masterpiece written by the most prolific and prodigious French writer Marcel Proust. Its creative language could be an obstacle for our contemporary reader, because of the lengthy language style and the remembrance of all the events that occurred in the private life of the author whose work we analyzed quickly and successfully. I am also interested in researching how these difficulties can be understood in contemporaneity and how this work's message can be reflected. To offer an enriched view of the analysis of A la recherche du temps perdu, we have used the technique of close reading the masterpiece entirely, focusing on how we can explain the lexical and syntactic difficulties.