Научнофантастични сюжети и обекти в поезията на Вислава Шимборска

Author(s): Margreta Grigorova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

There are science fiction plots and motifs in the work of Wislawa Szymborska. They can be found in poems such as “Kałuże” (Puddles), “Kilkunastoletnia” (Teenage Girl) and “Ludzie na moście” (The People on the Bridge). Their integration into Szymborska’s poems may be linked to her experimental imagination, non-acceptance of the conventional vision of the world and ability to see the humorous side of the universe and joke about it. In her poetry we can find visions of alternative and possible worlds and attempts to penetrateinto “antiworlds” and “antimatter.” The plots and motifs, which were borrowed from science fiction, partially retain their original structural functions within their new poetic context. At the same time, however, they have undergone significant changes, thus also altering their receiving context.

Зловещото в разказа на Джералд Даръл „Входът“

Author(s): Pavel Petkov / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The article explores the relation of Gerald Durrell’s 1979 short story “The Entrance”, published in a collection titled “The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium”, to the concept of the uncanny, as it appears in Sigmund Freud’s work “The Uncanny” (1919). I first discuss Freud’s account of the concept, highlighting the main points in his theory, and then I subject certain points of the narrative in “The Entrance” to an analysis in an attempt to show that the story provides numerous illustrations of the Freudian concept of the uncanny.

НДСВ – нормална партия или партията на вожда?

Author(s): Tosho Toshev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

Божествен разум

Author(s): Georgi Fotev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

Една родова история

Author(s): Jenya Andreeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

Ритуализации и неомитологизъм в прозата на Мирча Картареску

Author(s): Ivan Stankov / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

This text is an attempt to read Mircea Cartarescu’s prose as a systematic reproduction of archaic ritual-mythological practices, plots and characters: the walling up of shadows, rainmaking rituals, cosmogonic and eschatological reconstructions, crossing real and imagined labyrinths, levitation, all kinds of initiatic passages, the myth of twins, the myth of the androgyny etc.

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.

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.

AMBIGUITY—UNCERTAINTY—AFFORDANCE

Author(s): Dragoş Avădanei / Language(s): English Issue: 18/2019

The paper comments on three works titled Seven Types of Ambiguity (William Empson’s critical book of 1930, Shirley Jackson’s 1943 short story and Elliot Perlman’s 2003 novel), and another one titled Seven Modes of Uncertainty (2014) by Carla Namwali Serpell, i.e. four authors of four continents. Ambiguity is fundamentally rejected in science and philosophy, uncertainty is the subject of (drastic) reductions in communication theory, computer science, environmental studies, business/management, economics, engineering…, mathematics, and affordance is not as yet convincingly defined conceptually, but all three, as permanent resources of errors, imprecision, indeterminacies and unreliability, are richly and fruitfully present in literature; so the last author uses her modes of uncertainty to discuss ambiguity and affordance (less convincingly) and, paradoxically, uncertainty itself; consequently, this is a paper of uncertainty about ambiguity, uncertainty and affordance, after all.

"WE SHOULD ALL BE ANGRY": WOMEN'S RESPONSES TO TRAUMA IN THE SHORT STORIES OF CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

Author(s): Roxana Elena Doncu / Language(s): English Issue: 20/2020

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning writer of Nigerian origin, now living in the United States. Her short stories and fiction deal with the negative effects of the colonial legacy and how it affects men and women differently. The political instability of the rapidly succeeding postcolonial, often 'necropolitical' regimes imprisons both men and women into clear-cut gender roles. Women, affected by the traumatic loss of children or relatives in the numerous ethnic-religious riots are plagued by feelings of guilt and inadequacy. While identifications with either the pre-modern structures of the tribal society or the deeply split (post)colonial discourse regimes seem to be destructive to the formation of female identity, women who find creative outlets for their anger manage to put up resistance and carve out a small space of independence.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES

Author(s): Mihaela Pricope / Language(s): English Issue: 21/2020

On the one hand, this article approaches a theoretical survey of the Black feminist ideas which focus on unitary Black women experience and thus, on the importance of heritage, or of the past, as we may notice in Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”. On the other hand, the paper tries to shape the opinions of more recent Black feminist works developing thoughts on the difference within African-American women, theories on lesbianism and “coming out of the closet”. Both directions offer a double perspective on Black women’s oppression; one comes from the white hegemony (a racial oppression) and the other one deals with man/woman, respectively superiority/inferiority relationship (sexual oppression). The latter direction might be discussed both from the perspective of the white male society and from within the Black community point of view since domestic violence in Black families is associated to the way through manliness can be measured.

THE PLIGHT OF WOMEN AT THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY REPRESENTED IN WRITING “THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER” BY CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (STETSON)

Author(s): Bianca-Maria Bucur (Tincu) / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2020

The present research paper aims to bring a contemporary view on the issues encountered and faced by the Suffragettes at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century as exposed in literature, particularly in the short story belonging to the American feminist, Charlotte Perkins Stetson, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”. Due to the fact that humans are challenged to exceed inner and outer walls every day, the walls of one’s fears, the walls of one’s prejudices, the walls imposed by others through rejection or impartiality, this approach and theme is of interest for the present reader.

DEVELOPING INTEGRATED SKILLS AND LANGUAGE CONTENTS THROUGH JOSEPH CONRAD’S SHORT STORY “YOUTH”

Author(s): Dimitrie Andrei Borcan / Language(s): English Issue: 28/2022

This study is part of a class research and experiment which states that all skills are and should be taught as integrated. Literature can and should be used as a resource for teaching integrated skills and language contents, for its formative use (both as a means of developing integrated skills, language contents and functions and as a cultural, intellectual moulding instrument). This part of the study has used the short story “Youth” by Joseph Conrad as a resource text. All the activities have been built up on the base of Conrad’s respective story.

GLEMBAY'S UNSETTLING DESTINY

Author(s): Maria Lațchici / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 28/2022

Krleža is a Croatian dramatist, novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He has been chiefly concerned with the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian empire in his writings. A master stylist, Krleža has been compared with the great writers of Western Europe: Proust and Joyce. The volume of Krleža's writings is vast and impressive. He has written more than fifty volumes of prose and poetry, and among his plays, the best known are The Glembays, In Agony, and Leda, all published in 1929.

KEY QUESTIONS FOR THE SELF: E. B. WHITE: THE SECOND TREE FROM THE CORNER

Author(s): Bianca-Maria Bucur (Tincu) / Language(s): English Issue: 29/2022

Some of the main questions concerning the human mind repeatedly throughout life are the following: Who are you? What do you want? What is your purpose on earth? Explicit or unique answers to those queries do not exist, but there are many literary works that challenge such topics. One of these is the modernist short story The second tree from the corner written by Elwyn Brooks White. The story offers a very realistic perspective on those questions and it can be considered a source of further meditation for all its readers. The conventional, expected behaviour considered or present in the human consciousness under the concept of ‘normal’ is revealed as being as uncertain as that understood as ‘sick’. The aim of the analysis is to refer to those elements in relation to the main literary devices used by the author: characterization, plot, setting, foreshadowing, conflict. The dimensions of personality are explored in an unexpected, new light. Additionally, towards the end of the study, a possible reader-response perspective yields significant details, considering the theory associated with the work of Louise Rosenblatt.

UEDA AKINARI-MORAL PRINCIPLES AND MEDICINE

Author(s): Mirela Radu / Language(s): English Issue: 30/2022

Although he came from a disadvantaged background, Ueda Akinari (1734-1809) was fortunate enough to be adopted by a wealthy family of paper merchants who could afford to support his education. The fact that he survived smallpox as a child, although the consequences left him with deformed hands, would influence not only Akinari's worldview and choice of future profession, but also his artistic inclinations. Married, despite family’s opposition, to a maid, called O'Tama, the younger Akinari devotes himself to writing. As an adult, however, the style Akinari would adopt was that of high fiction. For a decade after his adoptive father's death, Akinari felt compelled to continue the family business. But lack of mercantile spirit and an incident with a fire caused the business to collapse. Besides losing the family business, the first blow came in 1776 when Umaki, his friend and mentor, died. The deep feelings the doctor had for the learned would be shaken by this sudden death.

NICOLAE MANOLESCU - CRITICISM AND LUCIDITY

Author(s): Iulian Boldea / Language(s): English Issue: 34/2023

Nicolae Manolescu is a critic who lucidly questions his own condition, reflection on himself and reflection on others being the relevant resources of moral self-scopy. For Nicolae Manolescu, criticism has an uncertain, anarchic status, as it approaches the meanings of the work asymptotically, without being able to reveal its inexhaustible wealth of semantic configurations, unable to dismantle the subtle mechanisms and the multitude of aspects that make it up. The global reading of the literary work is a chimera, exegesis assuming at best the role of approximating the meanings and inner workings. Situated at the intersection of opposing categories, between Apollonian and Dionysian, the writing seems weakened by an uncertainty derived from the steady exercise of lucidity, from mutations and "revisions" with a Lovinescian flavour, Manolescu's critical statements repudiating any categorical allure, the demonstrative air, the learned, sufficient bearing. The rejection of apodictic, learned, rigid and reductionist affirmation has the problematic allure of the phrase, the methodical doubt, the dilemmatic questioning.

Сюжетните модели на два съвременни български разказа („Клетвата“ на П. Делчев и „Как купихме Ленин“ на М. Пенков)

Author(s): Aleksandar Hristov / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

The paper provides a perspective on the short stories “Kletvata” (The Oath) by Petar Delchev and “Kak Kupihme Lenin” (Buying Lenin) by Miroslav Penkov. The aim is to interpret and distinguish the plot models of the works from each other. A linear model is used in the first story, while in the second a multilinear one. Although these two models are found in many different variations and/or with a number of modifications, they are frequently observed and intensely manifested. At the same time, they occupy a key place (as types of plot construction) in Bulgarian narrative traditions. In other words, the paper can be used as a prerequisite for analysis of the literary processes.

Thématisation et dimensions ludiques des pratiques de lecture dans les nouvelles d’Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Author(s): Antoaneta Robova / Language(s): French Issue: 13/2023

Play, in its many forms and categories, is a connecting thread running through Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s poetics. The aim of this article is to study the ludic modalities of reading practices represented in the writer-philosopher’s short stories. Analyses of the thematization of playing, game and reading experiences are conducted through the prism of theories of reception and play. The significant cases of readers with psychotic or (post)bovarian tendencies, experienced or beginners, reveal various effects and uses of ludic reading and its possible drifts. The practices of different types of readers in fabula, whether pathological or beneficial, are studied with the aim of identifying ludic and game devices of this novelistic art with a singular childhood spirit.

Тодор Влайков и Михалаки Георгиев (за патриархалната задруга – „Дядовата Славчова унука“ и „Рада“)

Author(s): Neli Kirilova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

The article discusses the patriarchal cooperative as part of the traditional cultural system of patriarchal man. The focus is on the deviations from established norms and orders leading to cracks in this world model. This issue occupies a central place in the work of Todor Vlaykov and Mihalaki Georgiev. Placing them in an intertextual dialogue delineates two models of patriarchalism. The dialogue between Vlaykov and Georgiev also outlines a different conceptually attitude in fictional text. And last but not least the points of view of this article are the different aspects in the poetics of two writers who are qualified as „discoverers of the Bulgarian village“. The object of textological researchers are two emblematic works for the authors – “ Grandfather Slavcho’s granddaughter” and “Rada”.