Telemachia: the Contemporary Debate on the Myth of Odysseus
Kamelia Spassova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-2-1KA
Abstract. How does the most Odyssean Greek hero become a figure of the native in the Bulgarian version? Through the metaphor of Telemachia, the paper examines how post-1989 intellectuals have redefined the interplay between domestic and cosmopolitan tendencies in our national project. Their reflections on Toncho Zhechev’s The Myth of Odysseus are an attempt to deconstruct the ideological implications behind the returning Odysseus and thereby rethink the history of Bulgarian criticism since the time of late socialism. Boyan Manchev interprets Zhechev in terms of national exoticism, particular universality and idyllic discourse. Miglena Nikolchina adds a new conceptual framework, indicating the role of the post-structuralists of the 1980s and their turn to Antiquity. Boyko Penchev dwells on Zhechev’s autochthonous conservatism , where the genus, the ahistorical, and the organic are privileged at the expense of nation and history—an approach designed to undermine the official ideology during the 1970s. What captures my attention is the genealogy of cosmopolitan attitudes that these intellectuals propose as an alternative to Zhechev’s conservative utopia.
Keywords:return, repetition, national exoticism, idyllic discourse, world literature, Orpheus, vale culture
Six Theses on Two Contemporary Literary Histories
Noemi Stoichkova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-2-N
Abstract. The article mainly examines two three-volume literary-historical works – “Bulgarian Literature from the Liberation to the First World War” by Milena Kirova and “Literacy and Literature in Bulgaria IX-XXI Century” by Valeri Stefanov et. al., including two more volumes “Bulgarian Literature in the XXI Century (2000 – 2022)” again by M. Kirova – as large-scale and presentable models for making national literary histories in this globalist century. The main goal of the study is to derive six theses – on overcoming easy and unilinear historicism, on the different heterogeneity of methodological paradigms, on the specificity in structure and languages, on the changing relation to the canon and the periphery, on new interpretations or divergent readings, on the “illustrative” plan as a supplementary text for reading, which clearly show the correlations between the tactical pushback from traditions and the partial gravitation towards the new taste of the times.
Keywords: contemporary literary-historical studies; models for their construction; traditions and innovations
The Shirt and Death
Zdravko Dechev
University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-ZA
Abstract. As a starting point for considering the relationship between the shirt/clothing and the public presence of the human body is the pre-funeral care of the dead in Bulgarian folk culture. As an attribute of ritualized activity, the shirt can be perceived not only as a boundary, but also as a connection between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Research interests are interested in how in death a person remains a person precisely through the shirt/clothing. The care of the shirt/clothing is particularly indicative of the current context. For our people, the shirt becomes symbolic when it gleams white with purity. In this case, “whiteness” and “purity” transcend physical laws and become a moral and spiritual guide to the connection between the shirt and the human body – both living and dead. The peculiar fusion of the shirt with the body and its perception by our people as a “second skin” also stands out. This notion is tied to the violence against the slave body and the removal of its natural protective barrier. And this unimaginable nakedness of the dead slave body is an example that the slave body, even in its death, is deprived of any protection.
Keywords: folklore; Bulgarian Renaissance; funeral; shirt; nudity; white; body
The Writer's Memoir of Yordan Yovkov – Various Remembrance
Teodora Kashilska
University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-4-TA
Abstract. The text chronologically traces the accumulation of writer's memory about Yordan Yovkov within more than forty years. Conclusions have been derived about the dynamics in the construction of this memory with regards to the political context in Bulgaria during the second half of the 20th century. The book „Yordan Yovkov. Documents and testimonies of his life and work” (1947) deserves special attention and has a fundamental role in forming the memory of the writer. In the second part of the text, the presence of several literary topoi of repetition in the memoirs of Yordan Yovkov is traced - his tendency to contemplation, his affection for Dobrudzha, etc. In the course of the work, a different view of these texts is proposed, according to which the writer's memory of the author recognizes his characters as identificationally important to his personality.
Keywords:writer's memoir; memory; literary history; Bulgarian literature of the twentieth century; Yordan Yovkov
On the Subject of the Invariant Meaning of the Renarrative Verb Forms in the Context of Teaching Bulgarian Language in Secondary Schools
Vasil Stamenov
University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-5-VA
Abstract. The main purpose of the study is to check whether the invariant meaning of the renarrative verb forms is represented in the same way in the contemporary Bulgarian language textbooks, used in secondary schools. The paper thoroughly analyses the lesson materials focused on the subject of renarration in the 7th grade Bulgarian language textbooks. The observations, which have been made, indicate that some author panels assume that the non-evidential uses of the renarrative are its primary meaning. In some cases the renarrative grammar forms are included in the lessons discussing grammatical mood, without any account for the fact that the ranarrative expresses the speaker’s attitude towards the utterance, not towards the action. The study comments on the main causes for the differences in the examined textbooks and more specifically on the diversity of standpoints regarding the semantics and the categorial status of the renarrative verb forms, as well as the observed overlooks in the curriculum, etc. Some suggestions have also been made, whose aim is to assist the development of equal criteria, which can be used as a foundation for teaching renarraive verbs forms in secondary schools.
Keywords: renarration; renarrative verb forms; invariant; secondary school
Principled Guidelines for Teaching Bulgarian as a Second Language – Cognitive, Psycholinguistic, and Neurolinguistic Perspectives
Zhivka Koleva-Zlateva
St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Turnovo
Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-ZH
Abstract. . The article argues that teaching Bulgarian as a second language, after another language has already been learned, should be framed within the context of second language instruction. This approach necessitates leveraging contemporary scientific advancements in language acquisition, particularly those from psycholinguistics, cognitive science, and neurolinguistics. These advancements provide insights into the specifics of linguistic knowledge, its representation in the mind, and how it can be acquired in relation to the brain's neurocognitive systems.
Keywords:Bulgarian as a second language; psycholinguistics; cognitive linguistics; neurolinguistics; declarative and procedural knowledge; learnability
About a Reflexive-Critical Approach to Digital Technologies in the Education of Future Teachers of Bulgarian Language and Literature in the Era of Convergent Technologies
Natalia Hristova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-7NA
Abstract. The paper presents certain, related to the exponential development of convergent technologies, transhumanist projects for the future of education, announcing the end of school as we know it, at the expense of biotechnological cognitive, emotional, physical and moral amplification and improvement of the human being. In this context, the article argues for the need to overcome the dominance of the instrumental-applied approach to ICT within initial teacher education and presents a local educational experience of integrating a reflexive perspective towards new technologies in the university education of future teachers of Bulgarian language and literature.
Keywords: convergent technologies; transhumanism; technological solucionism; education; teacher qualification; instrumental approach; reflexive-critical approach
Peculiarities of the Approaches to Primary Bulgarian Language and Literature Teaching – Research results
Nelly Ivanova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-8-NA
Abstract. The results from an online research of primary teachers are presented briefly in the article. The level of the methodic and pedagogical preparation for the application of the Bulgarian language and literature teaching approaches of 1st-4th grade primary teachers is diagnosed by author constructed multiple choice test items. The mistakes made are commented. Some concrete methodical ideas for overcoming of the found weaknesses are recommended.
Keywords:research; teat items; analysis; research data; approaches to Bulgarian language and Literature teaching; 1st – 4th grade; mistakes; methodical ideas
Morphological (Non-)categoriality – Interdisciplinary Directions of Functionality
Tencho Derekyuvliev
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2022-2-11-TD
(TILEV, E., 2022. MORPHOLOGICAL (IN)CATEGORIALITY. Plovdiv: Makros. 451 p. ISBN 978-954-561-574-0
New Directions for the Bulgarian Humanities (Tasheva, Iveta. Medical Humanities. Subject Matter, Terminology, Translation. Sofia, 2022)
Daria Karapetkova
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2022-2-10-DA
Interviewing Teachers in Bulgarian Language and Literature Through the “Microsoft Forms” Platform
Dilyana Bobokova
Vocational High School of Woodworking and Interior Architecture "Joseph Vondrak" – Ruse
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2022-2-9-Db
Abstract. In order to be able to fully study the professional blogs of Bulgarian language and literature teachers was conducted an online anonymous survey among 181 Bulgarian educators. The platform through which the questionnaire was created is “Microsoft Forms”, which allows easy reporting of results and the ability to export the data to Microsoft Excel.
The aim of the survey is to analyze teachers‘ awareness of the existence of professional blogs of Bulgarian language and literature teachers, to what extent this type of blogs are used in teacher practice and what their benefit for education according to the respondents is.
The readiness of the teachers to create a professional teacher blog and for what purpose they would take this step was also analyzed, and from these results it was found that half of the Bulgarian teachers surveyed did not feel ready to create their own personal blog, and when deciding to develop an online journal, the goal would be „to help prepare students for National external аassessment (НВО) and States exam (ДЗИ).”
The participants in the survey were given the opportunity to express a personal opinion by sharing recommendations for improving the professional blogs of Bulgarian language and literature teachers.
Keywords: professional teacher blogs; online journal; Bulgarian language and literature; distance learning in an electronic environment; education benefits; recommendations
