Proglas

7-15

Authors: Rossen Milanov

The turbulent – in a historical sense – era of ІV–V cc. was at the same time the Golden Age of Christian literature. The issue of the Roman Empire, which was the homeland of most of the Church authors at that time, is discussed in the Latin Christian literary works of this period. What was the attitude of the Christian writers towards the political entities, which called themselves „homelands“? What kind of travels did the Christians during ІV–V cc. undertake, what were the reasons for them and what was their purpose? And finally, what did the Christians actually strive for in their journeys and in their lifetime as a whole? The following paper aims to answer these questions.

23-31

Authors: Magdalena Vassileva

The so-called cultural stereotypes are often discussed in the spheres of intercultural communication and foreign language education no matter what the target language is. It is also a theme that is dealt with in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, 2001) along with topics such as intercultural competence. The following paper attempts to define the term “stereotype” which will help us find out what the role of cultural stereotypes in Japanese language education at Veliko Tarnovo University is. The aim of the research is to reveal the image of the Japanese from the point of view of: 1) Bulgarian media and 2) Bulgarian students of Japanese language at Veliko Tarnovo University (VTU). In 2) we will discuss whether this image changes after a visit of Japanese students to VTU.

40-47

Authors: Matjaz Birk

Die Stimmen von Marrakesch (1967) is one of the characteristic texts produced by Bulgarian-born Austrian writer and Nobel prize winner Elias Canetti. On the one hand, his Aufzeichnungen nach einer Reise (A Record of a Visit) lays the foundations of the aphoristic style of his multi-volume “records”, and, on the other hand, is imbedded in the European tradition of travel writing as a genre dedicated to memoir culture. The paper traces the rhetoric of memory as a narrative principle, unifying the impressions of the traveller as a by-standing observer of the real journey, his reflections on the stories further developed in his imagination and his rhetorical devices for the articulation of universal human ideas.

59-68

Authors: Margreta Grigorova

The paper presents maritime writer Georgi Ingilizov’s (1955–2018) concepts, ideas and initiatives (editorial activity, filmography) related to the status of Bulgarian maritime fiction and its place in Bulgarian literature. The paper also traces the maritime writer’s creative path and addresses the main aspects of his maritime prose related to sailors’ values and problems. The text corresponds to an interview with the author, published in this issue.

83-90

Authors: Maya Vlahova-Angelova

The naming of places according to local vegetation is a universal way of creating toponyms, a considerable part of which is derived from common names of localities, denoting ‘a place where a particular plant (fruit) grows’. Studying such toponyms can enrich the current locality-labelling data with new, hitherto unknown ones, as well as complete the pattern of the folk taxonomy of fruit. Nomina loci, as a separate word formation category, is well studied in both literary Bulgarian and its dialects. The present study aims to reconstruct the common names of localities, motivated by names of fruit, which have been preserved in Northern Bulgaria toponymy. There is a list of locality names derived from different kinds of toponyms. Some of these names expand the currently known ‘nomina loci’ word formation categories by providing new names. The analyses also show that the toponymy has preserved a fair number of archaic lexemes, formed through rare and antiquated suffixes with a locative function, which have not been registered in earlier research of locality names.

96-99

Authors: Margreta Grigorova

Interview: Georgi Ingilizov in His Last Interview with Margreta Grigorova

102-102

Authors: Amelia Licheva

A New, Convincing Voice – VTU Review: Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences

107-109

Authors: Todor Mollov

Review: The East-West Dialogue and Structuralism (on Violeta Ruseva, 6 studii po istoricheska poetika…)

113-113

Authors: Dimitar Mihailov

Recent Event: “The 140th Anniversary of P. K. Yavorov’s Birth” National Scholarly Conference

115-116

Authors: Tsenka Ivanova

Recent Event: “Languages, Cultures, Communications” Annual Conference of the Faculty of Modern Languages, “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

117-117

Authors: Polina Tsoncheva

Recent Event: “The Magic of the Celestial Empire”. Chinese Culture Week, 2018

120-121

Authors: Editorial Board

Notes on Contributors (ENG)

187-192

Authors: Petya Osenova

The paper introduces two approaches to the universal presentation of Bulgarian language resources. The first one is based on the creation of precise resource grammars for various languages in accordance with a particular linguistic theory. The second one is the conversion of an existing language resource in accordance with a new annotation scheme. The paper discusses the two approaches within the context of Bulgarian language, pointing out their strengths and weaknesses.

202-209

Authors: Maria Grozeva

The language used on the Internet continues to attract the interest of researchers from various scholarly fields. The rapid development of information technology and the specific characteristics of the new media environment bring about changes in the language, as well as the emergence of new electronic genres and styles. The issue being discussed in the present study is to what extent Internet language can be considered a different weblanguage, an internet-language, or whether it is rather a language variety, a type of a cultural dialect. In addition, it is worthwhile tracing the changes and the trends that are discernible in this language variety – whether it is diverging from- or converging on the standard language norm, or whether it is developing and imposing its own rules and norms.

216-226

Authors: Rusin Kotsev

Тhe paper is an attempt to overcome the asymmetry in the descriptions of web forums as a genre of Internet communication. It supports the classification based on content by challenging the differentiation of forums according to their communicative goals.

236-245

Authors: Svilen Stanchev

It is conventional in traditional structural linguistics to assume that one verb may occur in different syntagmatic realizations, such as ‘He closed the door – The door closed’ or ‘She stopped the car – The car stopped’. Dik’s (1997) Functional Grammar postulates a differentiation between the semantic component of a verbal lexeme and its predicate frame. The latter may undergo variation in terms of reduction or extension without affecting the semantic core which remains unchanged. This paper outlines typical productive patterns of valence variation – predicate frame reduction or extension, in processes of verbal derivation in English and Bulgarian. The functional analysis applied here offers an innovative account and subsumes within one theoretical model a wide gamut of phenomena, such as structures with a ‘locative Object’, ‘free datives’ or the Bulgarian ‘dative of disposition’.

255-261

Authors: Strashimir Tsanov

The article deals with the role of the “Turkish yoke” metaphor in historiography, history textbooks, and Bulgarian national culture. The analysis leads to the conclusion that “Turkish yoke” is not the most suitable term for naming the historical period during which Bulgarians had no state of their own for nearly five centuries. Although historically imprecise, the metaphor is defined as an important concept of national culture, representing the mindset of the Bulgarian elite during the High Renaissance period. The understanding of the historical logic behind the term “Turkish yoke” is very important for preserving correct historical memory of the events of the third quarter of the nineteenth century. The text concludes that the “Turkish yoke” metaphor symbolizes the nоn-slave consciousness of those Bulgarians who had accepted the ideas of national revolution.

272-273

Authors: Gergana Padareva-Ilieva

Review: Internet Communication – Linguistic Aspects (în Bilyana Todorova, Lingvistichni aspekti …)

278-279

Authors: Daniela Konstantinova

Review: A Contrastive Study of Lexical Asymmetry in Bulgarian and Czech Languages (on Radost Zhelezarova, Proyavi na leksikalna asimetriya …)

282-283

Authors: Mariya Angelova-Atanasova

Review: A Unique Etymological Dictionary (On Ľubor Králik, Stručný etymologický …)

288-289

Authors: Margreta Grigorova

Anniversarie: Gałązka – a Specialist in Bulgarian Studies289

290-291

Authors: Lyudmila Ivanova

Recent Events: International Scholarly Conference “Languages, Cultures, Communications”

293-293

Authors: Anastasiya Petrova, Tsenka Ivanova

Recent Events: The Sixth International Scholarly Conference “The Balkans: Language, Hristory, Culture”

294

Authors: Nevena Gavazova

Recent Events: The Eleventh “Tarnovo School of Letters” International Symposium

296-297

Authors: Editorial Board

Notes on Contributors (BG)

9-16

Authors: Ludmila Kostova

The article examines select theoretical interpretations of the concept of diaspora before focusing attention on aspects of the life, politics and literary and dramatic output of Anglo-Jewish writer Israel Zangwill (1864- 1924). It considers his specific brand of Zionism and analyses some representations of diasporic Jews and Jewishness in his novel Children of the Ghetto and his play The Melting Pot. Zangwill’s texts decry total assimilation or “deracination” and favour a balance between the conflicting claims of traditional Jewishness and life in the modern world. At the same time, they leave us with a strong sense of the duality of Jewish diasporic subjectivity and the near impossibility of overcoming it. The texts also enhance our awareness of the multiplicity of human choices and the possibility of finding personal fulfilment in an adopted, rather than ideologically reconstructed, homeland.

26-32

Authors: Petya Tsoneva

Тhe article focuses on the distorting (catoptric) operation of the broken mirror in Rushdie’s articulation of migrant homelessness in two of his novels, The Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet. I explore the specular properties of air and the distorting effects it has on the protagonist’s itineraries and experience of home. I likewise observe how the aerial lens and its more limited technical counterpart – the photographic perspective – produce distorted images of the places the protagonists traverse in their migrations and in this optical intervention the positions of the metropolis and the colonies get blurred, undergo twinning or reversal.

44-50

Authors: Piotr Borek

Ukrainian motifs span a significant domain in Julius Slovacki’s poetry. The author’s interest in Ukraine stems, on the one hand, from his family ties with his birthplace of Krzemieniec and, on the other, from the achievements of the so-called Ukrainian School within Polish Romanticism. To this must be added the poet’s fascination with Ukraine’s past and in particular with the history of the Cossacks. As a Romantic poet, he was impressed by the ideals of liberty in the Cossacks’ fight against the Polish establishment as well as against Turks and Tatars. Slovacki adopts an equivocal attitude to Ukraine’s past. This is due to the dual perspective in the poet’s evaluation of the world – partly Polish and partly Ukrainian – which he had been brought up with. The Cossacks’ portrayal in his early writings is axiologically ambivalent. In his texts, the Romantic poet makes use of elements from the historical, literary and folklore traditions.

56-69

Authors: Svetlana Georgieva

This article attempts a survey of calendar customs and rituals as a factor for the preservation of the ethnic and cultural identity of Bulgarians living in the southern parts of Ukraine. They are a rich source shedding light on Bulgarian folk culture and the changes it has been undergoing when surrounded by other cultures. The National calendar is examined with regard to vocabulary and terminology and is presented in the form of brief ethno-linguistic entries, describing not only the meanings of words but also the rituals and beliefs for which they stand and without which lexical meanings may sometimes seem unmotivated and inexplicable. The ethno-linguistic entries are organized alphabetically.

77-87

Authors: Elena Razeeva

The article presents the results of a multifaceted associative experiment. It also reflects on some of the peculiarities of the ethnic consciousness young Bulgarians in Moldova. The collected data have revealed differences between urban and rural respondents’ perceptions of certain features, which are perceived as typically Bulgarian. Light has also been shed on such respondents’ auto- and heterostereotypes as well as on differences in their perceptions of the hierarchy of values reflected in Bulgarian literature. Alongside with a definitely positive auto-stereotype and its obvious similarity to representations of “Bulgarianness”, there seems to be a lack of qualitative and quantitative nuances. Also, reactions to the provided stimuli have shown a major predominance of associations with Russian cultural and literary images. However, regardless of the above-mentioned differences, young Bulgarians in Moldova base their outlook on key Bulgarian cultural “imagemes” through which they conceptualize and define Bulgarian ethnic values.

96-108

Authors: Vladimir Shumelov

The article analyses texts, published in the Sveta Gora Almanac (issues 1/„A” – 13/„M“, by writers and other cultural figures from Bulgarian diasporic and emigrant communities. The texts’ authors are for the most part poets and creative writers but there are representatives of other areas as well. The texts under consideration have appeared under several rubrics: “Diasporaо, “Poetryо, “Fictionо, “Reviewsо, “Anniversariesо, “The Theatreо, and “Literary studies, art criticism, and journalism”.

129-139

Authors: Nikolina Burneva

The celebration of the 110th anniversary of Bulgarian novelist and playwright Emilian Stanev provides an occasion for the critical evaluation of those of his texts which have been relatively neglected by learned commentators. The title of his posthumously published play Nasan i nayave (Sleep and Wakefulness) alludes to one of the key transcultural ideas of modernity, which has ethical, philosophical and psychological implications. In addition, the play poses a number of questions concerning the ethical responsibility of scientists in the modern world. The play’s title, Sleep and Wakefulness, can be interpreted as a metaphor denoting the duality of the human personality and the overall intellectual impasse typical of late modern civilization.

148-153

Authors: Vladimir Donev

The article discusses the poetics of the short story in fiction of Zdravka Evtimova, one of the most talented storytellers in contemporary Bulgarian literature. It is briefly traced the path of forming the narrative style of the writer through experiments in the art of narration of the socio-realistic motivated conflicts to the connotation of the word and the emergence of stories-parables and stories-dystopia in fiction.

156-156

Authors: Weronika Szwedek

Review: On the History of Bessarabian Bulgarians (on Jerzy Hatłas, Bułgarzy w Besarabii...)

159-160

Authors: Margreta Grigorova

Review: Literature as a Home for the Southern Slavs (on Ludmila Mindova, Drugata Itaka)

163-164

Authors: Pavel Petkov

Review: Between Depiction and Production: The Writing Traveller’s Dilemma (on Fowler / Forsdick / Kostova (eds), Travel and Ethics: Theory and Practice)

167-167

Authors: Polina Tsoncheva

Recent Events: International Symposium on CEEC Sinology Research and Chinese Language Pedagogy: History and Current State

168-169

Authors: Velimira Bozhilova

Recent Events: Second International Philological Forum for BA, MA and PhD Students

170-171

Authors: Editorial Board

Notes on Contributors

174-175

Authors: Editorial Board

Double Blind Peer Review for Proglas Journal

247-257

Authors: Milena Nanova

The paper focuses on agent nouns (nomina actoris) in the Vratsa Gospel, a medieval manuscript which dates back to the 13th or 14th century. The formations are classified by suffixes and presented in word-formation types. Formants, which form word-formation types, are varied, making nomina actoris one of the best performing categories with desubstantive motivation in the Vratsa Gospel.

272-299

Authors: Zhorzheta Cholakova

The article examines aquatic reflections in select poems by Adam Mickiewicz and Karel Hynek Mácha. The representation of aquatic reflections is viewed as a manifestation of the romantic perception of the world and humans as being interrelated. The focus is on two representative poems: Mickiewicz’s ballad “Świteź” and Mácha’s lyrical-narrative poem “Máj”. Both poetic texts deal with aquatic reflections in a lake and this distinguishes them from other texts which represent either mirror reflections or reflections in other water areas. The article further considers instances of narcissism and pancalism in the two poems. In spite of evidence of Mickiewicz’s influence over Mácha, the two authors approach aquatic reflections in very different ways. Mickiewicz links them to space as a symbol of historical memory, and in Mácha’s poem they are part of the ontological idea of the universum.

327-340

Authors: Krasimir Hristakiev

In his dissertation dedicated to Dostoevsky (1929), Bakhtin introduced several basic theoretical formulations that were later incorporated and reinterpreted in his analysis of Rabelais’s work (1940). Such early conceptual “pillars” include “two-voice” speech and “non-characteristic” dynamic image, which were subsequently transformed into “ambivalent speech” and “transient grotesque image.”

358-365

Authors: Wojciech Galonzka

The History of Bulgarian Literature by eminent Polish scholar Teresa Dąbek-Wirgowa appeared at a very inauspicious moment in Eastern European history: in 1980 Slavicists were definitely not preoccupied with literary history. Probably for this reason, the book did not attract sufficient attention either in Poland or in Bulgaria. In addition, it was published within a series intended for a very wide reading public. However, the book is organized around a very interesting conception of national literary development. The author evidently rejected the Bulgarian academic establishment’s dominant conceptions of literary development and opted for an approach reflecting her own perception of literary history. Central to that perception is a belief in the immanence of literary-historical processes. In Dąbek-Wirgowa’s narrative, diachronic literary threads are an important element in the synchronous descriptions of individual writers’ outputs as well as in the representations of literary genres or genre systems. Throughout, the author continually reflects on literary-historical processes, thus expressing her view on their immanence.

379-397

Authors: Margreta Grigorova

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 penetrate into “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.

408-418

Authors: Steliana Aleksandrova

This article examines the problems of versification in Bulgarian translations of Leopold Staff‘s poetry. Leopold Staff (1878 – 1957) was one of the most eminent Polish poets of the twentieth century. His work stretched over a period of fifty years and was marked by the distinctive features of three literary periods. The article primarily focuses on the transformation of versification and rhymes in translations of his poems into Bulgarian. The text analyses some of Staff’s poems and their translations into Bulgarian, while taking into consideration the characteristics of the two languages. It also dwells on certain difficulties which translators of modern Polish poetry encounter and specifically examines how Polish syllabic versification has been rendered in Bulgarian translations.

431-444

Authors: Stanka Bonova

The article presents some basic mechanisms of using the Internet as a tool that assists translation. Analysed are the advantages and disadvantages of these mechanisms in terms of their applicability to the practice of present-day translators. The power of Internet support is presented in juxtaposition with the characteristics of computerassisted translation and qualified as an integral part of professional translation work related to the current “explosion” of information, the processes of globalization and software specialization. Examples illustrating the phenomena are taken from Bulgarian and Polish sources.

462-465

Authors: Anegret Mineke

Review: Bulgarian Studies in Germany

469-472

Authors: Tsenka Ivanova

Review: A New Study for Bulgarian Students of the Slovak Language

476-478

Authors: Gocho Gochev

Review: An Interesting Perspective on Chekhov’s Style

482-488

Authors: Marijka Dimitrova

Interview: On the Value of Bulgarian Language Studies. Prof. Marijka Dimitrova Interviews dr. Sigrun Comati

503-511

Authors: Liliya Burova

Prof. Dr. Hilmar Walter (born 1933) is generally considered the most eminent foreign expert on Bulgarian Language Studies. His work is known and appreciated not only in the German-speaking countries, but also worldwide. He is a fellow of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Doctor Honoris Causa of the Universities of Veliko Turnovo and Sofia as well as a member of several scientific societies in Germany. He has contributed actively to the development of Bulgarian Studies at Leipzig University and to the comparative study of Slavic languages at the same institution.

526-537

Authors: Velichko Panayotov, Daniela Konstantinova

The paper briefly presents the history of Slovak studies in Bulgaria, in particular at Sofia University and at the University of Veliko Turnovo, the only Bulgarian institutions of higher learning at which the language, literature and culture of Slovakia are studied. The paper also reviews some publications, such as textbooks, phrasebooks and dictionaries, written by scholars based at these institutions.

545-547

Authors: Tsvetana Mandjoukovqa Velin Petrov

Recent Event: On the Tenth Anniversary of the Greek Language and Culture Centre

549-550

Authors: Valentina Sedefcheva

Recent Event: 13th Thematic Conference “Images of Beauty in Bulgarian and Serbian Culture”

552-556

Authors: Tsenka Ivanova

Recent Event: Round Table ”Quo vadis, Philologia?”

558-590

Authors: Margreta Grigorova Stanka Bonova Steliana Aleksandrova

Recent Event: The 6th World Congress of Polonists and the Bulgarian Participation in It

564-566

Authors: Editorial Board

Notes on Contributors (ENG)

566-567

Authors: Editorial Board

Stylesheet

5-8

Authors: Editorial Board

Table of Content

28-42

Authors: Hristina Hristova

Thе article argues for brand prosperity being dependent on the interaction between corporations and consumers under conditions of hyperconsumerism and a dynamically developing information economy. The study is based on the theories of Cultural Branding (Douglas Holt) and Buzz Marketing (Mark Hughes, Andy Sernovitz). Main issues highlighted in the paper include the creation of iconic brands and the consumers’ role in brand development.

62-73

Authors: Gergana Kusheva

This paper deals with the manipulative potential of media discourse and in particular that of the tabloid press. The difference between manipulation and persuasion is clarified, and theories explaining the manipulative influence of the media on their readers are outlined such as Perse’s theory of uniform effects, Handelman’s method of ‘limiting manipulation’, along with Noam Chomsky’s theory of manipulation strategies used in the contemporary press. Media ‘hyperpresentation’ of the elite, the presence of a ‘partial/ semi-reality’ and the existence of ‘parasocial interaction’ between the rich and famous and the readers are also taken into account as a cause for the manipulative effects in the media.

92-103

Authors: Andrzej Novosad

The text is an essay at presenting the media and their relations with the current political system in Romania. Recent developments in the press, radio, television and the internet have been taken into consideration. Romania’s media play an extremely important role in society. Their main objective is to keep the general public informed about major issues in society: how the government functions, about legislation, local initiatives and self-governance, as well as national security. Control over media ownership is constitutionally regulated which is a considerable advantage in comparison with other South- Eastern European countries. Romanian media are quite open to progress in new information technologies. In this regard the country boasts one of the most dynamic and flexible markets in Europe and in terms of technological innovation it takes a leading position worldwide.

132-141

Authors: Zhivko Slavov

This article looks into the stand-up comedy routine while paying closer attention to its similarities with dialogue structure as opposed to a monologue. The ways in which closeness between comedian and audience is achieved, its rationale and the role of the audience are examined as well. Closer attention is paid to the specific framework of a stand-up show. The comedian’s job is not only to make people laugh but to make them feel like they are part of the act. Stand-up routine is analysed as a technique that makes it easier for the comedian to keep the audience constantly involved throughout the show.

159-177

Authors: Maria Pipeva

This article offers a brief overview of key contemporary perspectives on the specificity of literary communication initiated by picture books, with their interdependent verbal and visual text. The focus is on their potential to engage readers of various ages, which projects them beyond a narrowly defined domain of children’s literature and transforms them into crossover literature. The main part of the article is devoted to the analysis of four such books: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, the Bulgarian When I Want to be Silent by Zornitsa Hristova and Kiril Zlatkov, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Sciezska and Lane Smith, and Battle Bunny by Jon Sciezska, Mac Barnett and Matthew Myers.

193-205

Authors: Anja Kostadinova

The article outlines the process of establishing adolescent poetry as part of a general tendency of liberalisation in Bulgarian literature in the late 1950s. The text tackles the advancement of poetry to a higher fictional level through the appearance of everyday poetics along with a themes galore, by giving priority to intimate feelings and personal emotions in the lyrics for adolescents. The article examines poems and poetry books by that period’s most prominent authors of adolescents poetry – Ivan Davidkov, Hristo Chernaev, Plamen Tsonev, Ivan Rudnikov and Slavcho Chernishev.

210-212

Authors: Iliana Pavlova

Review: A Brand of Distinction (Stefan Serezliev, Integrirani marketingovi komunikatsii ...)

216-218

Authors: Ivan Kochev

Review: New Phonological Research on Soft Consonants (Vladislav Marinov, Za fonologicheskiya status... )

223-224

Authors: Hristina Hristova

Recent Event: National Conference on 21st Century Media (29 October 2015, Veliko Turnovo)

225-227

Authors: Velin Petrov, Stoyan Burov

Recent Event: Grammar and Pragmatics Forum (19 November 2015, Sofia)

229-230

Authors: Editorial Board

The Authors in This Issue (BG)

233-234

Authors: Editorial Board

Guidelines for Authors