Roles and Languages in Contemporary Bulgarian Art Studies
Galina Lardeva
AMDFA “Prof Asen Diamandiev” Plovdiv – Plovdiv, Bulgaria
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-1G
AbstractThe article aims to outline in general terms the possibilities for correlation between roles and languages used in the contemporary Bulgarian art historical practice. The study focuses its search on the last decade and observes how the roles are gradually narrowing and reducing, while the languages– on the contrary – are swarming up and gaining immensity even within the same role. For the purposes of the article, as exemplary material are used four fundamental works published in recent years: Nozharova (2018), Dzhurova (2020), Marinska (2020), Popov (2021). These are, without exception, works with a fundamental requisition, which, along with their immediate objects of research, attempt to outline the state of the specialized interest in art.
Keywords:contemporary art studies; art theory; art history; art criticism; affirmative criticism
The Language of the End and the Language of the World. The Apocalyptic Writing of Blaga Dimitrova
Maria Kalinova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-2M
Abstract. The article is dedicated to the pessimistic turn in Blaga Dimitrova’s prose, which comes into conflict with the propagandistic utilitarianism and the utopian telos of the era. The most general characteristics of the writer’s “apocalyptic writing” are outlined as a set of techniques that meet the political, ethical and aesthetic. The focus falls on the equivalence between nature and technology, bringing to the fore the duality of “techno-nature”, considered as a technology for the end of the world in the author’s anti-war novels, but also in a Heideggerian sense and as a phenomenon of the “revealing” of the truth. The analysis of the novel-poem “Avalanche” (1971) in the light of the unprecedented situation that humanity is entering in the 21st century, when natural disasters can no longer be separated from their technological, economic and political consequences, occupies a central place in the text.
Keywords: totalitarianism; atomization; prose of inversion; techno-nature; counter-spectacle; world-creation
Paths to the Other’s World. Translated Books at Hristo G. Danov Publishing House in the First Decade of Its Activity (1960 – 1970)
Yoanna Gudalova
University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-3J
Abstract. The present paper aims to trace the development of the Plovdivian socialist publishing house “Hristo G. Danov” in the first decade after its establishment. This publication delineates the proportion between translated and Bulgarian literature, as well as between the various translated works in the said period. The article puts an emphasis on the first works of Western European and American literature that set a new publishing strategy, building a new kind of reading audience in the People‘s Republic of Bulgaria.
Keywords: translated fiction; publishing house Hristo G. Danov; publishing strategy
The Contemporary Bulgarian Language Policy – between Societal Crises and the Dynamics of Language Processes (Historical and Contemporary Aspects)
Vladislav Milanov
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-4M
Abstract. The article provides an overview of language policy during the socialist period in Bulgaria, on the one hand, and on the other hand, examines the elements of contemporary language policy as a complex result of the interaction between language speakers, institutions and the dynamics of language processes. The observations summarize the contemporary manifestations of language policy, such as language references, language culture columns, scientific and educational columns in the media; the arguments for and against the existence of a law on the Bulgarian language; projects devoted to the dynamics of the contemporary Bulgarian language; discussion forums on the Bulgarian language; and the relationship between language, language policy, the media, education, politics and society. A commentary is made on the phenomenon of language policy in an ever-changing world, with some processes examined in their historical projection as early as the Bulgarian Revival. езикова политика в непрекъснато променящия се свят, като някои процеси са разгледани в тяхната историческа проекция още през Българското възраждане.
Keywords:Bulgarian language; language policy; linguistic processes
The Semiotic Essence of Sign Language
Gergana Dacheva
University of Sofia
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-5D
Abstract. The present article is part of a larger study related to the current and interesting topic of the sign nature of sign languages and in particular the Bulgarian sign language. The main aspects of the study are to outline the sign rebirth of sign languages and the main relationships between sign types. The reasoning leads to the triadic model of C.S. Peirce, which is fully applicable to sign languages in contrast to the dyadic model of F. de Saussure, which is applicable to natural languages. The emphasis in this article is on the types of signs (indexical, iconic and symbolic) and their hierarchy in the particular sign. A modern semiotic hypothesis is also proposed, which presents the three types of signs in a traditional figure for linguistics, namely the triangle. It is insisted on the thesis that the Bulgarian sign language has its own system and its own vocabulary, like other sign languages.
Keywords:communication; sign language; semiotics; types of signs
Professional Medical Language
Iveta Tasheva
Sofia University
Hospital Sofiamed
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-6T
Abstract. The paper traces the characteristics of modern medical language and motivates why it can be thought of as a kind of jargon that is often understandable only to those who know it. Examples are given of its typical features that can make it enigmatic for patients and even mislead them, as well as of some of its features, such as the use of the plural or specific medical humour, which further exacerbate the difficulties of dialogue with patients.
Keywords:medical language; patient; dialogue; misunderstanding
The Ontological Status of the Curse and the War in Ukraine
Olena Klymentova
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine)
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-7O
Abstract. The purpose of the article is to clarify the ontological status of cursing in Ukrainian hate speech. There is a ruining etiquette standard, a neglect of many ritualized communicative forms aimed at the opponent’s face-saving in a problematic interaction, as well as a landslide violation of speech taboos. This tendency is seen in almost all communication spheres, including public media speech. Hate speech has emerged as the anticipated outcome of the crisis adjustment in the communicative inventory of Ukrainians. Curses are an effective means of hate speech in its institutional and profane forms, rooted in religious communication. The use of curses in various religious traditions has revealed a wide range of communicative intentions, from fear and destruction to protection and higher justice. In the Ukrainian context, household curses gradually lost their invective potential and primarily served as a communicative marker of affective empathy. However, the Russian-Ukrainian war changed this trend. Ukrainian curses demonstrated the effect of “forgetting as the ability to reconstruct” of new forms of both reproduction and sublimation of emotional negativity in wartime.
Keywords: curse; hate speech; Russian-Ukrainian war; media and political technology
Word Formation of Adjectives with the Suffix -en: Morphophonological and Didactic Analysis
Gueorgui Hristovsky
Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa Lisbon, Portugal
Antonia Radkova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-8HA
Abstract. The study provides a detailed examination of the word formation of Bulgarian adjectives with the suffix -en. The analysis focuses on morphophonological changes related to the vowel -e, as well as the factors determining its deletion or retention. The characteristics of syllable codas, along with phonological and other contexts conditioning the changes, are explored. The research incorporates some contemporary linguistic models and offers rules for explaining the observed phenomena, which are rewritten into relatively simple instructions for teaching Bulgarian as a foreign language.
Keywords:: e – zero alternations; syllable codas; phonology; yer vocalization; teaching Bulgarian as a foreign language
Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication as Topics in the Continuing Qualification of Bulgarian Language and Literature Teachers
Rositsa Penkova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-9-P
Abstract. This article focuses on the need for continued training of Bulgarian language and literature teachers on topics and issues of multilingualism and intercultural communication for the education of civic culture and the building of values in adolescents. The transition from bilingual education to a policy of multilingualism is reviewed, positive characteristics and limitations are analyzed, and examples from EU countries and beyond are cited. Important moments in the development of the process of civic education in Bulgarian secondary schools are traced in the context of European educational policy. The place of Bulgarian language and literature teaching in this process is emphasized. Based on an analysis of the curricula and focus group discussions, ideas are proposed for the inclusion of Bulgarian language and literature teachers in thematic qualification courses, through which to support the process of developing civic culture and intercultural communicative competence in young people in secondary schools.
Keywords: bilingual education; multilingualism; intercultural communication; civic education; education in Bulgarian Language and Literature; teacher's training
Among the Tragedy and Triumph of Doiran
Vladimir Ignatov
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-10V
Contribution to the Study of Bulgarian Lexical Prosody
Dimka Savova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-11D
