Issue 1, 2024


Issue 1, 2024
Николай Аретов
Institute for Literature, BAS
Мари Врина-Николов
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO)
Георги Господинов
Институт за литература, БАН
Биляна Курташева
info@litmis.eu
Институт за литература
Nysret Krasniqi
University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, Kosovo

Александър Кьосев Чаровната дистопия
Философски и литературни бележки върху „Времеубежище“ на Георги Господинов

Alexander Kiossev The charming dystopia
Philosophical and Literary Notes on "Time Shelter" by Georgi Gospodinov

  • Summary

    The article describes the philosophical problem in the novel Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, in relation to the literary techniques through which it is realized. The claim is that the novel has an exceptionally strong philosophical concept, offering a dystopian transformation of the contemporary regime of time - presentism. However, in its literary realization, the narrative style deprives the dystopia of its radicalism.

    Keywords: dystopia, satire, literary meta-reflection, narrative style, genre


Инна Пелева За романа „Времеубежище“
Inna Peleva Аbout the novel “Time Shelter”

  • Summary

    By focusing on the communicative strategy of G. Gospodinov’s “Time Shelter”, the paper aims to identify some of the reasons for the success of the novel in a non-Bulgarian environment. The focus is also on the image of Bulgaria that “Time Shelter” builds; in relation to this image, the paper considers concepts such as “pamphlet” and “feuilleton” from a functional perspective.

    Keywords: contemporary Bulgarian prose; “Time Shelter”; Georgi Gospodinov; literary award; political novel


Бойко Пенчев „Времеубежище“ и безпокойствата на либералното съзнание
Boyko Penchev “Timeshelter” and the Anxieties of the Liberal Consciousness

  • Summary

    The paper interprets the critical (and readers’) success of Georgi Gospodinov's novel Time Selter, linking it to the potential crisis of contemporary liberal consciousness. Richard Rorty's concept in his book Chance, Irony, and Solidarity (1989) is used as a theoretical approach to defining liberal cultural consciousness. The article analyses the asymmetry in the representation of private self-creation and the construction of collective forms of identity. The main focus is on the workings of memory and the different modes in which the past functions in the construction of private and collective identity.

    Keywords: Georgi Gospodinov, Time Shelter, liberalism, irony, Richard Rorty, memory, ideology, self-creation, utopia


Албена Хранова Тезиси за „Времеубежище“
Albena Hranova Statements on “Time Shelter”

  • Summary

    In Albena Hranova’s “Statements on Time Shelter", the thesis statements are rather questions about the flexible but vague ideography of Georgi Gospodinov's novel Time Shelter: the new status of personal history in the author's writing; the relationship between the material items and verbal stories; the transition from early-romantic to late-romantic characterology in Gaustin; the relationship between memory and the past in the modes of the individual and the actions of societies; and the presence of “lyrical” arguments in the armature of this dystopia.

    Keywords: Time Shelter, Georgi Gospodinov, literary dystopia


Николай Аретов Как е направено „Времеубежище“ на Господинов
Nikolay Aretov How Gospodinov's Time Shelter was made

  • Summary

    The text offers a departure from the dominant paradigm of critical interpretation of Time Shelter, related to the political and philosophical ideas in the novel and the author's strategy. Observations are directed at genre constructions and narrative structures that can be connected to G. Gospodinov's novel. Some of them, perceived as prestigious, are explicitly stated in the text of the work; others remain in the shadows.

    Keywords: Time Shelter; Georgi Gospodinov; reception; composition; sources; analogies


Мари Врина-Николов Времеубежище: преводима ли е силата на въображаемото?
Marie Vrinat-Nikolov Time Shelter: Is the power of the imaginary translatable?

  • Summary

    The novel Time Shelter, by Georgi Gospodinov, parodies both the ideological arsenal of communism and that of nationalism, with their symbolic dates, kitsch, and material legacy. It made me think about what and how I was trying to convey them through my translation: much more than "culture" that is transmitted through education, whether in the family, at school, or in society, and which is, therefore, more or less consciously assimilated, it concerns the imaginary on which ideologies rest, since the imaginary contains many emotions, irrational and unconscious things. Yet the notion of “imaginary” has been surprisingly rare and belatedly included in critical reflection on translation, even though philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, and literature have been interested in it since the mid-twentieth century. In this paper I seek to answer the question: is the power of the imaginary translatable in Time Shelter?

    Keywords: Time Shelter, translation studies, translation, imaginary


Георги Господинов Разширяване полето на романа
Georgi Gospodinov Extending the Scope of the Novel

  • Summary

    The text is both analytical and reminiscent reflection of the author on the genesis and then the reception of his novel, Time Shelter (2020). He focuses on his research in the field of memory loss diseases and their treatment and his delving into the traumatic past of the 20th century that crystallized especially in one day: 1st September 1939 when everyday life became history. Among the various reactions after the publication of the novel, he focuses on two academic discussions: a theosophical one in the frame of Biblico Festival (Vicenza, Italy), and another one on memory loss and personal stories organized by the Department of Psychology, Bologna University. He also examines (not without a certain sense of humor) the effect of being awarded with the International Booker Prize 2023 for Time Shelter. In an ironic key, the title of the text is an allusion to M. Houellebecq’s title ‘Extension du domaine de la lutte’ (translated in English as ‘Whatever’).

    Keywords:


Биляна Курташева „Времеубежище“ - преводи и отзиви
Начален опит за библиография

Bilyana Kourtasheva Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov – Translations and Critical Response
Initial Bibliography

  • Summary

    Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov – Translations and Critical Response

    Initial Bibliography

    Keywords: Georgi Gospodinov, Time Shelter, Bibliography


Милена Кирова Българският роман след Прехода: образец 2022
Milena Kirova Bulgarian novel after the Transition: sample 2022

  • Summary

    This article examines the Bulgarian novels published in 2022 as a representative sample of what was created in this genre in the two decades of the 21st century. The year 2022 has a special place and significance in the development of modern Bulgarian fiction. On the one hand, because the number of new novels is very large – over fifty. On the other hand, and even more important, because this production shows well what has been achieved, breaking new ground since 1989, and what has already become obsolete three decades after the beginning of the changes. The thematic focus of the article is the representations of Bulgarian history, divided into three parts: representations of the recent past (1944–1989), representations of the Transition, representations of more distant history. The political messages specific to each group are defined, new directions of historical/epic thinking in Bulgarian novels are highlighted.

    Keywords: Bulgarian literature, novel, the Transition, historic novel, epic writing


Nysret Krasniqi Literary cratylism: Thymos against Menis

  • Summary

    This article is an observation of Platonic inclination to control and plan literary creativity. Such a proclivity will be noted by analysing some elements of its fundamental philosophical concepts, which relate to literary art in Cratylus, Pheadrus and Republic, as dialogue-works. The analysis will focus on his denial of naturalness of language, writing, and imaginative and creative freedom, as well as his intention to establish the institution of control or censorship. We will also discuss the projection of the ideological future of literary writing and emphasise that this tendency has assumed an atemporal character. We will notice how some of the platonic elements of the desire for control over literary art were exploited by the method of socialist realism, which, as such, requires the creation of literature planning by escaping from the agon of the tradition. As a counterbalance, we will emphasize the immanence of freedom of literary expressiveness based on the concept of thymos, precisely proposed by Plato. 

    Keywords: