Issue 1, 2019

Summary

At first, Montaigne followed the process, which began with Petrarch, of adopting the “Roman-Greek philosophy of life”. Unusual, however, was the extent to which Montaigne attached the ancient life teachings to his own self. It replaced the instance of transcendence that had become void or insignificant by acquiring its qualities. The self for Montaigne became a substitute for metaphysics and an addition to God. Montaigne, however, avoided the trap of the metaphysics of the subject by sharpening figures of thought from ancient skepticism and transferring them into his own self.
The Essays is the first place to testify that the solutions, which ancient authors offered, were no longer satisfactory for the problems of subjectivity in modernity.
Montaigne appears quite a modern thinker when he refers the notion of barbarism – a notion, with which the Europeans readily treat other civilizations – to the horrors of the religious wars in Europe or when criticizing the European colonialism in South America, at the same time highly appreciating the old American cultures. He realized that all values and customs are relative and that they do not have any transcendent origin. In his later years, Montaigne allowed for the possibility of self-consciousness and conscience being neutralized as instances of (self-)knowledge and morality.
But pushing the understanding of the multilayeredness and elusiveness of one's own self, Montaigne became one of the first representatives of the nostalgia for the essential, which even up to today, through Romanticism and existentialism, accompanies the work on the notion of modern subjectivity.

Keywords: Michel Montaigne, French moralistic, conservatism, anthropology, modern subjectivity, Self, paradox

Милена Кирова Най-ранната проза, създадена от жени в българската литература. Забравеният принос на Екатерина Каравелова и Вела Благоева
Milena Kirova The earliest prose written by Bulgarian Women. Two forgotten names: Ekaterina Karavelova and Vela Blagoeva

Summary

The article pursues the first three decades following the National Liberation (1878) in order to discover the beginnings of women’s prose writing in Bulgarian literature. By means of bibliometric statistics, it challenges the myth that poetry has always been the stronger and the better side of Bulgarian women’s writing. A number of names appear on the surface. Ekaterina Karavelova was the first ever Bulgarian woman who wrote political pamphlets in a very early time (mid-80’s of the 19th). Vela Blagoeva was not only a feminist-oriented activist of the socialist movement but a prolific prose writer as well. The article pays close attention to their works and makes visible their contribution to the history of Bulgarian literature.

Keywords: Bulgarian literature, prose writing, women writers, Ekaterina Karavelova, Vela Blagoeva

Николай Аретов Георги Гачев: От „закъсняло-ускорено развитие“ към националните образи на света
Nikolay Aretov Georgi Gachev: From ‘Accelerated Development’ to ‘National Images of the World’

Summary

This paper focuses on two key notions in the oeuvre of Georgi Gachev, presented in a broader context – ‘accelerated development’ and ‘national image of the world’, on the evolution in Gachev’s thinking, that reveal high self-confidence and could even be labeled as “colonialist’s”.

These two ideas are interconnected, but there is also some tension between them. The accelerated development presuppose evolution towards a universal construction (modern European literature); national images, on the contrary, problematize the universal in behalf of the local, national, that is seen as primordial and has its constant (if not eternal) invariant.

Keywords: Georgi Gachev; Accelerated Development; National Images of the World

Бойка Илиева Кирил Христов и Италия
Boyka Ilieva Kiril Hristov, Italy, Italian theme, influences, comparative observations, translations

Summary

The Italian theme in the work of Kiril Hristov was noted by a number of researchers, but in most cases just as an ascertainment. The study of literature owes a lot to the poet, as there are numerous studies dedicated to this subject in the works of Ivan Vazov, Konstantin Velichkov, and Pencho Slaveykov. One of the few authors who turned special attention to this problem is George Nurijan, who wrote a brief publication in 1938.
The purpose of this text is to develop the topic of Kiril Hristov's connection with Italy. It will be discussed in several ways: the work and the overall stay of Kiril Hristov in Trieste and Naples, the Italian theme in his works, the influence of Italian authors on his work, comparative observations, translations from Italian.

Keywords: Kiril Hristov, Italy

София Дачева Многовалентна символика на жълтия цвят в „Смърт във Венеция“ от Томас Ман
Sofia Dacheva Multi-valent symbolism of the yellow colour in “Death in Venice” by Thomas Mann

Summary

This article explores the varied manifestations of “Death in Venice” (1912) by Thomas Mann and distinguishes her prophetic, positive and negative connotative markers. The yellow colour in the novel functions as a key element in the poetics of the work through its diverse perceptual dimensions. The mythological tissue in which “Death in Venice” is dressed helps the reader to understand the anachronism of colour symbolism that is both mournful and life-giving: on the one hand, the yellow expresses the colour of eternity, on the other – it is the messenger of the decline old age, recent death. In “Death in Venice”, the symbol of the yellow colour is concentrated in its prophetic connotative energy, which in the middle of the novel also unlocks its negative manifestations. The gold in the work has an immanently positive expression as an emanation of the ancient ideal. The expressions with a positive connotation of the yellow colour in the novel are: “golden glasses”, “yellowish glitter”,”waxy yellow sand”, “yellow curls”, “marbled yellow skin”, “golden dusk”. Prophetic condensative functions are immanently embedded in the expressions: “yellowish”, “yellow fingers”, “light yellow suit”, “yellow full teeth”, and with the negative symbolism the expression “golden spears” can be inferred. Thus, the functioning of the yellow colour in the novel is in the role of a meaningful concept in the construction of the symbolism and semantic multilayer of the work. In “Death in Venice”, gold and yellow balance in the general aesthetic paradigm and the ancient ideal, and the death shadow of sin. The ambiguity at the yellow colour reception reaches its maximum expressive potential in the work and makes it a symbolic element in plotting the story.

Keywords: Thomas Mann, “Death in Venice”, yellow, colour, symbol

Олександра Малаш „Майка неволница” на Леся Украинка: приемствеността на кризата
Oleksandra Malash “Captive Mother” by Lesya Ukrayinka: the continuity of the crisis

Summary

The paper is an effort at psychological analyzing the problem of the crisis in Lesya Ukrayinka’s literary heritage. The object of the research is her famous poem “Captive Mother”. The subject of this study is the crisis of the human in the system due to his dreaming of freedom. The author is analyzing the conversation between the lead character, her friend and a little child and trying to develop a problem of the relation between several generations through the crisis of a captive human.

Keywords: Lesya Ukrayinka, end of the XIX century, poetry, “Captive Mother”, crisis, system

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