Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum

Traduire le néologisme: étude comparative du roman Zazie dans le métro de Raymond Queneau et de sa traduction bulgare

Irena Kristeva — 2024-06-14

The study seeks to determine the level of adequacy of the transfer into Bulgarian of the neologisms coined by Raymond Queneau in the novel Zazie in the Metro (1959). To this end, we examine the translation strategies implemented in Зази в метрото (2001). Starting from the assumption that, while translation is possible, the degree of translatability of a neologism is variable, we evaluate the relevance of the equivalents proposed by the translator.

Keywords: adequacy; equivalence; neologism; Raymond Queneau; translation

The Myth of the Artist – from Birth to Collapse: Notes on the Lithuanian Present-Day Novel

Eugenijus Žmuida — 2024-06-14

The article based on the comparative principle seeks to introduce to a wide audience two novels by Lithuanian writers Kęstutis Navakas (Vyno kopija [“The Wine Copy”], 2016) and Marius Ivaškevičius (Tomas Mūras, 2022), whose authors wish to reflect on the status of the artist in the current era of excess and prosperity. The myth of the artist began taking shape in the 19th century and remained at its height throughout the 20th century, even though art itself underwent many changes. Is the artist still the representative of the elite in society in a post-modern age, when the line between art and pop, between personality and promotional image is almost blurred? These are the questions the authors ask and try to answer, joining inevitably those European authors who placed the creative person at the centre of their fictional world over the last two centuries. Anyone who writes on this subject almost inevitably becomes an author of World literature, as we have understood it since Goethe. The study seeks to reveal the diversity of literary associations, sometimes unconsciously touched upon by the authors, and the tradition of the European novel in dealing with questions of art, man, and his meaning on Earth.

Keywords: modern Lithuanian novel; intertextuality; myth of the artist

Академичната рецепция на концепцията на Емил Щайгер в България

Angel Valentinov Angelov — 2024-06-14

My goal is to present the reception of several writings by Emil Staiger in the Bulgarian academic environment. Also – to pose a more general question – do approaches to these writings imply credibility?
The publications I discuss are by Rossitza Dimtshewa, Nikola Georgiew, Atanas Natew.

Keywords: Emil Staiger; reception in Bulgaria; reliability; Rossitza Dimcheva; Nikola Georgiev; Atanas Natev

Title page

2024-06-14

Note from the Founding Еditor

2024-06-14

Cover painting author

2024-06-14

За книгата: Калин Михайлов. Християнство и литература. Фигури на (не)благородното.

Miryana Yanakieva — 2024-06-14

Book review: Калин Михайлов. Християнство и литература. Фигури на (не)благородното. София, УИ „Св. Климент Охридски“, 2023, ISBN: 978-954-07-5726-1.
[Kalin Mikhaïlov. Christianisme et littérature. Figures du noble et de l’ignoble. Éd. de l’Université de Sofia, 2023, ISBN : 978-954-07-5726-1 ; Christianity and Literature. Figures of the (Ig)Noble.]

За книгата: Румяна Л. Станчева. Сравнително литературознание. Фаталната жена и 5 европейски кройки на романа.

Dina Mantcheva — 2024-06-14

Book review: Румяна Л. Станчева. Сравнително литературознание. Фаталната жена и 5 европейски кройки на романа. София, Изд. Колибри, 2023. [Roumiana L. Stantcheva. Comparative Literature. The Femme Fatale and 5 European “Cuts” of the Novel. Sofia, Colibri Publishers, 2023. Littérature comparée. La femme fatale et 5 coupes européennes du roman].

За книгата: Йоана Славчева. Румънският политически роман от 60-те и 70-те години на XX век.

Lora Nenkovska — 2024-06-14

Book review: Йоана Славчева. Румънският политически роман от 60-те и 70-те години на XX век. Велико Търново, УИ „Св. св. Кирил и Методий“, 2022, 187 с. [Joanna Slavcheva. The Romanian Political Novel of the 1960s and 1970s. Veliko Tarnovo, St. Cyril and St. Methodius University Press, 2022]

За книгата: Impact et réception de la culture française dans les Balkans (XIXe – XXe siècles). Textes réunis par Raïa Zaïmova.

Sonya Aleksandrova-Koleva — 2024-06-14

Book review: Impact et réception de la culture française dans les Balkans (XIXe – XXe siècles). Textes réunis par Raïa Zaïmova. Académie bulgare des sciences – Institut d’études balkaniques & Centre de thracologie, 2023, ISBN : 978-619-7179-39-2 [Френската култура на Балканите (XIX – XX в.) – Взаимовръзки и рецепция. Съставител Рая Заимова].

За книгата: Velinova, Malinka, Antoaneta Robova, Teodora Tzankova (dir.). Normes et réécritures/ mythes et reformulations.

Anastasia Marinova — 2024-06-14

Book review: Velinova, Malinka, Antoaneta Robova, Teodora Tzankova (dir.). Normes et réécritures/ mythes et reformulations. – Philologuitcheski forum, Issue 1 (15), 2022, ISSN 2534-9473. [Велинова, Малинка, Антоанета Робова, Теодора Цанкова (съст.). Норми и пренаписване/ митове и преформулиране. –Филологически форум, брой 1 (15), 2022, ISSN 2534-9473; Norms and Rewritings/ Myths and Reformulations].
https://philol-forum.uni-sofia.bg/portfolio-item/philological-forum-15/

За книгата: Балканските култури: диалог, трансфер, метаморфози. Под ред. Орлин Събев, Лора Тасева, Антоанета Балчева.

Fotini Christakoudy — 2024-06-14

Book review: Балканските култури: диалог, трансфер, метаморфози. Под ред. Орлин Събев, Лора Тасева, Антоанета Балчева. София, ИБЦТ – БАН, 2023, 234 с., ISBN 978-619-7179-38-5 [The Balkan Cultures: Dialogue, Transfer, Metamorphoses. Ed. Orlin Sabev, Lora Taseva, Antoaneta Belcheva. Sofia, IBSCT – BAS, 2023].

A Time for Dystopias

Milena Kirova — 2024-06-14

This text is an introduction to the theme of this issue. First, it briefly overviews the place and the functions of the literary genre of dystopia in present-day world literature. It then outlines the history of the genre in Bulgarian literature from its almost complete absence until 1989 to the rise of a true dystopian wave in the second decade of the new century. In its last part, the text points out how the thirteen articles published inside can be divided into three groups in terms of their subject matter and disciplinary approach.

Keywords: dystopia; Bulgarian literature; novel; 21st century

За дистопично-утопичното и жанра дистопия-утопия

Nikita Nankov — 2024-06-14

The essay presents two ideas. First, the philosophical-aesthetic category of the dystopian-utopian is the basis of the literary-philosophical genre of dystopia-utopia in classical socio-political works. And second, it outlines some features of the genres dystopia-utopia and dystopia. The first idea is derived from European critical philosophy. The second is based on Plato, mostly on the Republic, a work that serves as a starting point for the analysis of the dystopia-utopia and dystopia genres. Classical and more recent works, some of which have not been examined as dystopia-utopia, illustrate these theoretical ideas. The essay pays particular attention to the novels Resurrection by Tolstoy and Bend Sinister by Nabokov.

Keywords: dystopia; utopia; Plato’s Republic; Tosltoy’s Resurrection; Nabokov’s Bend Sinister

Вариации на дистопичното: Уилям Джеймс, Урсула Ле Гуин и Бърнард Улф

Vladimir Poleganov — 2024-06-14

For over a century now, dystopian visions of the future have been an integral part of the strategies through which literature reacts to changes in the world. However, dystopia is not always an entirely new world. Sometimes, it is an element in a world born from a utopian impulse. The article explores the variations of the dystopian in two such worlds influenced by the works of William James: Bernard Wolfe's Limbo and in Ursula K. Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. The analysis adopts the concept of dystopia as utopia’s shadow, and traces the moments when the world, the body, and the language of the Utopian begin to waver and transform into the voice of the Dystopian.

Keywords: Ursula K. Le Guin; Bernard Wolfe; William James; dystopia; utopia

Експлоатация на природния свят в българските научнофантастични утопии и антиутопии от социалистическия период

Anton Nikolov — 2024-06-14

Exploitation of the Natural World in Bulgarian Science Fiction Utopias and Dystopias of the Socialist Period
The article examines the exploitation of the natural world and its individual consequences as they are presented in a number of utopian and dystopian novels of Bulgarian science fiction during the socialist period. Attention is first given to the post-1956 scientific and technical utopias that depict the future communist world. In these texts, nature is the enemy and victim of man; there are many scenes of ecocide and of severe industrialisation which changes nature’s landscape in accordance with the to human needs and desires. This exploitation is seen as positive and necessary for the construction of the new human world. However, later, towards the end of the 1970s, Bulgarian science fiction began to develop a more ecological attitude towards nature. The exploitation of the natural world became something characteristic of dystopian texts and the capitalist regimes described in them, albeit this time seen in its destructive aspect.

Keywords: nature; exploitation; utopias; dystopias; socialist period; science fiction

De la consommation à la consomption. Ignis (1883) de Didier de Chousy ou quand la maison Terre brûle

Laure Lévêque — 2024-06-14

This article deals with an underrated novel by Didier de Chousy, Ignis (1883), published during the craze for scientism and positivism. This anticipation novel, fraught with grating irony, went against the optimism that defined the craze, as the author used the boundless technical possibilities flaunted by the industrial age to imagine a robot-assisted “augmented humanity”. Utopia was thus turned into scathing social dystopia and, a few years before Jules Verne’s novel, a “topsy-turvy” world on the brink of self-destruction was depicted. This ground-breaking work, which tackled both social criticism and the need for environmental awareness, heralded many of the themes that inspired H. G. Wells and the “brave new world” Chousy imagined was just as relevant as the ones of our modern dystopias: the model of development that largely remains ours found itself relentlessly questioned, as a call for immediate change was issued.

Keywords: Chousy (Didier de; social dystopia; whistle-blowing literature; Capitalocene; Anthropocene; progress (criticism of)

Машината на властта – дистопичният свят в Смърт в раковината на Агоп Мелконян и Град върху шахматна дъска на Джон Брънър

Marchela Mironova — 2024-06-14

The current text’s purpose is to compare the two novels mentioned in the article’s title, so it could examine some differences and some similarities in creating a fictional world, while emphasizing on the political dimensions of a dystopian narrative. The machine of power is a metaphor used in both novels, which are also comparable in their intention to show general mechanisms that take place within similar political regimes.

Keywords: dystopia; mechanisms of power; science fiction novel; Agop Melkonyan; John Brunner

Happiness as an Impossible Horizon: On Andrei Platonov and Michel Houellebecq

Galina Georgieva — 2024-06-14

This article offers an analysis of the short story Dzhan by Andrei Platonov written in the early 20th century, and the novel The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq penned in the early 21st century. Genre-wise, both works navigate between utopia and dystopia. The text explores the potential for happiness in conditions of a primordial, pre-modern society (in Dzhan) and in the context of hypermodernity (The Possibility of an Island). The article questions: What happens to the perfect utopian machine and the pursuit of happiness today? Or, how does the absence of desire and imagination, the lack of a lasting yearning for future horizons, as an essential existential aspect of humanity, undermine even the inhuman itself?

Keywords: Andrei Platonov; Michel Houellebecq; Dzhan (Soul); The Possibility of an Island; utopia; dystopia; happiness; eternal life

« Time’s a trap » ou la notion de perspective dans Les Mille et une nuits et The Handmaid’s Tale

Aurélie Le Formal — 2024-06-14

“Time's a trap”: the Poetics of Perspective in The Arabian Nights and The Handmaid’s Tale
The essay analyses the dystopian dimension of the framing narrative of the Arabian Nights through the
lens of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, reexamining the heroines’ agency regarding the
spatial, temporal and subversive perspectives. It explores the pattern of the night and raises the question
of the heroines’ social position and subjectivity through narrative choices and enunciative strategy
deployed.

Keywords: Atwood; Shahrâzâd; perspective; nights; dystopia; subversion

2084: la fin du monde de Boualem Sansal, une dystopie voltairienne

Issam Boulksibat — 2024-06-14

Rooted in the dystopian tradition, 2084 : la fin du monde [2084: The End of the World] by Algerian author Boualem Sansal stands out for its inclusion of elements reminiscent of the philosophical tale, particularly Voltaire’s Candide ou l’Optimisme [Candide, or Optimism], such as the use of descriptive intertitles in the form of completive propositions, the schematic nature of the characters and the use of irony. It is this second generic affiliation that we will focus on in this article.

Keywords: Boualem Sansal; Voltaire; dystopia; philosophical tale, generic hybridity

‘The Other Dream’ of Erewhon: An Essay on the Machines’ Discreet Rebellion

Nikolay Genov — 2024-06-14

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of Samuel Butler's seminal work, Erewhon: or, Over the Range, and Vladimir Poleganov's contemporary novel, The Other Dream. The analysis centers on the discreet influence exerted by technology in the pursuit of territorial survival. The study delves into the catastrophic consequences arising from both the success and failure of this technological endeavour.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; machine rebellion; space and territory

Quadrilatère poétique et dystopique: Maïakovski et Frank O'Hara, Essenine et Jim Harrison

Olena Berezovska Picciocchi — 2024-06-14

The Soviet Union, the perfect example of a dystopia, presented itself as a paradise for the proletariat. The United States, on the other hand, was, at the same time, a land of technical progress and capitalist hell from the Communist point of view. Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, these two best enemies dreamed of and confronted each other. But this is above all a tragic quadrilateral where Mayakovsky and O'Hara, Essenin and Harrison meet. For their poetic utopia will collide with dystopian reality.

Keywords: poetry; American; Soviet; Mayakovsky; O'Hara; Essenin; Harrison

Третият Рим: дистопия и архаика като история на настоящето в Пътешествие до Елевсина на Виктор Пелевин

Vladimir Sabourín — 2024-06-14

This article is an introduction to the close reading of Victor Pelevin’s novel Journey to Eleusis (2023) as a paradigmatical example of the Russian dystopian literature from the beginning of the 21th century. Journey to Eleusis is the final part of a trilogy whose previous installments include the collection of short novels Transhumanism Inc. (2021) that set the dystopian universe, and the sequel KGBT+ (2022) taking place already in the wartime sociopolitical reality. I argue that starting with Vladimir Sorokin’s Blue Lard (1999) the contemporary Russian dystopia intertwines idiosyncratically futurism and archaism into a retro-dystopian frame, which I discern in Pelevin’s trilogy. As I view it, this specific dystopian blend aims at the representation of a history of the present of the Putin era with its neo-totalitarian version of the Russian imperial concept of the “Third Rome” which is crucial to Journey to Eleusis.

Keywords: Russian dystopian literature; 21th century; archaism; retro-dystopia; The Third Rome; Victor Pelevin

The Stepford Wives, Trajectories of Dystopia into Gender, Genre, Class and Race – From Novel to Film

Ioana Pankova — 2024-06-14

The Stepford Wives, a novel by Ira Levin published in 1972, describes a micro-dystopian society, which imposes a strict ‘traditional’ order, by transforming women into compliant wives programmed to serve their husbands. The book has been adapted to screen several times. The present paper will focus on a comparison between the original literary work and the first adaptation of 1975 by British director Bryan Forbes, seen through the notions of genre, gender, class and race.

Key words: genre; dystopia; thriller; horror movie; class; race; gender; patriarchy; gaze; spectacle; feminism; mass culture

Heterotopias, Non-Places and Оther Chiasmi

Nataliya Atanasova — 2024-06-14

This paper investigates the dichotomy between Dismaland, a dystopian inversion of Disneyland, and Disneyland as an enduring bastion of joyous illusion. Through the lenses of heterotopia, non-places, and chiasmus, it explores how their coexistence authentically grounds one while estranging the other. Banksy's inadvertent use of а chiastic structure in transforming Dismaland is analyzed for its reorganizational logic, and challenging norms. Drawing on Lefebvre, Foucault, Rancière, and Nikolchina, the paper examines cultural representations, spaces, and social relations. The analysis extends to non-places vs. heterotopias, emphasizing Dismaland's resistance to non-place classification. The paper advocates for heterotopias, like Dismaland, to challenge norms and foster alternative cultural production, critiquing interpretations of Situationist theories and proposing Rancière's spatial occupation. The conclusion explores how chiastic structure and heterotopian thinking fuel Dismaland's revolutionary potential, challenging predetermined environments, and underscores art's transformative role in societal evolution towards a renewed existence.

Кeywords: Dismaland; Disneyland; heterotopia; dystopia; chiastic structure; non-places