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Item FROM OUTLAW AND ROBBER TO OWNER OF MNIBUS – THE MEETING BETWEEN BAE SLAVE FROM “CHAMKORIA” AND BACHO GICHO FROM “ELEVATION” BY MILEN RUSKOV(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Boev, Nikolay; Боев, НиколайThis study provides a comparative analysis of Milen Ruskov’s last two novels, “Elevation” and “Chamkoria”, focusing on the main characters: bacho Gicho and bae Slave. First, the main similarities between the two works are examined, emphasizing the importance of the common topos and the idea of “elevation” as an ideal aspiration. The analysis continues with a detailed examination of the characters themselves, discussing their common traits, mannerisms, and similar fates. Their similarity to the character of Bay Ganyo is also emphasized. Finally, attention is drawn to the characteristic artistic language, which is also key to the author's popularity.Item THE PICARESQUE GNOSTICISM IN THE NOVEL “VAZVISHENIE”: THE GNOSTIC PREVAILS OVER THE PICARO(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Dimitrov, Aleksandar; Димитров, АлександърThe article examines the novel “Vazvishenie” through the lenses of the picaresque and Gnosticism – two discourses embedded within the metafictional framework of the narrative which resonate with the author’s own creative disposition. Milen Ruskov persistently strives to narrate tragic events in a humorous register, a tendency that lends his works a distinctly tragicomic complexion. Within this con-figuration, the picaresque operates on the plane of comedy, while Gnosticism unfolds on the plane of tragedy. Just as the comic and the tragic intersect in tragicomedy, the picaresque and the Gnostic likewise converge in what may be called picaresque Gnosticism. The focal point of this convergence is the consciousness of the narrator and protagonist, Gicho, who over the course of the novel undergoes a transformation from picaro to Gnostic. This trajectory is inscribed within the context of the Bulgarian National Revival and determines the subtext of the motif of “elevation,” which has come to stand as the novel’s emblem.Item MAN AS A REDUNDANT INSTRUMENT: A COLLAPSE IN FOUR MOVEMENTS IN “A BALLAD FOR GEORG HENIG” BY VIKTOR PASKOV(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Raycheva, Denitsa; Райчева, ДеницаThe current study situates Viktor Paskov’s “A Ballad for Georg Henig” within the broader discourse on social and moral decline and examines the process by which the individual is displaced from being the artist of one’s own life to being a redundant tool. The analysis focuses on the interaction between values, art, and social environment, revealing the spiritual, moral, and cultural deficiencies in the characters’ behavior, choices, and interpersonal relationships. Particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of transformation that underscore the erosion of traditional moral foundations and the imposition of new pseudo-value models, illustrating how social pressure contributes to the marginalization of the individual.Item LANGUAGE AS RESISTANCE: PLAY AND IDENTITY IN GEORGI MARKOV’S “THE PORTRAIT OF MY DOUBLE”(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Bozova, Vesela; Бозова, ВеселаThe paper analyzes the literary language and the problem of play in the novella “The Portrait of My Double” as forms of resistance against the language of socialist ideology. The main thesis of the study is that the game functions as a metaphor for an autonomous reality governed by its own internal rules, according to which deceit, ruthlessness, and amorality are considered virtues. Within this play-world, the individual achieves a paradoxical kind of freedom – while remaining subject to the rules of the game, they are able to “play” with their identity, liberating themselves not only from the dogmas of ideology and society, but also from their own self. In this way the characters in the novella oppose the narrative of the “new” virtuous socialist man.Item THE IMAGE OF THE HOMELAND – A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE POEMS “RODINA” BY NIKOLAY LILIEV AND «H ΠΟΛΙΣ» (“THE CITY”) BY KONSTANTINOS KAVAFIS(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Xiarchou, Constantina; Ксиарху, КонстантинаThe article examines early twentieth-century Bulgarian and Greek poetry through a comparative perspective, focusing on Homeland by Nikolay Liliev and The City by Constantine Cavafy. It explores how symbolism and modernism respond to the social and cultural transformations of the period through themes such as identity, memory, belonging, and the search for meaning. The study highlights both aesthetic and philosophical differences between the two poets. Liliev presents the homeland as a spiritual and timeless refuge shaped by Symbolist ideals, whereas Cavafy portrays the individual’s inability to escape the past and their personal destiny. Despite their different artistic approaches, both poets express the existential anxieties of the twentieth century and reveal the connection be-tween personal consciousness, collective memory, and historical experience.Item THE LITERARY COLLECTION “THE CITY” (1922) IN THE CONTEXT OF THE REGIONAL LITERATURE OF THE YOUNGEST FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 1920S(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Boneva, Bozhana; Бонева, БожанаThe paper examines a literary edition that reflects the current dynamics of the Bulgarian literary processes from the 1920s – the collection “The City”, published in 1922 in Ruse and edited by collaborators of the Ruse magazine “Bright Dawns” (1921 – 1923). The authors included in the collection are all contributors to the magazine – enthusiastic young poets from the countryside who sought to create their own platforms for creative expression while still shaping their individual styles. The article explores the composition of the collection, highlights the aesthetic features characteristic of its texts, and analyzes the critical responses to the edition published in the periodical press of the time.Item THE CHRISTIAN SIDE OF G. MILEVʼS POEM “SEPTEMBER”(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Kapatos, Stylianos; Капатос, СтилианосThe article analyzes the Christian side of the poem “September”, which was written and printed in 1924 by the main representative of expressionism in Bulgarian literature Geo Milev (1895–1925). The relevance of this topic is confirmed by the fact that Geo Milev’s poem “September” raises existential and universal human problems that continue to concern contemporary readers. The themes of religious archetypes, historical and mythological messages, universal symbolism, and other characteristic elements of the poem (such as rebellion) have also been studied in the scholarly works of E. Sugarev, D. Efendulov, P. Slavcheva, and others. This article is based on these studies, as well as one other previous works on the subject. G. Milev’s poem is analyzed in the context of the general cultural and literary influences of the 20th century – a period of time torn apart by wars, revolutions, and the spiritual crisis of a person who renounces religion (Christianity).Item THE OPPOSITION BETWEEN TRANSPARENCY AND OPACITY IN VLADIMIR NABOKOV’S NOVEL “INVITATION TO ABEHEADING”(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Ananiev, Ivan; Ананиев, ИванIn this study, the evolution of Nabokov’s chronotope is examined, with particular attention placed on its movement toward a modern mode of narration. Within his Russian-language novels, recurrent émigré themes are especially prominent. “Invitation to a Beheading” stands apart from this context. In it, Vladimir Nabokov transcends the limits of political satire and produces a work that may be regarded as an ontological allegory. The novel offers a successful attempt to articulate an ontological model of human exile.Item NARRATIVE STRATEGIES IN “LOLITA” AND “WE”(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Alexiev, Tihomir; Алексиев, ТихомирThe research aims to examine both the similarities and differences in the narrative of the two novels – Nabokov’s “Lolita” and Zamyatin’s “We”. By focusing on common narrative features, I aim to demonstrate the narrator’s ability to manipulate his readers in order to win them over to his side. At the same time, the thesis seeks to show the extent to which the audience is capable of succumbing to the narrator’s attempts to control their understanding, while also revealing the points at which cracks in his argument begin to emerge. Through comparative analysis, the points of contact, as well as the points of divergence between the two texts are revealed. In order to provide the most accurate interpretation, the systems of images used are drawn both from previously published texts from Russian and other literatures and from established archetypes embedded in the two novels.Item THE QUEER-IDENTIFIED PROTAGONIST AS A CULTURAL MEDIATOR IN THE “HOP ÇIKI YAYA” SERIES BY THE TURKISH AUTHOR MEHMET MURAT SOMER(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Kovacheva, Denislava; Ковачева, ДениславаThis paper explores the figure of the queer-identified protagonist in Mehmet Murat Somer’s “Hop-Çiki-Yaya” series as a cultural mediator, navigating between diverse and often conflicting social spheres in contemporary Turkish society. The protagonist – an unnamed, amateur detective and drag performer – challenges dominant gender norms while inhabiting multiple cultural registers. Drawing on theories of identity, and performativity, the analysis highlights how the protagonist operates within liminal zones, negotiating between traditional values and progressive ideals, Eastern and Western cultural codes, visibility and discretion. Through linguistic play, fashion, and ironic social commentary, the character bridges the gap between marginalized and mainstream discourses, turning queerness into a site of both resistance and reconciliation. The paper argues that this unique positioning enables the protagonist not only to solve crimes, but also to expose the contradictions of Turkish modernity and to foster dialogue across cultures.Item TIME TRAVEL AS A TRAGIC EXPERIENCE IN “BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD” BY TOSHIKAZU KAWAGUCHI(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Gramatikova, Vyara; Граматикова, ВяраThe present paper examines the motif of time travel in Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s novel Before the Coffee Gets Cold through Aristotle’s concept of the tragic. The analysis explores how the impossibility of changing the past transforms the return to previous events not into a means of altering reality, but into an experience leading the characters toward self-knowledge, catharsis, and reconciliation with what has already happened. Particular attention is given to the categories of muthos, ethos, peripeteia, and anagnorisis, through which the novel constructs its tragic characters and narrative structures.Item AUTOMATIC WRITING AS LINGUISTIC REBELLION: THE LINGUISTIC REALIZATION OF THE UNCONSCIOUS(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Galabova, Gergana; Гълъбова, ГерганаThis article tracks the development of automatism by comparing the canonical Les Champs magnétiques by André Breton and Philippe Soupault with Remedios Varo’s automatic works. The automatic effect of Les Champs magnétiques is problematised by evidence or revision. Varo’s personal writings, on the other hand, show a more genuine use of the technique, turning the passive muse into an autonomous artist. The article concludes that, while the initial Surrealist rebellion broke external literary forms, the full potential of automatism as a mode of unmediated self-discovery was realized through its feminist appropriation, which adapted it to express a multiplicity of a personal unconscious.Item THE AWAKENING OF LANGUAGE IN GAO XINGJIAN’S NOVEL SOUL MOUNTAIN(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Rusinov, Stefan; Русинов, СтефанThe work of Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian is not usually considered part of the Chinese avant-garde movement of the 1980s. This study identifies some of the possible reasons for this exclusion and attempts to revise or supplement the reception of his novel “Soul Mountain” by analyzing it in the context of avant-garde theory and by highlighting three of its main characteristics, which show significant overlap with the works of other Chinese avant-garde writers: the search for a new language, the achievement of a new subjectivity, and the construction of a new conception of reality.Item SUPERNATURAL HORROR ACCORDING TO H. P. LOVECRAFT: A FEW ENTRY POINTS IN THE STUDY OF WEIRD FICTION(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Stefanova, Iva; Стефанова, ИваThe current paper aims to examine a few of the aspects that are present in H. P. Lovecraft’s concept of weird fiction as developed in his seminal 1927 essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature”. Lovecraft’s essay is treated as an entry point in the genre study of weird fiction, which is examined as a part of the wider field of fantastic literature. The paper takes notice of Lovecraft’s proposed periodization of weird fiction and makes a proposition on the treatment of the relation between the notions of “supernatural horror” and “weird fiction” based on said periodization.Item THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF WORDS: LANGUAGE AS OPPRESSION AND RESISTANCE IN R. F. KUANG’S “BABEL”(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Peneva, Preslava; Пенева, ПреславаThis article examines R. F. Kuang’s “Babel: An Arcane History” through the lens of the “dark academia” genre, arguing that the novel reconfigures its traditional fascination with elite knowledge into a sharp anti-colonial critique. Set in an alternative nineteenth-century Oxford, “Babel” presents language as both a mechanism of imperial domination and a potential instrument of resistance. The British Empire’s magical technology of “silver-working”, powered by the untranslatable gaps between languages, exposes how linguistic knowledge is weaponized for exploitation. At the same time, acts of speech and translation (embodied in the rebellion of Robin Swift and the Hermes Society) transform language into a site of political subversion. The analysis highlights how Kuang’s novel reveals translation not as a neutral academic pursuit but as a deeply ideological practice, where words themselves become tools for either sustaining or dismantling empire.Item THE ECHO CHAMBERS OF A CHILD’S TEMPORALITY: DICKENS’S GREAT EXPECTATIONS(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Yasenova, KristinaWhile paying attention to the soundscapes Charles Dickens builds in Great Expectations, I offer phenomenological interpretations of them, bearing in mind the child’s viewpoint and presence. The traditional phenomenological gaze, in this case, is going to be replaced with a phenomenological “ear”. Adopting such an analytical direction, I would argue that temporality could be polymorphous and polyphonous, and that the sonorous time possesses the power of morphing the child’s identity into diverse forms and directions.Item HEROINES OF THE NEW TIMES: EMANCIPATION THROUGH THE LANGUAGE OF FEMALE GOTHIC IN THE WORKS OF ANN RADCLIFFE AND ANTONIA S. BYATT(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Dilova, Anastasiya; Дилова, АнастасияThis article focuses on the emancipation of women protagonists in the female Gothic genre, emphasizing their embodiment of the social norms and developmental opportunities of their time. At the heart of this trend, which later established as a tradition and continues to this day, is the concept of literary feminism (heroinism) introduced by Ellen Moers. The study focuses on two key works: the novel “The Mysteries of Udolpho” (1794) by the British novelist Ann Radcliffe and the Booker Prize-winning novel “Possession” (1990) by A. S. Byatt. The heroines brought into comparison – the young lady Emily St. Auber and the scientific researcher Maud Bailey, outline the essential characteristics and developmental features of the new type of literary protagonist – from a curious girl who cannot travel without an escort to a serious woman who builds her career as a researcher with a PhD in literature.Item THE MULTIPLICITY OF PERSONALITY FROM THE DEPTHS OF MALONEʼS SOUL(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Gencheva, Maria; Генчева, МарияThe present paper examines the theme of the complex mental structure of the self in Samuel Beckett’s work “Malone Dies”. The main spectrum of references at the core of the text is situated in the works of Schildler, Fischer, Kotard, Eagleman, and Holcomb, whose theories help to understand the dimensions of Malone’s inner world described by the Irish author. The theoretical basis of the work draws on the analytical legacy of Jacques Lacan, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari. Numerous quotations are used to illustrate the conceptual emphases of the examined subject. Oscar Wilde and his overall contribution with the work “De profundis” will be the reader’s figurative guide and companion in their academic encounter with this literary report.Item THE MISSING RIBBON: LOTTE QUOTES “THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER”(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Georgiev, Ivan; Георгиев, ИванThe article deals with the general theme of quotation in Thomas Mann’s work. It briefly presents the concept of “life as quotation” from the official speech the author gave on the occasion of Sigmund Freud’s eightieth birthday. The concept is analyzed in order to develop a model of quotation, which is then used to examine a specific element from the novel “Lotte in Weimar”. The interpretation focuses on the literary image of the white dress with pink ribbons (one of which is missing) that the heroine chooses to wear when she meets Goethe again, forty-four years after the events recounted in “The Sorrows of Young Werther”. The tension be-tween life and art that Mann’s work maintains is important for decoding the meaning behind Lotte’s gesture and the effect that this gesture has within the novel.Item HYPERBOLE FROM A PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE (BASED ON THE WORKS OF A. MATVEEVA)(Plovdiv University Press, 2026-05-22) Terziyska, Gabriela; Терзийска, ГабриелаThis study examines meaning and mechanisms of hyperbolization from a communicative-pragmatic perspective, focusing on how they serve to realize the speaker’s intentions in constructing the pragmatic framework of the utterance. Based on the works of contemporary Russian writer Anna Matveeva, the analysis considers both conventional and individual hyperboles. The findings emphasize the functional role of hyperbole as a stylistic device that intensifies evaluation, conveys subjectivity and enhances the expressive potential of discourse.