Boneva, BozhanaБонева, Божана2025-12-052025-12-052025-05-162682-9460https://doi.uni-plovdiv.bg/handle/store/778The purpose of this paper is to examine Blaga Dimitrova's novel „Face“ through the illness as a metaphor. An attempt is made to discover and analyze the pathological and its functions: both in the individual – mainly through the main female figure Bora Naydenova, who is simultaneously a "patient" and a "diagnostician" in the novel, as well as in society, which actually appears to be the subject of Naydenova's sociological survey. The only healthy organism that has preserved its „humanity“ turns out to be Bora’s indoor ficus which is able to influence the characters psycho-emotionally, guiding them to their healing. The novel is documentary when it comes to the fact that it creates a „medical report“ of the Bulgarian society from the end of the 1950s. Highly stylized, „Face“ is the kind of a diagnosis that instills fear into those in power, whose reluctance to admit the pathology of their own actions results in the banning of the novel.otherillnessdiseasepassionsocialismconsumerismmoral decaysurveyconsciencehealingArticle