Accessible Communication of Cultural Institutions with Citizens: Educational Potential of an Exhibition
Andreana Eftimova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-1D
Abstract. The article discusses the influence of the language and style of the texts of the labels in an exhibition on the communicative and educational goals of the cultural institution. The content and language of the texts can attract a wider non-specialized audience and include more citizens in the communicative interaction. For this purpose, the institution should offer new narrative possibilities and prepare texts in plain or easy language. The research is carried out using the methods of content analysis, linguistic and stylistic analysis, the case study method and a questionnaire survey. The results show that the prepared dialogic labels with an educational purpose are a good example of texts in accessible language intended for a wide audience.
Keywords: plain language; cultural institutions; educational potential; communication
Phonetic and Morphological Aspects of the Idiolect of Priest Mincho Kanchev, Reflected in „Vidritsa“
Teodora G. Ilieva
Faculty of Education
Trakia University - Stara Zagora (Bulgaria)
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-2T
Abstract. The manuscript “Vidritsa. Memories. Notes. Correspondence” (1894 – 1904) has been the subject of several literary, cultural-historical, and ethnographic studies, but linguistic studies of the genre-heterogeneous text are lacking. This motivates the need for an analysis of the rich lexical layers, phraseological units, syntactic construction, phonetic spelling and morphological paradigm used by Father M. Kanchev.
The purpose of this publication is to isolate several of the spelling principles characteristic of the writer; to distinguish the phonetic and phonological features that individualize its language; to highlight the normative, dialectal and sociolectal categorical characteristics of the morphological system. The focus is on the features of the Stara Zagora urban speech in the period around the Liberation of Bulgaria.
The study is conducted on the original text, contained in a manuscript (fonds 382, archive unit 1, pp. 1 – 1016), which is kept in the National Library “St. Cyril and st. Methodius”.
A partial linguistic comparison is being made with the idiolect of another Stara Zagora writer – Hristo Shivarov – author of “Notes on the Stara Zagora’s Uprising” (fonds 141K, op. 1, archival unit 1) from the State Archives – Stara Zagora.
Keywords: priest Mincho Kanchev; manuscript “Vidritsa”; Hristo Shivarov; phonetic system; morphological paradigm; sociolect
Emotions in English and Bulgarian Idiomatic Expressions with Colours
Vanya Ivanova
University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Gergana Petkova
Medical University – Plovdiv, Bulgaria
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-3V
Abstract. This article explores how idiomatic expressions featuring the colours black and white convey meaning, emotions, and cultural symbolism in Bulgarian and English. These colours evoke a broad range of connotations, from purity and success to negativity, mystery, and hardship. The study classifies these idioms into groups based on their meanings – positive, negative, neutral, or contradictory – and examines both the similarities and differences between the two languages. While Bulgarian and English share some idioms with overlapping meanings (e.g., „черен пазар“ and “black market”), others highlight unique cultural perspectives and linguistic creativity. Bulgarian idioms often possess a poetic, metaphorical tone, whereas English expressions tend to be more direct, practical, or linked to specific contexts, such as history, trade, or everyday life. These differences reflect the interaction between universal human experiences and distinct cultural influences in shaping language. By analysing these vivid phrases, the article reveals how language captures cultural attitudes towards colour and the emotional nuances associated with them. The analysis ultimately provides insights into the shared human tendency to express meaning through colour symbolism while highlighting the cultural specificities that make each language distinctive.
Keywords: Idiomatic expressions, colour symbolism, Bulgarian language, English language, black and white idioms, cultural differences
Possible Alternatives to the Revival Literary History
Andiana Spasova
Institute for Literature Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Sofia, Bulgaria
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-4A
Abstract. The article is devoted to the problem of the alternativity of philological and historiographical discourses, considering both the Revival and the contemporary context. The understanding that the phenomena of literary history shape current receptive attitudes (H. R. Jauss) becomes the basis for some of the claims made. The research paper will consistently develop the theme of teaching approach and dialogicity in university classrooms in Bulgarian Philology as a potential micro-history. The question of the new type of contemporary models of reading and interpretation of names, texts and events from the Bulgarian literary and historical canon will be raised again. The figure of the reader in the 21st century, occupying a dynamic and multidirectional place, is untutored by literary-historical metanarratives (J.-F. Lyotard) and adaptive to rearrangements in the social and cultural structure.
Keywords: Bulgarian literary history; Revival culture; student notes as macrohistory; teaching approaches; new generations of readers; educational resources
A Failed Ideology: About Bulgarian Skepticism toward Socialism
(Research on two works from 1941 – “Failed Revolutionaries” by Slavcho Krasinski and “In the Pub of Bai Tanasa” by Delcho Delchev)
Viktoria Viktorova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-5V
Abstract. This text examines the collection of short stories[1] “Failed Revolutionaries” by Slavcho Krasinski and “In the Pub of Bai Tanasa. Letters from the City to the Village on Contemporary Topics” by Delcho Delchev, which were published in the same year (1941) and subsequently entered the List of Fascist Literature Subject to Seizureaccording to the XII Decree of the Council of Ministers of October 6, 1944. The purpose of the study is to trace the public mood towards communist ideology – the new force on the political scene a few years before it took power. The idea is not simply to compare two texts from the same year of publication, but to explicate two different views that are united by their common anti-communist intuitions and have the courage to openly expose the falsehood behind the ideological clichés that have already begun to dominate. Krasinski, through the classical narrative genre of the story, and Delchev, through the fictionalization of the paraliterary epistolary genre, equally convincingly expose the “believers in miracles” – those who carry foreign ideological and political systems, not particularly suitable for our way of life, language and morality. Both authors believe that the Bulgarian at his core is not an ideological person, but a practical, common-sense person, turned to the “here” and the “now”, to his everyday life. The present text is motivated by an unexplored possibility – to see how, through the means of humor, irony and vernacular language, the two authors formulate an open criticism of the pseudo-revolutionary pathos, socialist rhetoric and faith in the bright future, immediately before it was formalized as the correct, and a little later as the only method of socialist realism. Thus, the present analysis will seek an answer to the question of how the two works from 1941. they dispel ideological clichés even before they become all-powerful and proclaim the right to think and create, regardless of the specific socio-political conjunctures, which, however, doomed them to total oblivion after 1944, continuing to this day.
Keywords: oblivion; prohibition; ideology; socialism; skepticism
Dynamics of Identities. Supporting Students’ Reflection on the Issue in Three Matriculation Texts – “Zhelezniyat Svetilnik”, “Prikazka za stalbata”, and “Balada za Georg Henich”
Margarita Krasimirova Hristova
Episkop Konstantin Preslavski Shumen University
College – Dodrich, Bulgaria
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-6M
Abstract. This article focuses on three matriculation texts through the prism of a particularly relevant topic – self-identification. The necessity of exploring this topic is motivated by several crucial needs of young people related to maturity and self-affirmation. We believe that literature lessons in upper secondary education provide an excellent opportunity for reflection on this subject and associated challenges. Therefore, we offer a range of methodological guidelines and ideas.
Talev’s novel The Iron Oil Lamp, Smirnenski’s satirical short story The Tale of the Stairs, and Paskov’s novella Ballad of Georg Henich can be informally grouped into a new thematic core, as they present comparable interpretations of identity by a number of criteria. It is directly related to finding purpose, meaning, and direction in life and, in this sense, is an existential question. Each of these works contributes to the universal cultural discourse on who we are, where we come from, and where we are going.
Keywords: identity; literary education; reflection; interpretation; methodology; intertextuality
Who is the Author? A Study on High School Students‘ Ability to Distinguish between an Author̕s Artistic Work and a Text Generated by Artificial Intelligence
Irena Dimova-Gencheva
University “Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov” – Burgas (Bulgaria)
Georgi Genchev
PGMEE – Burgas (Bulgaria)
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-7IG
Abstract. The proposed article examines high school students’ ability to differentiate between a text generated by artificial intelligence and a literary work by Bulgarian author Petya Dubarova. The survey was conducted among 8th, 9th, and 11th graders at the Vocational High School of Mechano-Electrical Engineering and Electronics in Burgas, using Dubarova’s poem “Expelled from Class” as the original text. Two additional texts produced by two versions of ChatGPT were also included in the study. The article provides a brief overview of the knowledge students should acquire from studying artistic style, which forms the basis for presenting the expected and achieved results of comparing the original text with the AI-generated texts.
Keywords: poetry; artificial intelligence; author; artistic style; survey
Cinemapedagogy and Literature Education
Georgi Toshev
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-8T
Abstract. Cinemapedagogy is an innovative approach that involves the use of audiovisual and documentary content as a tool in literature education. This tool is much more suited to contemporary conditions and the psychological characteristics of the new generations. In its application, the teacher plays the key role of mediator and facilitator. The parallel presentation of literary texts and related audiovisual forms stimulates students’ perception, supports them in the analysis and interpretation of literary works, and fosters their critical thinking and cultural sensitivity. European experience highlights the need for a conscious selection of film texts that provoke aesthetic perception and self-awareness. Cinemapedagogy builds a bridge between art, education, and culture.
Keywords: cinemapedagogy; audiovisual content; literature education; connection between education and culture
The Image of Vasil Levski in the Discourse of Literary Education at the Primary School Level
Maya Sotirova
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-9S
Abstract. This article focuses on the representation of the figure of Vasil Levski in the literary curriculum for grades I – IV in Bulgarian primary education. It examines the selection of texts included in the reading textbooks for the initial stage of basic education, the methodological strategies employed by the textbook authors, interdisciplinary connections, and the multimodal representation of Levski’s image in digital educational content. The aim is to highlight the importance of incorporating texts with historical narratives into literary education as a means of fostering national consciousness among young students. The article also seeks to explore the characteristics of children’s literary perception of historical figures at an early school age and to outline the methodological specifics of working with literary texts that depict historical personalities through artistic language.
Keywords: Vasil Levski; literary education; historical figure; literary image; literary perception; national identity; methodological approaches
Picturesque Bulgaria. Literary Atlas. Multilingual Routes. Vol. 2
Elena Getova
University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-6-10G
In spring 2025 the second volume of a work by educators, PhD students and students from ten universities in the country and abroad was published. "Picturesque Bulgaria. Literary Atlas. Multilingual Routes." follows in the tradition of painting in image and text a prestigious scientific program in international Bulgarian Studies. The first volume of the atlas was published in 2022; it contained 14 routes and researchers from ten universities partook in its creation...
