https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2021-4-9-conf.plus

Резюме. The Twenty-third National Scientific Conference for students and doctoral students was held in Plovdiv (with international participation) entitled: Word and ideologies. It was organized by the Faculty of Philology of Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski and by the Linguistic Club Prof. Boris Simeonov. The event was attended by 50 participants (PhD students and students from bachelor's and master's programs) from Bulgarian and foreign universities and institutes (Sofia University, Plovdiv University, Shumen University, Veliko Tarnovo University, University of Kragujevac, Serbia, Baku University,Azerbaijan). The conference has a regular status and covers two areas – linguistics and literature.

Ключови думи: Plovdiv university; scientific conference; literary studies; disquisition

On May 20 and 21, 2021, on the eve of the Day of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, the Bulgarian alphabet, education, culture and Slavic literature, The Twenty-third National Scientific Conference for students and doctoral students was held in Plovdiv (with international participation) entitled: Word and ideologies, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Georgi S. Rakovski. It was organized by the Faculty of Philology of Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski and by the Linguistic Club Prof. Boris Simeonov. The event was attended by 50 participants (PhD students and students from bachelor's and master's programs) from Bulgarian and foreign universities and institutes (Sofia University, Plovdiv University, Shumen University, VelikoTarnovo University, University of Kragujevac – Serbia, Baku University – Azerbaijan). The conference has a regular status and covers two areas – linguistics and literature.

The event brought together young scientists from all over the country and abroad who for several days did not stop exchanging ideas and making friends. It was gratifying that after the numerous online conferences held during the year, we had the opportunity to communicate live. A remote module was introduced the previous year, thanks to which students and doctoral students from other countries were able to take part with their reports. The Literary Studies section began with the reports of doctoral students from Sofia and Plovdiv Universities. The first report we heard was the experimental and intriguing work of Boris Iliev, a doctoral student in the history of Slavic literatures at Sofia University, entitled Theoretical Biology of Jakob von Jukskul as a Possible Solution to the Crisis of European Sciences. It provoked an interesting discussion with the question: to which extent sciences can be divided into humanitarian and scientific and how the crisis of the humanitarian can find an intersection with biology. We made literary and philosophical trips through the Enlightenment, Renaissance and modern times in Bulgaria and Europe.

We tried to understand what lies behind the concept of parallel reality, the reason for discussion was the entertaining work of Nikolai Genov, PhD in Literary Theory, Sofia University: Levels of conflict in phantom fiction, related to the work of Stanislav Lem. He answered the question of how phantom fiction appears in literary works by introducing us to specific examples. After the report of Dr. Genov we heard the text of Iliya Tochev, a doctoral student in Bulgarian literature after the Liberation until the end of the First World War, Plovdiv University, on the topic Sin and its attitude to existential alienation. Doctoral student Tochev made a comparative analysis of the works Sin by Georgi Raichev and Dragon by Anton Strashimirov, trying to trace what the collective defines as foreign. The topic provoked interesting discussions and suggestions from lecturers of Western European literature, they asked the doctoral student, who defines what sin is and suggested that the understanding of the foreigner in existence expand his original idea by finding parallels in Western European literature.

The last report from the doctoral section was by Joanna Neykova, PhD student in Literary Theory, Sofia University on The fragmentary requirement – from fragment to fragmentation. She made a comparison between Aristotle, Lawrence Stern's novel Tristram Shandy, and Schiller's fragments. Again, there were interesting comments from the jury and those present about the definition of irony and suggestions for including other works in the dissertation. Instead of the allotted half an hour, the discussion exceeded an hour and a half. The event was attended by lecturers in Western European literature and theory of literature from the University of Plovdiv and Sofia: Assistant Professor Sonya Alexandrova, Assoc. Prof. Kamelia Spasova, Assistant Nadezhda Stoyanova, who offered the doctoral students a valuable bibliography and interesting ideas.

Doctoral students and lecturers carried out cultural and literary exchange. Then began the bachelor's section, in which took part Ivan Georgiev, a student from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgarian Philology, 3rd year – with Hetaera esmeralda. The code of the disease in Doctor Faustus (Thomas Mann), Svetoslav Stoychev, a student at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgarian Philology, 2nd year – Text and image – Bruegel and Metamorphoses and Barbara Miteva, student from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgarian Philology, 3rd year – Who are you?: Alice on a journey to herself. The texts impressed with their serious research, interdisciplinarity and in-depth judgments. Each scientific work received special guidelines and raised interesting questions from the professors. The student reports were evaluated by an authoritative jury composed of distinguished professors from different universities in Bulgaria: Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, University of Sofia Bishop Konstantin Preslavski, University of Plovdiv Paisii Hilendarski. The awarded student reports are given the right to be published in the yearbook Verba Iuvenium (The Word of the Youth), printed by the University Publishing House Paisii Hilendarski. Doctoral theses will be included in the collection without participating in the ranking.

The second conference day began with the reports from the section for bachelors and masters. Victoria Chipova, a third-year student majoring in Bulgarian Philology at Sofia University, gave a report on Man and Death – the poem Devilish – Atanas Dalchev. Ivana Vitanova (Bulgarian Philology, 3rd year, Plovdiv University) linked Bashlar's concept of the Prometheus complex with the work of Pencho Slaveykov and demonstrated an enviable ability to use complex theoretical constructions for successfull application to specific literary texts. Her report was entitled You take a flame from heaven... –Prometheus complex and the work of Pencho Slaveykov. Iva Stefanova (Bulgarian Philology, 2nd year, Sofia University) presented a paper on The utopian space of the cabinet with rarities. The room, where all sorts of bizarre objects are gathered, united only by the fact that they are in the same place, can be considered as a miniature model of the world, which contains all its diversity and variety. Stanimira Garvanova (Bulgarian and English, 4th year, Plovdiv University) presented the topic Figures of love discourse in selected works of Shakespeare, applying the methods of Roland Barthes and Ronald de Susa on Shakespeare's plays A Midsummer Night's Dream and Taming of the Shrew. Daniela Konakchiyska (Bulgarian Philology, 4th year, Sofia University) talked about Addiction as a disease in Pavel Vezhinov's novel The Blue Sunset. The doctoral section ended with the report of Ilian Karaboychev (Master's program Contemporary Bulgarian Studies at the University of Plovdiv) on (Proto) knowledge - a curse and / or mission in the poetry of At. Dalchev and D. Panteleev, where the early work of the forgotten author Dimitar Panteleev was carefully analyzed and compared in its similarities and differences to Dalchev.

The doctoral section was opened on the second day by Francesca Zemyarska, a doctoral student in Western European literature at Sofia University, who presented a report on The Tenth Mask in Flames by Marguerite Jursenar. Venesa Madjarova, a doctoral student in Polish literature at Sofia University reviewed the poetry of a scandalous contemporary author, making serious claims that he could enter the canon in the future. Her report focused on The Ideology of Otherness in Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dicki's Poetry: The Image of the Mother. Simona-Alex Mihaleva, a doctoral student in the history of Serbian literature, spoke on the topic The word as graphics – the graphic design of minimalist stories in Serbian literature of the late 20th century. Her report was illustrated with a number of examples of this experimental genre in Serbian and Croatian literature. The section ended with the report of Dimitar Karamitev, PhD student in English literature at the University of Plovdiv, who presented his research on Photographic Sensibilities in Two Early Novels by Thomas Hardy.

The scientific part was solemnly closed at 16:00 on the second day. The new third issue of the collection Verba iuvenium was presented. It collected between its pages the doctoral reports from the previous year as well as the awarded student reports. The winners of this year's scientific competition were announced, each of whom received a book award.

The accompanying program this year was diverse. In connection with the title of the conference students and professors had the opportunity to meet and talk with the famous Plovdiv writer Yordan Velchev, a historian, who gave a talk on Rakovski and the Balkans. Part of the cultural program was an organized visit to the newly opened Great Basilica, where guests were fascinated by the diversity of mosaics. The skillful hand of the ancient master arranged the images of many species of birds and wove various geometric motifs bearing the codes of early Christianity. The Great Basilica deservedly became an important cultural center of Plovdiv spirit and a symbol of the preservation of the culture and history of the city.

Once again, the traditional Plovdiv conference for students and doctoral students proved that the pursuit of knowledge is stronger than the circumstances and there is hardly anything more valuable than the opportunity to meet and exchange impulses, inspiration and knowledge. Science cannot develop only in the encapsulated space of offices and library reading rooms. Such forums are absolutely necessary in order to be able to compare what we have achieved with the activities of our colleagues, to enrich each other and support each other through scientific research.