Slavic Studies is an international Slavic journal in the field of humanities published by the Department of Slavic Studies at the Blaže Koneski Faculty of Philology, at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje.
Катедра за славистика, Филолошки факултет „Блаже Конески“ - Скопје, РС Македонија
Copyright © 2025 Blaže Koneski Faculty of Philology, Skopje Slavistički studii Славистички студии
THE IMAGES OF WOMEN (BASED ON MATERIAL FROM MACEDONIAN AND RUSSIAN ZOONYMIC PHRASEOLOGY)
This paper is focused on the images of women based on exaamples from zoonymic phraseology in Macedonian and Russian. It is an attempt to determine similarities or possible differences in the zoonyms that are most often used for this purpose, and based on this to determine the stereotypes of women in both cultures and possible changes in relation to the traditional and contemporary representation of women.
HOLIDAY VOCABULARY IN MACEDONIAN TRADITIONAL CULTURE
The subject of our interest are the chrononyms that reflect how people perceive each of the seven days of the week, referring also to the broader ritual-customary context with which a specific day is associated. Usually they represent noun idioms where the name of the day is the key component, while the attribute refers to some Christian holiday, i.e. to elements of ritual practice, to beliefs associated with that day, based on the traditional perception or interpretation of the specific holiday as part of the folk religion. Chrononyms are mainly related to the role of each day of the week in the traditional calendar, to their meaning in Macedonian ritual and magical practice, which can be same or different from the meaning in other South Slavic cultures. The names and traditional perceptions of the days in Macedonian traditional culture have been influenced by several factors, such as their associations to certain saints, to mythological creatures, as well as to beliefs in “good”, “lucky” versus “bad”, “unlucky” days. The last aspect is related to life experiences, taking into account that one day can be “good” for one type of activity, and “bad” for another, which is part of another segment of life, for e.g. agricultural activity, etc.
PAINTING, SCULPTURE, POETRY: VERMEER AND BRÂNCUȘI IN POETIC EKPHRASES OF SILENCE IN THE WORKS OF WOJCIECH WENCEL AND GRIGORE VIERU
Associative thinking, which transforms the abstract into the “visible,” emerges in both Johannes Vermeer’s paintings and Constantin Brâncuși’s sculptures. Within the oeuvre of these two globally renowned artists – working almost three centuries apart and across different artistic media – a dialectic arises between the visible and the hidden, presence and absence, requiring efforts in codifying and deciphering meaning. Polish poets such as Wisława Szymborska, Adam Zagajewski, and Wojciech Wencel have shown remarkable sensitivity to this internal tension, sustained through contrasting elements and attitudes permeating Vermeer’s paintings. Similarly, Brâncuși’s sculpture has inspired lyrical reflections on the “leap into eternity,” rooted in cultural experiences of artistic forms such as gestural painting and sculpture, among Romanian poets Ion Vinea, Lucian Blaga, Grigore Vieru, and Ana Blandiana. The most visible and suggestive tension, however, appears between silence and speech, quietude and language – analogous to the dialectics of non-being and existence. Vieru employs a poetics of silent discretion and contemplative simplicity, marked by nuances of expectation and profound absence, echoing Brâncuși’s sculpture The Table of Silence, explicitly referenced in the ekphrasis entitled Brâncuși. In the Romanian sculptor’s work, silence is not passive; during its repose, it alters and inverts the world, inviting focused reflection. Around the empty table with its vacant chairs, words fall silent, allowing silence to acquire meaning and become profoundly suggestive. Thus emerges a space for what Romanian Orthodox priest George Remete describes as “silence-strength, silence-spirit, silence-idea.” Conversely, silence in Vermeer’s work is dynamic and vibrant; it is accompanied by movement, non-verbal emotions, turmoil of soul and mind, and luminous contemplation.
COLOURS IN SLOVENIAN AND CROATIAN PHRASEOLOGY
The paper investigates phraseological units in the field of chromatic colours in Slovenian and Croatian. The analysis includes Slovenian and Croatian phrasemes and proverbs containing one of the five chromatic colours that can be traced as components of phraseological units in both languages, namely red, blue, green, yellow and pink. On the basis of the affinities and historical contacts between the two languages, we have assumed that the phraseological units and the meanings with which these colours appear in them are mostly similar in the two languages.
THEORETICAL FICTION AS A NARRATIVE PERFORMANCE OF INTERDISCURSIVE RELATIONS BETWEEN LITERATURE AND THEORY
The starting premises of the research are related to some of the current tendencies in contemporary literature that articulate the interdiscursive relations between literature and theory, which results in the creation of genre hybrids such as theoretical fiction. The theoretical premises of the research relate to the elaborations on theoretical fiction by Mark Currie, which will be interpretively applied to the novel The Symmetry Teacher by the Russian author Andrei Bitov.
Биографија на проф. Германија Шокларова-Љоровска
The Concept of Success and Failure in Macedonian and Croatian Phytonymic Phraseology
The paper analyzes Macedonian and Croatian phytonymic phraseological expressions that are related to the concept of success and failure. The phraseological material on which the research was done is phraseographic – the phraseological expressions are excerpted from the Phraseological Dictionary of the Macedonian language and from the Croatian Phraseological Dictionary. Before the start of the research, the hypotheses were given, which was followed by semantic-conceptual analysis and interlinguistic equivalence analysis of the phraseological material. The aim of the research is to contribute to the study of phraseology of the Macedonian and Croatian language, as well as to the contrastive phraseology of these two languages.
Connectors as Elements of the Text and the Problems of Their Translation From Polish to Macedonian
The role of connectors in the pragmatic coherence of the text is discussed in this article. An overview inventory of connectors in the Macedonian and Polish languages is given followed by a review of their equivalents. The translation of the connectors in both directions is analyzed and some differences are noted. The appearance of additional connectors in the translation process, which are not present in the original text draws a special focus in the article.
The Phrasemes with the Component RED in Russian and Macedonian
The phenomenon of colors, their meaning and perception are the subject of interest of many researches from different fields. Тhis paper is an attempt to shed light on another segment of this complex phenomenon. In particular, the article focuses on the phrasemes with the colorative red in Russian and Macedonian languages, by identifying all the units containing this colorative and determining the differences related to their representation in the considered languages.
A Journey With A. C. Swinburne Through “The Garden of Proserpine” via a Stanza Translated From English to Macedonian
Во овој труд се занимаваме со англиско-македонски превод на претпоследната строфа на „Градината на Прозерпина“ од Алџернон Чарлс Свинберн. Го опишуваме митот за Прозерпина, даваме некои биографски податоци, за поетот за да воспоставиме контекст за песната, а потоа правиме кратка анализа, за да се долови значењето на песната. На крај, го опишуваме преводот и некои негови проблематики.
Живеат во срцата на сите што ги паметат: Кшиштоф Вроцлавски (1937-2022), Влоѓимјеж Пјанка (1937-2022), Станислав Гајда (1945-2022)
The aim of our research was the semantic field of the virtue dignity, with lexemes that are related and opposed to it (pride, ugly, beautiful, calm, humility, modest). Since this concerns a virtue, the analysis was performed in a philosophical-theological context. We also took into account the etymological analysis of the lexemes and the implications of their etymology in terms of semantics and vocabulary enrichment. The analysis was performed based on the use of the lexemes from this semantic field within the contexts of contemporary Macedonian language and literature.
History of the Study of Slavic Epigraphic Material in Macedonia by Russian Scientists
This article examines the contribution of Russian editions in the affirmation of Mаcedonian epigraphic wealth. Our focus is stress on eminent surdes, editions od Russian scientists that publish, document and interpret epigraphic monuments from Macedonia.
Metaphorical Concepts of the Somatism Heart in Macedonian and German
Phraseology is a reflection of mentality, culture, social development and the way speakers perceive the world. Somatisms, as phraseological units that contain a reference to at least one part of the body, have a particularly important place in phraseology. This article is an attempt to analyse the somatism “Heart” in Macedonian and German, in order to determine the similarities and differences between the two languages. This is achieved by using and supplementing the metaphorical concepts of Lakoff and Johnson (2004) that extend the concept of the metaphor beyond the classical rhetorical definitions and indicate that metaphorical expressions usually suggest cognitive patterns known as metaphorical concepts, that express different emotions such as love, fear, joy, sadness etc.
This article presents various studies on idiomatic translation. It presents the views of a number of Czech linguists and theorists of translation, as well as of translators from other countries. The translation of idiomatic expressions requires thorough knowledge of both languages and cannot always be translated by means of finding full equivalents.
Interpretation as a Means of Overcoming Distance
Starting from several theoretical premises for the term interpretation that are offered in literary hermeneutics, the purpose of our text is to illustrate those premises in a specific literary text. The analysis is focused on the novel Приглашение на казнь/ Invitation to a Beheading by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov.
The Mirror of the Grotesque on the Threshold of ‘Dream’: The Polyphony of Fantastic Realism in the Double by F. M. Dostoevsky
This study hermeneutically examines fantastic realism as a syncresis of the romantic fantastic and the conventions of realism in the novel The Double by F.M.Dostoevsky. The study intends, by evoking the theoretical premises of Tzvetan Todorov and M. M. Bakhtin , to elucidate the interferences of the genres and the narratological strategies through which the paradigm of the double transcends, primarily–through the language of the grotesque and the amalgam of dream and reality. Hence, this study attempts to unveil all the hermeneutically hidden meanders throughout the novel in which the topos of dualism of individuality is polyphonically mirrored.
When translating foreign works there often arises a need for new words, in order to convey the elements of one culture into another. The phenomenon of borrowing words directly from the original language destroys the tendency for a language to develop itself. On the other hand, coining new words that correspond to our own language continuously adds to and enriches our vocabulary. A translation not only has to observe the meaning of a word, but it also has to take into consideration the context of its usage and its evolution within the language, as well.
Chorographic Traces in Polish Literature. Reconnaisance
The paper presents an analysis of stylistic traces of chorographies in Polish literature. Chorography had already been developed in ancient times as a description (with different level of detail) of historical-geographical lands, geographical phenomena, landscape details and different objects typical for a given area, known to the author (however, not always first-hand). It included the characteristics of the location and parts of the given region, waterways(hydrology), key cities, residents’ life and habits and sometimes also description of the political system, natural resources and other aspects.It never evolved into a separate genre in Polish literature. Most frequently, chorographies can be found in the introductions to historical works, for example, the 12th centrury chronicle of Gallus Anonymous. Some of them were very popular, like the geographical work by Maciej of Miechów, a bestseller of Renaissance literature in Europe; the chorography by Jan Długosz, which up to the 19th century was a model of informative description of our country; or the guide to the Holy Land by Anzelm Polak, used frequently until the early 20th century. The development of chorography began to diverge in two directions. On the one hand, there were the descriptions of countries, regions and places. The chorographic traces entered, in a very conventional form, the realm of geographical and applied literature. Today, they can be found in tourist guides.On the other hand, there is a hybrid genre structure which evolved from travel reports written most often as journals or diaries. However, so far, there has not been much interest in chorographies and chorographic stylistic traces in Polish scientific reflection.
Points of View in the Short story "The Lady with the Dog" by Anton Pavlovich Chekov
The study is an attempt to re-examine the way in which in a short story from the period of realism under the title “The Lady with the Puppy” by A.P. Chekhov actualizes the ambiguous and subjective representations of reality. The analysis of points of view based on a structuralist, but also a philosophical perspective explains the dependence between the subject and the representation of objects and events in the world.
Literature and Literature in the Third Millennium, or about the So-Called “Dislocated Writers”
The purpose of this short article is to provide an analysis of the phenomenon of “dislocated writers” which is taking greater proportions in the third decade of the 21st first century in which we live. Literary artists are beginning to lose their status as cultural and social driving forces, something which was their hallmark primarily in the second half of the twentieth century. The status they hold today is undoubtedly due to, among other factors, the growing globalization, commercialization and the new logic that prevails in the market.
The Work of Olga Tokarchuk Through the Prism of the Macedonian Translations of Her Books
This article concerns the reception of Olga Tokarchuk’s literary works, as she is one of the most outstanding writers of the present day, not only in Polish literature. This concerns theperspective of a translator working in a different environment which is also important, because it could differ both from the country of origin and from that of other countries where Olga Tokarchuk might be more popular. The analysis of her five works translated into Macedonian hepled us derive the dominant featuresthat determine her writing style and which we try to explain through the prism of her own words, expressed mainly in the essay entitled “Tender Narrator”.
За меѓународниот славистички проект „TOWARDS MODERN SLAVIC STUDIES” на Шлезискиот Универзитет од Полска, Универзитетот во Острава од Чешка и Св. Кирил и Методиј од Македонија
Меѓународна конференција Италијанскиот јазик и словенските јазици: споредба, контакт, настава (Italiano e lingue Slave. confronto, contatto, insegnamento)
Промоција на два тома од списанието СЛАВИСТИЧКИ СТУДИИ (СлСт) БР. 19 И БР. 20
Czech idioms with the component 'body' and their translation into Macedonian
The subject of interest in this paper is the idioms with a key somatic component ‘body’ in the Czech works translated into Macedonian. Each scheme is analysed from the aspect of specifics and characteristics which can be found in the idioms, as well as from the aspect of the reality which they interpret and value.
Supplementary explication of Old Slavonic vocabulary
This article looks at the problem of the imaginary lack of the motivated/productive bases for words represented in the monuments written in the Old Slavonic language. We also discuss the importance of restoring such “missing” links, as well as describe the method of supplementary explication in combination with various methods of internal reconstruction of the language and its significance for the entire word-formation system of the Old Slavonic language. Finally, we are proposing a two type schematic designation of this system: generalized and specific.
Feminine forms of professions, functions, academic degrees and titles in press obituaries (based on selected issues of “Gazeta Wyborcza”).
For a few decades, the proponents of feminine forms of names of professions, functions, academic titles and degrees have grown in numbers, but their adversaries still usually have the upper hand. The latter believe that feminine forms such as profesorka, rektorka, dziekanka, doktorka, dyrektorka, ministerka are less prestigious, because they are not common in everyday speech and sound strange, even ridiculous. The article presents data from 54 obituaries of deceased women, as follows: 1. obituaries with generic forms identical to masculine forms that double as feminine (20, or 37.3% of selected obituaries); 2. obituaries with solely feminine forms (2, or 3,7%); 3. obituaries with an equal number of feminine forms and generic forms identical to masculine forms that double as feminine (4, or 7,4%); 4. obituaries with more feminine forms than generic forms identical to masculine forms, that double as feminine (7, or 12,8%); 5. obituaries with more generic forms identical to masculine forms that double as feminine than feminine forms (21, or 38,8%). The obituaries are largely dominated by generic forms identical to masculine forms that double as feminine. This fact is symptomatic of conservatism in language, which has been for the most part successfully stamped out by the Czechs and Germans, nations that favour practical solutions and pursue a democratic language policy.
Compounds with the components blago- and dobro- in historical lexicography
The analysis of the compounds with the components blago-, dobro- in Church Slavonic lexicography, in addition to their representation, confirms their structural features, the relation with their Greek parallels, their greater representation in nonbiblical texts, as well as the synonymous relations. The compounds formed with different suffixes are separated from the aspect of the word-forming variant. We also show that structural formations are formally dependent on Greek models. From the aspect of the translation process, the formation of new words by analogy with Greek word formation models and with the help of appropriate domestic components, is one of the basic paths for naming abstract notions.