Volumes

Journal for German and Scandinavian Studies, Volume 5, 2025

To download an article, click on its title.

Volume editors: Ivan Tenev, Maria Endreva

Publication date: November 10, 2025

ISSN: 2815-2867

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.

Contents

Author List

Foreword

LINGUISTICS

A Study of the Role of the kj-sound in the Textbook Ny i Norge (1977 – 2023)

Tomáš Bratina Masaryk University (Czechia)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.13-25

The aim of this article is to examine the Norwegian kj-sound from the perspective of Norwegian as a second and foreign language. Several studies indicate an ongoing merger of the phonemes /ç/ and /ʃ/. In addition, the kj-sound is considered one of the most difficult sounds for learners to master. This article therefore focuses on how the kj-sound, and the ongoing change associated with it, is presented in teaching materials for Norwegian as a second and foreign language. The chosen material is the textbook Ny i Norge, whose editions span the period from 1977 to 2023. This time span makes it possible to analyse changes in the presentation of the kj-sound over nearly five decades. The research question is how the different editions of Ny i Norge present the kj-sound, and to what extent this presentation has changed over time.

Keywords: kj-sound, sj-sound, the phoneme /ç/, the phoneme /ʃ/, Ny i Norge

LITERARY STUDIES

The Art of Entertainment. Heinz Strunk’s Thomas Mann novels as Humorous Reflections on Age and Illness

Malte Voelk University of Zurich (Switzerland)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.27-44

The paper focuses on the novels Ein Sommer in Niendorf (2022) and Zauberberg 2 (2024) by the German author, artist and musician who has been writing highly successful narrative literature under the pseudonym Heinz Strunk for over 20 years. His popularity is unusual in that it extends widely across different cultural areas – and with a type of humour that is not geared towards broad mass taste, but rather appears to be a niche genre. His last two novels borrow very openly from the work of Thomas Mann. This is taken as an opportunity here to explore the relationship between popular entertainment literature and culture, traditional high literature and humour theory. To narrow the focus, the motifs of age and illness, which are present throughout, are examined.

Keywords: Heinz Strunk, Thomas Mann, humour, entertainment, illness, age

The Author’s Responsibility. The Essay Mädchen by Theresa Präauer

Violeta Vicheva Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Bulgaria)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.45-54

This text examines Teresa Präauer’s essay as an opportunity to approach the answer to the questions of engagement in art today, of the elusive boundary between radical and provocative art on the one hand and tendentious provocation on the other. By examining the way in which the essay names the definitions and limitations related to the girl, the article traces the relationship between the writer’s stated method and its application. The established inconsistency is interpreted as provoking the need for reader engagement at the expense of the author’s and in relation to the topic.

Key words: engagement, provocation, girl, Theresa Präauer

Re-encoding of Photographic Images in Literary Context

Ralitsa Ivanova St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.55-80

This paper explores Evelyn Schlag’s literary engagement with the photographic medium at the intersection of text and image, with particular reference to Bertolt Brecht’s War Primer and Emil Gataullin’s photo book Towards the Horizon. While Brecht’s conceptual use of image-text juxtapositions serves the critical reflection of political reality, Schlag draws on Gataullin’s humanistically inspired, contemplative black-and-white photographs of the Russian provinces to shape the narrative space of her novel. These photographic motifs act as intermedial impulses: they not only provide the setting for Schlag’s narrative but also structure its temporality. By employing ekphrastic techniques, Schlag succeeds in translating Gataullin’s decelerated visual language into literature, developing a narrative in which past, present, and future intertwine. The horizon, as a central motif, signifies both geographical vastness and existential quest. Through the interplay of photography and literature, a multilayered narrative emerges – one that reflects on peace, memory, and the human longing for a meaningful and livable everyday life.

Keywords: Decontextualization, Re-ideologization, and Re-encoding of Photographic Images in the Literary Context

The Timeless Exemplarity of Classical Values: Emil Staiger in the 1930s–1950s

Angel Valentinov Angelov Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Bulgaria)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.81-105

Staiger’s publications from the 1930s and 1950s are analysed in order to substantiate what the anti-modern orientation of his concept consists of. Staiger’s concept is placed in relation to the notion of “engaged literature”. Staiger’s position is discussed in two lectures from 1937, the subject of which is German-Swiss friendship in spiritual life. I find that the work of Adalbert Stifter is important to Staiger because of the combination of artistic form and morality, order and artistry. I argue that it is possible to match Staiger’s interpretations with a basic position that was being developed at the same time in the theory of socialist realism. The conclusion is that it is the ahistorical understanding of the classical that can be used to support a totalitarian social order whose goal is to perpetuate its power and suspend history.

Keywords: Emil Staiger, antimodern and classical values, Goethe’s Novelle, German-Swiss friendship, Mikhail Lifshitz

“Arrival In Words” – Reflections on Language in German Migration Literature

Eva Patsovska-Ivanova Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (Bulgaria)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.106-121

The article is based on the works of three German-speaking authors with a migration background: Abbas Khider, Saša Stanišić and Marica Bodrožić. Against the background of a linguistic and stylistic analysis of passages from selected texts, the authors’ different approaches to the German language, which was originally foreign to them, are reflected on. Whether the ironic attitude of Abbas Khider in Deutsch für alle. Das endgültige Lehrbuch (2019), the loving, confidentially-conspiratorial use of language by Marica Bodrožić in Sterne erben, Sterne färben (2007) or the multi-layered approach of Saša Stanišić in Herkunft (2019), which combines semantic characteristics with narrative methods – all these procedures reflect a certain way of coping with reality. A necessary act of coping with reality that results from the life-changing experiences they have had as well as from the need for language integration and self-determination. As a further step, the identified approaches to language are related to the revised identity concepts and justified theoretically. Linguistic studies on migration literature such as those by Uwe Hinrichs serve as a theoretical basis as well as cultural theoretical approaches such as those by Homi K. Bhabha and other researchers on inter- and transculturality. Particular attention is paid to the reflections on language and its role in the search for one’s own identity that the authors themselves have integrated into the selected works.

Keywords: language, migration literature, Abbas Khider, Saša Stanišić, Marica Bodrožić

The Post-National and the Return to Nationalism in The Peasants’ War Panorama by Kathrin Röggla

Мaria Endreva Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (Bulgaria)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.122-133

The text analyzes Röggla’s Bauernkriegspanorama and in a systematization of the various topics in the essay attempts to justify the main thesis that post-nationalism with its wild commodification of life is reactivating the forces of nationalism that were believed to be dead. First, the negative effects of economic globalization are pointed out, which lead to insecurity in people and to the glorification of the past as a subject of nostalgia, and finally the role of the writer as the creator of new perspectives is discussed.

Keywords: Kathrin Röggla, post-nationalism, Bauernkriegspanorama, globalisation, Austrian literature

The Reception of Knut Hamsun in Romanian and Bulgarian Context

Diana Lățug Babeș-Bolyai University (Romania)

Evgenia Tetimova Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (Bulgaria)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.134-154

This article is the first comparative attempt to analyze Knut Hamsun’s reception in Romania and Bulgaria, showing how peripheral cultural positions influence both the interpretation, translation and publication of his work. It summarizes the results of Romanian research and compares them with similar Bulgarian research. This is the first attempt to compare Knut Hamsun’s reception in two countries, centered on two peripheral cultures and neighboring countries. The aim is to show possible similarities and differences between Hamsun’s reception in Romania and Bulgaria and to contribute to the larger topic of Hamsun’s reception in the world.

Keywords: reception, periphery, translations, articles, press

CULTURAL AND COUNTRY STUDIES

Richard Wagner’s Place in the History of Ideas During the Last Third of the 19th Century

Ivan Popov Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (Bulgaria)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.156-172

The paper examines certain key points of the composer Richard Wagner’s aesthetic doctrine, reconstructing both their origins and their influence on the philosophical and artistic work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Thomas Mann. The particular conferment of political functions to art that we find in Wagner is the result of a diagnosis of Western European culture, according to which modern society has developed in an all too one-sided way, suppressing any creative impulses in the individual. The text traces how Nietzsche and Mann take up and further develop these ideas. The historical-anthropological approach to the past of culture is also able to illustrate important differences that exist between the German and Bulgarian reception of said ideas during the last decades of the nineteenth century.

Keywords: Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, art and politics, modern society

METHODOLOGY AND DIDACTICS

Our Favourite Spots – Intercultural Learning in German as a Foreign Language Through a Video Tandem Project

Johanna Himmer Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (Bulgaria)

Lisa Settari Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași (Romania)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.174-191

This article presents a digital tandem project carried out by two OeAD lecturers as part of German as a foreign language courses. Bulgarian and Romanian students worked in small groups to create videos about their respective cities, which they then presented to their peers in the partner country. The project aimed to foster oral language skills in a creative and autonomous way, to experience and use German as an international language of communication, and to strengthen intercultural competences. In addition, each group analysed a partner video from the other city, which promoted deeper exchange, change of perspective, and the development of feedback skills. The article aims to provide insights into this practice-oriented teaching project and to encourage the implementation of similar intercultural learning formats in the field of teaching German as a foreign language.

Keywords: Intercultural learning, German as a foreign language, video project, tandem project, peer feedback

REVIEWS

Teresa Kovacs: Theater der Leere. Heiner Müller, Elfriede Jelinek, Christoph Schlingensief, René Pollesch. Berlin: Theater der Zeit, 2024, 227 s.

Eleonora Ringler-Pascu West University of Timișoara (Romania)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.193-198

Mit der Publikation Theater der Leere legt Teresa Kovacs eine umfassende Studie zu zeitgenössischen Theaterschaffenden vor, bringt Heiner Müller, Elfriede Jelinek, Christoph Schlingensief und René Pollesch in den Fokus der Diskussion und zeigt, was es bedeutet, wenn der Nullpunkt zum zentralen Energiefeld des Theaters wird. Ziel der Autorin dieser höchst interessanten Abhandlung ist es, das theatrale Imaginäre der Gegenwart, das über das Drama und das repräsentative Theater hinausgeht, fassbar zu machen und zu benennen.

Europa – Unsere Geschichte / Europa. Nasza historia 2016 – 2020

Ewa Wojno-Owczarska University of Warsaw (Poland)

doi: https://doi.org/10.60055/GerSk.2025.5.199-202

Am 2. Oktober 2025 wurde in der Botschaft der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Warschau das gemeinsame deutsch-polnische Geschichtsbuch vorgestellt, das den Titel „Europa – Unsere Geschichte / Europa. Nasza historia“ trägt. Erschienen ist die vierbändige Publikation bei Eduversum (deutsche Fassung) und dem polnischen Partner-Verlag Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne (polnische Fassung). Es handelt sich dabei um eine Reihe von vier Schulbüchern, die für den regulären Einsatz im Geschichtsunterricht bestimmt und mit den Lehrprogrammen in Polen und in der BRD kompatibel sind (einschließlich der Lehrpläne für die einzelnen Bundesländer).

AWARD-WINNING TEXTS FROM UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL STUDENT COMPETITIONS

Texts awarded in the fourth edition of the Prof. Boris Parashkevov student competition for translation from German

Veronika Delcheva, Ivan Stoyanov

In March 2025, the German Philology program at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski announced its fourth Student Translation Competition from German into Bulgarian. The competition is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Boris Parashkevov (1938–2021), a long-time professor in German Philology, a prominent Germanist of international renown, a specialist in diachronic linguistics, etymology, history, and historical grammar of the German language, who left behind a valuable body of translations from German and Finnish that will remain an example of a professional approach to translation and a mastery of the translator’s craft.

Prof. Vera Gancheva competition for translation from Scandinavian languages

Gergana Vaseva, Radost Yovkova, Kalina Branzova, Yoan Ivanov, Ivaylo Aleksandrov, Boyana Stoyanova

In early 2025, the Scandinavian Studies program at the Department of German and Scandinavian Studies at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski held the fourth edition of the competition for the translation of fiction and poetry for students and pupils studying Scandinavian languages. The competition is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Dr. Vera Gancheva, a prominent Scandinavist, translator, teacher, publisher, and scholar. A record number of participants (40) took part in the fourth edition of the competition, with a total of 67 translations.

Annual Danish language essay competition

Lora Angelova, Mihaela Tekelova, Martin Borizanov

Since 2015, the Hans Christian Andersen Centre for Research and Information at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in Sofia, and the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces have organized an annual essay competition in Danish. This year’s edition of the competition was held under the title “The Things I Love…”. Participants were asked to write an essay inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s 1830 poem “The Things I Love” (Hvad jeg elsker). The year 2025 marks the 150th anniversary of the famous Danish writer’s death.

STUDENTS PROJECTS

Essay Competition (2025): “Rilke Today – Words That Remain” – An Introduction 

Jacqueline Dyballa, Johanna Himmer, Vian Kisyova, Gergana Georgieva, Bianka Mesova, Magdalena Babacheva

To mark the 150th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke’s birth, this year’s essay competition organized by the Austrian Library in Sofia – in cooperation with the OeAD and the DAAD – was dedicated to the work of one of the most important German-language poets of the 20th century. School pupils and students from all over Bulgaria were invited to choose a poem by Rilke under the motto “Rilke Today – Words That Remain” and write a personal essay based on it.

Editorial policy of the Journal for German and Scandinavian Studies