Krassimir Dimovski’s novel presents yet another challenge to the genre conventions, stereotypes, and prevailing trends in Bulgarian literature of the 21st century. In fierce competition with the other nominees, the book was awarded the “13 Centuries of Bulgaria” Prize for Novel of the Year, reaffirming the vitality and significance of the postmodern novel. It constructs a labyrinth of meanings—not merely employing diverse narratives, but interrogating the very nature of narrative itself: its encoded meanings and its provocative engagement with themes of truth, identity, choice, and language. The author draws on key postmodern techniques such as self-reflexivity, heteroglossia, intertextuality, linguistic play, and metafiction. The title itself alludes to the myth of Theseus, demythologized into the figure of an ordinary, uncertain, confused, and eccentric man – a deliberate subversion of heteronormative masculinity. The narrative unfolds in a fragmented, decentered fashion, as a sequence of plots, dialogues, and repetitions, enriched by intertextual references to literary and philosophical texts, mythology, and biblical symbolism. The journey through the labyrinth becomes a trial of self-awareness – a search for meaning in language, in “lexical exhibitionism,” in music, and in silence. Ultimately, the novel culminates in a postmodern meditation on the human soul, the cosmic spirit, and the invisible threads of love and suffering. Theseus does not escape the labyrinth – he embraces it. And in that acceptance lies the novel’s deepest mystery: that meaning is not found in triumph, but in the ongoing trial of self-awareness, which senses that there is no truth – only the path, silence, and humility.
Inclusive education stands as one of the most pressing issues within the contemporary global educational landscape. For general education schools in the Republic of Kazakhstan, this paradigm is relatively nascent, necessitating focused attention not only from educators, subject teachers, and psychologists but also from parents and the broader community. Within the framework of modern pedagogical practice, inclusive education is a process that demands continuous multidisciplinary collaboration aligned with current educational trends. The study of coherent written speech development in children with hearing impairments holds significant theoretical and practical value, particularly amidst the ongoing modernization and transformation of educational content. The relevance of this article is rooted in the universal value of the humanization of education, the legal guarantee of the right to education for all, and the fundamental necessity of knowledge acquisition as a pivotal factor in globalization. This research is further prompted by the insufficient investigation into language instruction for children with special educational needs (SEN) within general schooling, as well as the urgent need to provide tailored instructional frameworks that account for the specific learning requirements of this demographic. The subject of this study encompasses the specifics of teaching written speech and the didactic materials proposed for developing writing skills in hearing-impaired learners. Based on the research findings and the testing of educational materials, the most common errors in the development of coherent written speech among hearing-impaired students were identified. Subsequently, targeted exercises were developed for implementation in Russian language lessons. To this end, standard didactic materials were systematized, analyzed, and tested alongside original instructional materials designed to enhance the quality of written speech for students with hearing impairments.
This study presents a contrastive analysis of the category of definiteness in Armenian and Bulgarian - two Indo-European languages that independently developed suffixed definite articles. Although both languages employ postposed markers that originate from demonstratives, their systems diverge in terms of structure, function, and historical development. The Armenian article system (-n/-u) arose through internal phonological processes. In contrast, the Bulgarian definite article developed within the Balkan Sprachbund through the contact-induced grammaticalization of demonstratives, becoming morphologically bound, genderand number-sensitive, and syntactically conditioned. The study further examines the phonological and morphological rules governing article selection, highlighting the phonetic conditioning in Armenian and the more complex morphophonological and syntactic conditioning in Bulgarian. The findings support the hypothesis that both languages exemplify distinct stages of the universal grammaticalization pathway from demonstratives to definite markers, revealing the interaction of internal development and areal influence. This comparison contributes to a deeper understanding of typological variation and convergence in the expression of definiteness.
