Elin Pelin

The study, in the first place, outlines the literary-historical context at the beginning of the 20th century in Bulgaria; provokes the first serious creative impulses in the field of Bulgarian children‘s and adolescent science fiction. Тhe study marks scientific and technical achievements and ideas which are important for bringing out the prognostic elements of science fiction and its educational role – to reveal not only the wonders of science, but to emphasize the attention and the responsibility that human being assumes (or not) for each new discovery. In the second and third part of the study, it examines the works of Emil Koralov and Elin Pelin. These texts are not just fundamental for the emergence and development of Bulgarian children‘s and adolescent science fiction, but also for tracing the progress/evolution of the fantastic image from the fairy tales to the science fiction, their convergence, through the texts of the authors.

What did European XIX and early XX century writers think about the femme fatale? This article examines modern incarnations of the biblical notion of the temptress in European literatures, mainly based on examples in Bulgarian and French literature, also with references to а Romanian example. More specifically, the article analyses works by Bulgarian writer Elin Pelin, as well as by French writers Jacques Casotte and Prosper Merimée, mentioning Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale, all of them having a contribution to the perpetuation of this ancient myth in European literature. The comparative reading introduces the “Samodiva” (a traditional Bulgarian name for forest nymph or fairy) as a relevant incarnation of the “fatal woman”.