site.btaEleven European Universities to Present Bulgarian Literary Routes Programme in Southern Village of Huhla

Eleven universities will present their scientific programme on "Picturesque Bulgaria. Bulgarian Literary Routes" in the southern Bulgarian village of Huhla within the Mysteries of Huhla 2025 traditional cultural festival on September 21. To participate are Bulgarian and foreign scholars from universities in Bulgaria, Turkiye, Poland, Greece, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Russia, Belgium, and Germany, BTA learned from Festival host Katya Staykova.

To be represented are universities in Ankara, Warsaw, Plovdiv, Athens, Venice, Vienna, Ljubljana, St. Petersburg, Sofia, Strasbourg, and Heidelberg. Among the participants from abroad are students of Bulgarian origin, children of emigrants, students of Bulgarian studies who have never been to Bulgaria, as well as PhD students whose research requires periodic stays in Bulgaria.

The most remarkable feature of Huhla is that it is the birthplace of three important figures in contemporary Bulgarian literature: poets Petar Vasilev and Ivaylo Balabanov,  and novelist Ivan Bunkov, writes Prof. Huseyin Mevsim, a translator and scholar of Turkish-Bulgarian cultural and literary relations.

The project covers a wide range of topics: Bulgarian literary plots and their projection in the literature of other European countries; travelogues from Bulgaria; contemporary poets; various folklore motifs; and others. The academic programme creates a literary atlas and a virtual map of Bulgaria with developed routes related to various aspects of Bulgarian culture, said Staykova.

The international academic programme "Picturesque Bulgaria. Bulgarian Literary Routes" is held under the auspices of Vice President Iliana Iotova, and the main organizers are the Ministry of Education and Science and the Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv.