2023 / 1 – Folklore Studies and Ethnology in Georgia. Edited by Yordan Lyutskanov, Nino Abakelia

Knowing and studying the cultures of the Black Sea region and the Caucasus provides an opportunity for a new look and a deeper understanding of traditional culture, folklore and modern processes in mass culture in our country and on the Balkans. This issue is a step in this direction by offering the reader a selection of articles by Georgian scholars presenting various aspects of the subject developed in Georgian ethnology and folklore studies.
In some of the articles, more attention is directed to the traditional and the prerequisites for its formation: the peculiarities of clothing in the past with its regional variability and gender differentiation, the influence of church music on the formation of Georgian polyphony.
Another group of articles focuses on essential elements of traditional rites and folklore, tracing also the changes occurring in modern conditions: the deterritorialization and hybridization of sacred places dedicated to St. George under the influence of new political processes, the evolution of narratives about characters from folk demonology. Another study traces how multidirectional social processes related to political changes and the search for a new identity in Eastern Georgia lead to attempts to define religiosity in new forms.

2023 / 2 – Folklore and Media Interpretations (Bulgarian-Czech Parallels). Edited by Vladimir Penchev, Jaroslav Otčenášek

The issue is aimed at analysing some aspects of contemporary popular culture in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, primarily from the standpoints of folklore, ethnomusicology, and visual anthropology. The main research interest focuses on the targeted search and subsequent professional interpretation of advertisements (in the press, on the radio, television, and internet), films, television shows, etc. in the modern media and cultural environment by means of the tools of the mentioned scientific disciplines. The studies are carried out in two different cultural contexts – in the Central European Czech Republic and in Balkan Bulgaria, and aim at answering two main questions. First, to what extent, how and with what intensity media and popular culture in both countries use the traditional manifestations of folk verbal forms and music (tales, legends, proverbs, anecdotes, songs, etc.). Secondly, whether geographical and cultural differences are somehow taken into account in the selection of folklore sources, in their use and in their impact on the spectator’s, listener’s and reader’s audiences.

2023 / 3 – The (Im)Possible Identities. Edited by Behrin Shopova

The thematic issue includes articles, which present the various uses of identity in modern times. The wide range of thematic fields is achieved through an interdisciplinary approach and a focus on the multidimensional manifestations of (self)identification, characteristic of the globalization processes at all levels in the modern world.
Is it possible to reconstruct national identities; to what extent the manifestation of new perspectives for self-determination is acceptable or unacceptable; what is their significance for the development of society; how different modalities of identity influence polarization and opposition in public attitudes; what are the mechanisms of preservation and transmission of different identities (ethnic, cultural, religious, territorial, national, group/community, etc.); what are the connections and relations between the national and European identity and how the idea of the homeland affects the migration attitudes among the young generation and among those who have returned to Bulgaria... Those are some of the questions to which the articles in the issue are devoted.