„Цигания” и българска идентичност (Аксиологични аспекти)
“Gypsy” and the Bulgarian Identity (Axiological Aspects)

Summary/Abstract: А pejoratively laden concept – that of ”Gypsy” (related to rotten, soiled, unsatisfactory efforts, destruction) has been widely in use in Bulgaria in the recent posttotalitarian days. It could be localized on the level of everyday wordchoice, in manipulative media hate speech, as well as in the lexique of the very Gypsies. The article discusses only the first two cases and as much as they are related to some axiological aspects of the Bulgarian ethnomusicological identity itself operating through the concept of ‘‘Gypsy” as а specific negation. Thus the investigation clarifies that the Bulgarian folk music is more often than not understood as а marker of Bulgarianness while „Gypsy” is meant as а sign for otherness, negation and danger. The wide inclusion of Gypsy musicians in the wedding party bands then causes an interesting identity paradox. The common audience attitudes towards them and to their music as both „Bulgarian” and „Gypsy”, that are the special object of interest in this article, reveal and illustrate some of the paradoxes and meanderings of the identification strategies using the opposition of “Bulgarian” to „Gypsy”.

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