Lichna, kolektivna i profesionalna pamet: isliamizaciata kato motiv v balgarskata istoriografia, literatura i kino
Individual, collective, and professional Memory: Islam as a Trope inm Bulgarian Historiography, Fiction and Film

Summary/Abstract: This paper is exploring the treatment of one of the most persistent tropes in Bulgarian historiography - conversions to Islam - particularly the character and repercussions of the "devshirme" (the child levy). It demonstrates the centrality and functions of this trope over the time span of the modern Bulgarian nationstate, and how it is employed in different historiographical genres using different methodologies. Its focus, however, is a comparison between one particular historical source - the chronicle of Metodi Draginov - and its treatment in historical works, a work of fiction (Time of Parting by Anton Donchev), and the film Time of Violence, based on the novel. The argument is that, despite the obvious similarities which point to a simple interpretation of an identical message effectuated by different media, a closer look at the specificities of the different genres, the historical contextualization of each work, the narrators' motives and claims, and the reception by the audience, make for a much more complex reading.

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