Образите на Запада в българските пътеписи от времето на социализма (1944-1989)
The Images of the West in Bulgarian Traveller's Literature from the Times of State Socialism (1944-1989)

Summary/Abstract: The paper attempts to grasp the multifaceted image of the West emerging from the travel writing of Bulgarians who went abroad during the socialist period. The analysed travelogues were officially published and followed from visits to Western European states, as well as the USA and Japan. They show that the vision of the West has not been a coherent and static construct throughout the socialist regime, with a significant transformation becoming palpable in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The censoring, self-censoring and stringent control of travelogues made them serve as manuals disciplining vision, as “safe texts” containing a “correct”, socialist-friendly version of a Western society that could freely be offered to socialist readers. Through travelogues, a very strong attempt - and an efficient one - was made to channel visitors’ impressions of the developed West and to guide, direct and focus their perceptions. In this specific context, Bulgarian travelers moved to the West yet had to remain unaffected by capitalist ideas. Certain segments of Western culture were useful and desirable, while others needed to be isolated and their transmission to the socialist homeland blocked and stopped altogether. The mobility of bodies and the stability of ideas contributed to a particular way of seeing and describing the West that helps reconsider notions such as social privilege, power, compliance and resistance in a socialist regime.

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