Васил Левски – границите на символа
Vasil Levski: the Limits of a Symbol

Summary/Abstract: Symbols have by definition many interpretations, but the key question of this article is: should those interpretations have limits, especially when the symbol is a real historical figure, perceived as a cultural hero. Can a popular cultural hero, in this case Vasil Levski, legitimize any messages totally different from his own writings? When does a symbol turn into its opposite? The paper analyzes the presentations of Vasil Levski in the newly adopted textbooks ‘History and Civilization’ for the 6th grade; bodily visualizations of Levski - tattoos and others; fascisoid political uses of the „Apostle of Freedom“ by the ultras of the football club „Levski“ and by the paramilitary formation „Committee for National Salvation Vasil Levski“. It defends the thesis that the limits of the symbolic uses of the cultural hero Vasil Levski are put by his own messages. Those messages assert a civic national identity, focused on republican values rather than on the dominance of the Bulgarian ethnicity.

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