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Bulgarian histories about the janissaries during the Revival period

Български истории за еничарите през Възраждането

Author(s): Nadezhda Aleksandrova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2016

Keywords: Bulgarian history; Ottoman empire; purity-decline paradigm; janissaries

The article encompasses a number of historical narratives that are written in Bulgarian between the 1760s and 1870s, and which deal with the notion of the janissaries. The study is based on sources of different kinds - Bulgarian history manuscripts, textbooks in Bulgarian history, textbooks in Ottoman history, articles and academic studies on the subject, and a number of introductions and endnotes to fictional texts, which also contain a claim of being veritable historiographical sources. The analysis displays two main versions of the stories about the janissaries. The first follows „the paradigm purity-decline“ (Kafadar 1991). The second projects synonymy over the notions of the janissaries, kircali, dağali and other criminals who formed gangs and attacked the population. Thus, the period between the 18th and the beginning of the 19th c. was given the name „the time of turmoil“ (Rakovski 1860). The two versions of the histories of the janissaries are an outcome of the synergic effect of three factors that interplay on the scene of the Bulgarian historiography in the above-mentioned period. These are: the European historiographical sources, regarded as very prestigious; the official Ottoman policy of reforms, built on the idea of the change from an old retrograde order to a new progressive one; and last but not least, the process of formation national consciousness of the Bulgarians who undertook this image of ‘the evil janissaries’ in their own efforts to build a sense of a common historical past.

Reviews: Historiography

Rezensionen: Historiographie

Author(s): Oliver Jens Schmitt / Language(s): German / Issue: 71/2012

Greek-Bulgarian Relations in the Age of National Identity Formation. Hgg. Paschalis M. Kitromilides / Anna Tabaki. Athens: Institute of Neohellenic Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation 2010. 338 S., ISBN 978-960-9538-00-8, € 28,–

On the place of the Biblical text in the modern Bulgarian literature. Reception – Interpretations – Challenges

За мястото на библейския текст в новата българска литература. Рецепции – интерпретации – предизвикателства

Author(s): Ewelina Drzewiecka / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2017

Keywords: Bible; Bulgarian literature; Modernity; postsecular thought

The paper raises the question of the place of the Biblical text in Bulgarian literature and the autostereotype of the religious indifferentism of the Bulgarians. Both the key texts of the famous Bulgarian literary critics (B. Penev, D. Konstantinov, A. Dalchev) and their reception in the latest Bulgarian literary studies are analysed. The cultural context of the perception of the Bible (and religion) is given in terms of formation of modernity, as the emphasis is put on the role of the Orthodox and Protestant thought. It is indicated that a new perspective on the phenomena can be provided by the postsecular thought.

Reception of Antiquity and romantic historiography of the XIX century of Todor Shishkov and Gavril Krastevich

Рецепция на античността и романтичната историография на XIX век при Тодор Шишков и Гаврил Кръстевич

Author(s): Andriana Spasova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2017

Keywords: reception of antiquity; romantic historiography; Bulgarian history textbooks of the XIX century; national identity; ancient historiographers; European Slavic studies; ethnogenesis

The focus of the study is the place of the ancient writers in textbooks from the 70s of XIX century - "History of the Bulgarian People" (1873) by T. Shishkov and "History Bulgarian: T.1" (1871) by Gabriel Krastevich. Some of the most recognizable historians and geographers of antiquity (Herodotus, Tacitus, Polybius, Ptolemy, Eratosthenes, Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, etc.) are important authorities who contribute to the formation of a foreign historical narrative of national history. In Shishkov very rarely ancient names come with bibliographical references and are often indexed by the phrase "and antique X said ...". The case of Krastevichis the opposite, he has given the detailed notes and quotes. The paper analyses the problem of ethnogenesis and the ancient roots of the national identity in Bulgarian history textbooks of the XIX century. Establishment of national stereotypes passes through a historiographical mythical poetic narrative combining the scientific pretensions and national romanticism. The role of ancient cultural heritage can be read in its role of a common European cultural code beyond projects of national ideology.

Tatar Images in the Bulgarian National Narrative in the 19th Century

Татарски образи в българския национален наратив през XIX век

Author(s): Veneta Yankova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 4/2016

Keywords: (Crimean) Tatars; Bulgarian national narrative

The article discusses the morphology of Otherness in the Bulgarian meta-narrative in regards to the empirical case connected to the concept of the Tatars in the minds of Bulgarians in the late 18th and in the 19th century. Тhe text analyses the Tatar topoi in the Bulgarian folk songs, in historiography and in 19th century Bulgarian literature. The Bulgarian national narrative enriches the morphology of Otherness by incorporating heterogeneous Tatar images as variants of stereotypical notions of the abductor. Some mythologems associated with archaic layers of human culture and forming a folklore-mythological matrix of understanding foreignness are recreated. According to the the data from the Bulgarian folk songs, there is no independent Tatar subject, the Tatar topoi are incorporated secondarily into the song motifs, connected with abduction. These are heterogeneous elements, whose primary objective is to maintain a “sense of history”. Such mythologized images were present in written texts in the late 18th and in 19th century thus supporting the Bulgarian “great narrative” that legitimized the preliminary design for the creation of the nation. Since the middle of the 19th century due to the empirical experience of direct communication Tatar emigrants have gradually been discovered in their natural human form while their activities have left durable traces in the local memory and heritage of the region.

A Comparative Study of the Perception of Railways among Serbian and Bulgarian Intellectuals, 1860s – 1870s

A Comparative Study of the Perception of Railways among Serbian and Bulgarian Intellectuals, 1860s – 1870s

Author(s): Momir Samardžić / Language(s): English / Issue: 3-4/2015

Keywords: Serbia; Bulgaria; Balkan railways; 19th century; economic thought;

Our article analyses different perspectives on railway construction on the Balkans among Serbian and Bulgarian intellectuals, politicians, economists, leaders of national liberation movements. Our main thesis is that different discourses on economic development and railway construction were largely determined by the different dynamics of social development in Serbia and among Bulgarians, and their process of national liberation and that various authors approached the issue of economic development, concept of free trade or protectionism and other issues through the prism of their own formal education and/or experience gained by the analysis of their community within the Ottoman Empire, faced with the rising pressure from foreign factors due to the slow incorporation of the Balkans into the modern capitalist world system.

The Figure of St. Clement of Ohrid in the Bulgarian and Macedonian literatures at the Time of the National Revival

Фигурата на cв. Климент Охридски в българската и в македонската книж­нина от епохата на Възраждането

Author(s): Ewelina Drzewiecka / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2017

Keywords: St. Clement of Ohrid; Bulgarian literature; Macedonian literature; National Revival; Bulgarian studies; Macedonian studies

The paper raises the question of the functionalization of the figure of St. Clement of Ohrid in modern culture comparing his representation in the Bulgarian and Macedonian traditions. The focus is on various texts of the Bulgarian and Macedonian National Revivals (perceived as historiographical constructs). The points of reference are two “grand narratives” inscribed into the Bulgarian and Macedonian scientific discourses. The aim is to show the context for the modern creating of the “beginning of the nation”. The paper presents both the 19th century image of the most famous Cyrillo-Methodian disciple and a hermeneutic deconstruction of its usage.

On the History of Prose Translated at the Time of the Bulgarian Revival

Vue sur l’histoire de la prose traduite à l’époque de la Renaissance bulgare

Author(s): Liljana Minkova / Language(s): French / Issue: 4/1993

Evolution and competition of the myths of origin: Bulgarian and Balkan aspects

Evolution and competition of the myths of origin: Bulgarian and Balkan aspects

Author(s): Nikolay Aretov / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

Keywords: myths of origin;Bulgaria;Balkans;narrations

The paper argues that historic myths and myths of origin, being an essential part of national mythology, are neither the first to emerge nor the only one. Furthermore, as a general rule, there are often several variations of the narration about the past of a nation that are evolving and compete for the dominant position.In an attempt to evade the polemics the author analyses some Bulgarian aspects of the crucial problem about the evolution and competition among these variations of national mythology comparing them with analogical Balkan phenomena. In all these countries there are mythical narrations about the ancient times, about Christian Middle Ages and Byzantium, about the struggle for an independent state, etc. They were arguing for primacy in the beginning; later some ideologists of the nation managed to build one relatively stable synthesis.

The Uncompleted Worlds of the Balkans

Незавършените светове на Балканите

Author(s): Magdalena Kostova-Panayotova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2018

Keywords: the Balkans; East – West, myth; history; stereotypes; the new Slavic novels

The Balkan world can be found only if we cross our own bounds. It is “outside of us”, something Other, and as the region is frequently seen as a “powder keg”, “melting pot” etc., it suggests uncertainty, indefiniteness and consequently menace. The article discusses how the Balkans create the myth of their history/histories through the experience of subordination and the aspiration to overcome it. One of the common moments in these stories at the beginning of the 21st century is connected to the idea of the adventures of identity with the motive for the memory and seeking foot in their own past, in the national vicissitudes and myths that are transforming. Some key Slavic novels from the beginning of the 21st century reflect the intersections of what civilizational east-west ‘luggage’ the Slav in Europe has at the beginning of the century, how this ‘luggage’ fights the stereotypes of the West and of the East as well, how the collapsing Yugoslavia-world, as well as the world of communist regimes in the region topicalize the issue of memory, history, literature and language as a whole.

WHAT IS NEW IN ILIYA TROYANOV'S LATEST NOVEL?

КАКВО НОВО ПРЕДСТАВЯ НОВИЯТ РОМАН НА ИЛИЯ ТРОЯНОВ?

Author(s): Antoaneta Mihailova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2017

Keywords: migrant literature; Iliya Troyanow; „Macht und Widerstand“

The latest novel of the world-famous Bulgarian author Iliya Troyanov „Macht und Widerstand“, who writes in German and whose novel is translated by Lyubomir Iliev, has been on the Bulgarian book market since 2016. This article aims at revealing these places in the novel, the depiction of the characters, the structure of the plot and the topics the author has touched upon, in order to discuss some issues which 'disturb' both the Bulgarian and the German readership‘s comprehension through discussing them from different critical viewpoints.

Periodicals 2017

Периодика 2017

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 35/2017

Content of the main Bulgarian scientific journals for the current year in linguistics, literature, history, folklore, ethnography, archaeology and art studies.

1935 – Three Narratives, dedicated to Hristo Botev

1935 г. – повествования за Ботев

Author(s): Anna Alexieva / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2018

Keywords: Hristo Botev; Interwar period; Prose genre forms; Ideology

The paper is focused on ideological modeling of the image of Hristo Botev, regarded as a national hero, during the Interwar period. Three particular works are analyzed: “The poet rebel: Hristo Botev” by Theodosy Anastasov, “Veneta” by Fany Popova-Mutafova, “Hristo Botev (Historical novel)” by Georgy Savchev. All these texts were published in the same year – 1935, and this fact could be considered as one of the arguments for grouping them together. They could be seen as representative for various prose genre forms. Authors of them demonstrated different attitude towards the established (canonical) historical and literary-historical narrative, both popular and academic, dedicated to Botev. While interpreting them, the paper is aiming at outlining both points of ideological match and tensions between literature and history as disciplinary fields.

Entangled Histories of the Balkans

Преплетените истории на Балканите

Author(s): Nikolay Aretov / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2018

Keywords: Balkans; Western Models; Liberalisms; Early Socialism; Agrarian Ideologies; Fascism; Communism; Nationalism; Ancient Thrace; Byzantium; Ottoman Legacy; National Revival

This paper presents volumes 2 and 3 of the collective research project “Entangled Histories of the Balkans” dedicated to the “Transfers of Political Ideologies and Institutions” (edited by Roumen Daskalov and Diana Mishkova) and to the “Shared Pasts, Disputed Legacies” (edited by Roumen Daskalov and Alexander Vezenkov). Modern Balkan history has traditionally been studied by national historians in terms of separate national histories taking place within bounded state territories. The authors in this volume take a different approach. They all seek to treat the modern history of the region from a transnational and relational perspective in terms of shared and connected, as well as entangled, histories, transfers, and crossings. This goes along with an interest in the way ideas, institutions, and techniques were selected, transferred and adapted to Balkan conditions and how they interacted with those conditions. The volumes also invite reflection on the interacting entities in the very process of their creation and consecutive transformations rather than taking them as givens.

Matilde Serao - ‘an extraordinary woman’ translated in Bulgarian

Матилде Серао – една "превъзходна жена" на български език

Author(s): Nadezhda Alexandrova,Boyka Ilieva / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2018

Keywords: Matilde Serao; Bulgarian periodicals; reception; translators’ identities; Bulgarian women’s writers; Bulgarian criticism; literary influence

The essay is the first attempt to encompass the reception of the renowned Italian woman writer Matilde Serao in Bulgaria. The most frequent place of publication of her works were the pages of the Bulgarian journals and the most active period of the reception was from the 1890s to 1920s. This is exactly the period when Bulgarian literature started experimenting with generic and self-reflexive techniques on the one hand, and with a more socially grounded approach to writing fiction, on the other hand. As a result, the poetic of Mathilde Serao, which contains both these trends, fitted very well the taste of the Bulgarian reading audience. For the period at question we found twenty-four translations in fifteen different journals, as well as several critical reviews of her work. After providing quantitative data of appearance of Matilde Serao in Bulgaria we describe the translators’ choices of works and provide hypotheses on the identity of her translators, and on the influence which her writing had on the Bulgarian literary scene.

Luben Karavelov and the foreign woman: The case of Ekaterina Tsenovich

Любен Каравелов и „чуждите“ жени: Казусът Жаба Крекетуша/ Екатерина Ценович

Author(s): Nikolay Aretov / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2018

Keywords: Bulgarian literature; matrimonial rules; Luben Karavelov

Every community has its matrimonial rules describing some marriages as permitted, desirable, intolerable or forbidden. These rules have to do with the definition of the ‘own’ an ‘alien’ and with the inner differentiation of the ‘own’ and their basis is the question what is beneficial for the community. The paper deals with one particular case in Bulgarian literature from the 19th century – the complicated attitude of the distinguished writer and ideologist towards the Tsenovich family. Dimitar Tsenovich married to a Serbian widow just like Karavelov. In the beginning, Karavelov was in perfect relations with the family of his compatriot and friend. Then he started to present both Ekaterina and Dimitar in a negative light. The paper offers some observations on the image of love and marriage in Karavelov’s fiction and autobiographical text.

Foreigners and the establishment of Bulgarian theater

Чужденците и българският театър

Author(s): Nikoleta Patova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2018

Keywords: Theatre; foreign art – national cultural institution; National Theatre in Sofia; Adam Mandrović; Josef Šmaha

The attempts to strengthen theatrical art in Bulgaria pass from amateur theatre initiatives in Bulgarian National Revival through subsidized companies after the Liberation to the creation of the first state theater group in Sofia. Bulgarians take the first theatrical acts as ‘foreign’, forced and unnatural elements in their regular life. The ‘foreign’-ness remains its specific feature until its recognition for a cultural institution in the last decade of 19th century. Bulgarians ‘open’ to the European world and gradually the mistrust in the ‘foreign’ reduces. As for the theatre, it is being even forgotten, especially after the Bulgarian dramaturgy started its intentional development. The presence of the Foreigner in the various stages of Bulgarian theatre’s establishment is a topic of interest. Regardless of the initial resistance against foreign art, the foreigners connected to it are eagerly accepted as cultural ambassadors rather than aggressive imposers of cultural practices. A demonstration of this is the amateur or professional effort of numerous foreigners who connected their lives with Bulgaria for a while. A special role for the creation of the Bulgarian theatre holds Josef Meizner – recognized as a director of the first Bulgarian act in the town of Shumen. Such role holds also Adam Mandrović who shortly was a director of the Sofia theatre ‘Salza i smayh’ (Tear and Laughter), and Josef Šmaha – the first director of the National Theatre.

Chitalishtas, Local Communities and Folk Culture in the Bulgarian Nation Building Period

Читалища, селищни общности и фолклорна култура през Възраждането

Author(s): Stela Nenova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2018

Keywords: chitalishtas; local communities; folk culture; cultural heritage

The author studies the first years after the introduction of the chitalishte institution when these cultural centres appeared and established themselves in the dynamic sociocultural context of the local communities – first in some of the well-developed Bulgarian towns and later in many of the Bulgarian villages. Chitalishte is a cultural and educational institution and is thus studied in the context of the modernization, educational and nation building ideas pertinent in the 1860s and 1870s. At that time the institution developed its specific features (its local nature, complex functions, autonomous social form of governance). The article presents the decisive moments certifying for the institutional activity of the chitalishta with an accent on these issues which show close relations to the folk culture, which was as a need and as a type of communication dominant in the local culture.

On the Battlefield of Symbols: The Missing Persons without a Trace in Kosovo between Memory and History (Part 1)

На бойното поле на символите: безследно изчезналите в Косово между паметта и историята (Част 1)

Author(s): Dimitar Atanasov / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2018

Keywords: museum narrative; visual history; history and memory; monument; ideological forging of the past; national identity; national heroic pantheon

The paper is the first part of a research, dedicated to the problem of how national identity of Kosovo is forged. It is analysed from the point of view of a particular case study – the missing persons and how their character is represented in the public discourses of Prishtina, Belgrad, and how the international community is involved.The problem of national identity building is considered in its complexity, taking into account numerous rival projects. The museum exhibition, dedicated to missing persons and cultural heritage artifacts could be regarded as case study.All the actors on the terrain apply their own ideological strategies, which could be identified in the concept of the “Missing” exhibition: how the personal memory is being domesticated and turned into history of the nation, how the transition from text to action was carried out, how memory, oblivion and history were (ab-)used as social building ideological toolkits. Particular attention was paid to the problem of the conceptualization of the recent past: how it was interpreted and attributed signs of prestige by the social actors involved in accordance to the interests of each of them.The ethnic conflict paradigm as a key concept widely used in contemporary humanities for explaining the Kosovo case as well as the disintegration of Yugoslavia is put under question. The history of the Museum of Kosovo is also involved, the debate between Belgrade and Prishtina for returning 1247 initially taken artifacts transported to Gračanica monastery and then to Belgrade in 1998 along with the withdrawal of the Yugoslav administration of the region is traced in its history and ideology, establishing references to the Kosovo myth, based on the folklore epics which were first published by Vik Karadžić in the 1820s and later became a canonized version of late medieval Serbian history.

Revolutionaries’ Weapons in Bulgarian Museums as Heritage

Оръжието на революционерите в българските музеи като наследство

Author(s): Reneta Roshkeva / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2018

Keywords: heroic anthropology;national liberation struggle;heroes;weapons;museum artifacts;cultural memory

The article discusses the weapons that are preserved until today in Bulgarian museums of the revolutionaries who participated in the struggles for political independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1867–1878. On the basis of observations made within the project “Traces of the Heroic Time,“ as well as of the experience with exhibitions dedicated to this topic, the article makes an overview of the weapons in Bulgarian museums that had belonged to participants in the national liberation struggles – of Georgi Rakovski, Vassil Levski, of the voevods Hadzhi Dimitar Assenov and Stefan Karadza, of Panayot Volov, of Petrana Obretenova, Rayna Popgeorguieva, etc.Raising the issues about the identification of the revolutionaries’ weapons and the interpretation of the facts around them, the author points out that these important artifacts for the construction of historical memory are insufficiently studied in Bulgaria. The article argues that – as materialized history, these weapons facilitate the heroization of the nationally important personalities. Regardless if being truly authentic or not, weapons – similarly to myths, are an important resource for construing the heroism of the national consolidation processes and for the creation and maintenance of the “big historical narratives.“