Vybraní trenčianski richtári zo 17. storočia vo svetle prozopografických výskumov

Author(s): Peter Brindza / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2015

The urban elite that was unquestionably formed by the mayors and other leading representatives of the municipal administration and intellectuals, was a characteristic part of any modern free royal town in the Kingdom of Hungary. This distinctive elite community was based on their own laws. From the other parts of the population were different on the basis of assets, educational levels and a coherent and sophisticated wedding strategy particularly based on the affinity links. Purpose was to maintain the social status, influence and to keep urban authorities that managed the city. By analyzing of the background of five detailed profiles of Trenčín’s mayors in 17th century, their different origin, religion and external circumstances, brings new facts of life in cities and present less known aspects of our history.

Oslavy štátnych sviatkov a pamätných dní a participácia príslušníkov maďarskej menšiny v Rožňave v medzivojnovom období

Author(s): Lucia Poláková / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2015

The article describes the celebrations of momentous political holidays in Rožňava in the interwar period. It mainly deals with the national holiday of establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, birthday of the President T. G. Masaryk and Labour Day. The attention is focused on the analysis of the program during the celebration and a possible national conflicts in a multi-ethnic city Rožňava. At the end of the article there are mentioned holidays celebrated in Hungary and their impact on the Hungarian minority in the southern part of the Czechoslovakia.

Млечният път в космическото и обредното пространство

Author(s): Nikolay Sivkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

In the folklore of many peoples, the luminous bodies and phenomena are related tothe traditional concepts of the world structure. In the Bulgarian popular astronomythe Milky Way is seen as a Straw Road. The folklore texts present the “road” as both aborder and a bond between the “own” and the “alien” space, between the earthly andthe “divine” world. It is a process of movement in the mythological space but it couldalso be a place where the worlds in this space meet. Such development of the conceptof the “road” in the Bulgarian popular tradition is related to liminal rituals typical ofcalendar festivals including Christmas.

Пътят на ромската литература в Източна Европа

Author(s): Sofia Zahova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

The article makes a brief historical review of the development of Roma publicationsin the countries in Eastern Europe by emphasizing the processes in each country andthe interrelations between their policies regarding the Roma culture and the Roma literary production. The aim of the article is to show that the development of Roma literature is related to the political, social and cultural context in the country or region of its creation. The comparative historical approach is the most appropriate for the purpose since the tendencies in the development of the Roma literature are related to the policies of identity (in general or directed to the Roma population) in different historical periods and regions.

По трудния път: Цигански организации в Шумен (1944–1990)

Author(s): Dimitrinka Demirova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

The purpose of the present article is to trace the history and to show the activities performedby the gypsies/Romani organizations in Shumen, Bulgaria during the period between 1944 and 1990. The history of these organizations is going through several periods which match the political periods regarding the gypsy population in Bulgaria.It was founded in 1946, when Bulgaria was leading a policy of ethnical recognition of the gypsies and a wide consideration of their cultural and historical identity. Inthe beginning of the 1950s, due to the fear of the so-called “turcheene” (i.e. public demonstration of the Turkish ethnic identity) among a large part of the gypsies, there was a turning-point in the public policy – the Cultural and Educational organization of the gypsies was forbidden and they got into the hands of the “Fatherland Front” (“Otechestven front”). In spite of the restrictions and interdictions, in 1967 the leaders of the Gypsy movement in Shumen restored their organization by the name of “Roma”, but they didn’t get the recognition and validation from the government. In spite of this, they continued to work for the protection of the Gypsy community in Shumen and in all of their activities in several basic directions (socioeconomic, political, educational and cultural) were performed by the organization’s name. This continued until the beginning of the 1990s, when the organization was recovered, andalong side this a number of new organizations arose.

Пътят на север и намирането на дом

Author(s): Mila Maeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

The article examines the movements from Bulgaria to Norway and is based on anethnographic fieldwork. Using the methods of the oral history, the article analyzes the road to the north and the settlement in an almost unknown and cold country. Th epersonal stories of the Bulgarians present their visions of the road, their views onNorway and the founding of home as a personal experience in the context of the complexmigratory situation there. The specifics of the Bulgarian settlement in Norway predetermine the understanding of home and road. The successful and relatively fast realization, the high standard of life, the social model and the opportunity for quicklybringing together the separated families transform the migration to the north from amovement into a fixed way of life. For the Bulgarians, the new home in Norway has different aspects – it is the heart of the family, of calmness, cosiness and security. For the emigrants, the road to the north is both a road and a way back to the “native” andthe “Bulgarian” which could be seen in the founding of a “Bulgarian home” by different emigrant institutions and organizations. The new transnational and transcultural home of the Bulgarians in Norway becomes their comfort zone.

Ивайло Марков. Миграции и социо-културна динамика. Албанците от Р. Македония. София, 2015

Author(s): Evgenia Troeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

Между писмената и устната история: преселването на турците от България към Турция през 1950–1951 г.

Author(s): Yelis Erolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2017

The migrations of the Turks from Bulgaria to Turkey in the 20th century are subject of broad academic and pubic discussions; the greatest attention is paid to the last wave of migration of 1989. The article directs the attention further back in the history, to the period from 1950 to 1951 when the Bulgarian and Turkish authorities organized for the first time a mass deportation of over 150 000 Turks. The study discusses the macro and micro framework of that migration flow in the light of the scientificanalytical approach of histoire croisée/entangled history. By means of it, the author analyses the “entangled” policies presented on the basis of Bulgarian, Turkish and other historical sources and compared to ethnographic fieldwork materials collected among the Bulgarian migrants in the city of Izmir. The study works out new issues and issues insufficiently examined of the written and oral history of the Turkish migrants related to the ideas of homeland, the influence of social and kin networks and the reconstruction of identity in the processes of migration, adaptation and integration.

Мила Маева. Българските емигранти в Англия – минало и съвременност. София, 2017

Author(s): Anelia Kassabova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2017

Отношенията между държава и религиозни институции: българският случай

Author(s): Maya Grekova,Iva Kyurkchieva,Maya Kosseva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2017

The objective of this article is to outline the basic tensions in contemporary Bulgarian society concerning the intertwining of religion and secularism through the prism of relations between national state and different religious organizations and individuals.The general goal is to combine the presentation of national historical context, existing legislation and the current social debate based on anthropological fieldwork.

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

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.

On Public Representation of Trauma: A Review of Jane Goodall and Christopher Lee’s Trauma and Public Memory (Houndmills, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)

Author(s): Arleen Ionescu,Rongrong Qian / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2018

This is a review article of a collection of essays entitled Trauma and Public Memory, edited by Jane Goodall and Christopher Lee.

Периодика 2018

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 37/2018

Свободата в контекста на руската етическа парадигма

Author(s): Dobromir Dobrev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2019

Freedom, in the context of the ethical views of the Russian classics – Berdyaev, Solovyov, Dostoevsky and others, is examined. Emphasis is placed on freedom and the enormous challenges to achieve it. The faith in Man and the possibility for divine incarnation is a distinctive characteristic of Russian religious philosophy. The first part discusses Berdyaev’s statements about God and unbridled freedom. He regarded Christianity as a new beginning in the understanding of freedom. Berdyaev highly appreciates the contribution of Dostoyevsky to this topic. Freedom and related suffering are the big themes of Dostoyevsky. The battle between Christ and the Antichrist is studied.

National Identity – European Identity: Resemblance and Dissonance, Complementarity or Contention?

Author(s): Liliya Sazonova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

The debates about the relation between the national and European identity have recently gained a new impetus as a result of the growing national populism within the EU. In this regard, the article aims at elaborating the points of resemblance and dissonance between the identity-patterns of the two collective identities construction. In addition, it raises the question about the relation between national and European identity – do they compete with each other or they are parts of a bigger postmodern identity mosaic? In the first part of the research the main structural elements taking part in the National identity construction are discussed making a parallel with the European identity composition. In the second part of the text a more detailed analyses on the ethnic and civic model of identity construction is offered revealing two levels at which European identity is being created. Given that the majority of the academic work on the topic is more statistically or case orientated the article might be of interest due its fundamental approach.

Просветното дело и „културната революция“ в модернизационната политика на Българската комунистическа партия спрямо туркините в България

Author(s): Georgi Burnaski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2019

The post-war situation confronts the Turkish population in Bulgaria with the challenges of both the strained relations between Sofia and Ankara and the assimilation-led policies of the communist ideology against the minority. This publication examines the attempts of the Bulgarian Communist Party to build a new view of life among the Turkish women in Bulgaria through the mechanisms of education and culture. By pursuing its goal of depersonalizing the influence of religion at the expense of emancipatory perceptions of women’s active participation in social and political life the state harnesses totalitarian propaganda in order to change the value orientation of the Turkish women. The striving for modernization of the life of the Turkish women is also in compliance with the specific tasks and problems of the simultaneously pursued minority policy in the country.

Спомени и рефлексии за всекидневието на българските турци по време на тоталитарния режим

Author(s): Nadezhda Zhechkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2019

The proposed text does not attempt to present in detail the transformations pertaining to the Bulgarian Turks that have taken place in the state system and the society in Bulgaria since November 10, 1989. Rather, it attempts to explore a phenomenon which, at first glance, undoubtedly resembles nostalgia, but reveals, after a more thorough looking into it, the Bulgarian Turks‘ memory of the repressive party line of the totalitarian state and its culmination - the policy of forced assimilation, cynically called „revival process“. Also, the new reality of the Transition evokes a certain perception of the totalitarian regime, not in regards to its construction, normative or services, but in regards to its everyday life expressed through work realization, education, organization of public spaces, etc.

Modern Quranic Hermeneutics: Abdulkarim Soroush on the Expansion of Prophetic Experience

Author(s): Abdullah Rexhepi,İsa Memishi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

. Since early times, Muslims have speculated on the nature of Revelation and the Divine Speech. This has resulted in Muslim scholars developing divergent approaches to this problem. With the constitution of the orthodoxy, the former school became dominant and it postulated that the Quran is the Word of God dictated to Prophet Muhammad through the angel Jabrail. However, during the last decades in Iran emerged scholars, such as Abdulkarim Soroush, who proposed new approaches to understanding and interpreting Revelation. This paper discusses the hermeneutical project put forward by Soroush by discussing his article on the “Expansion of Prophetic Experience”. In this article, the author argues that his modern hermeneutics is radically different from orthodox theology and problematizes that the idea that the Quran as a human creation brings about other implications outside theology, such as for instance opening the Muslim thought and liberating it from scriptural readings.

Книги 2019–2020

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 40/2020

Selected bibliography in the field of Bulgarian Studies published in the current year

IMMIGRANT PLAYERS IN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM OF GERMANY AND THE QUESTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

Author(s): Ahmet Görgen / Language(s): English Issue: 03/2021

This paper is based on the research related to the immigrant players in the national football team and the formation of national identity in Germany. Recent analyses reveal that the success of an immigrant player in the national sports team has been regarded as a useful factor to attract public attention to the contribution of immigrants to the progress of the country. During the matches, discourses coming from the fans depending on the result of the game. They target immigrant players as a scapegoat in the situation of loss. Indeed, this is visible in parallel with the increasing strong critics in the media against these immigrant players. In this paper, the case of Mesut Özil in the German National Football Team is analyzed. The case study offers evidence of whether the success of immigrant players has been an important factor for their inclusion in the national identity in Germany.