Как ние, лаиците, говорим за националната си история
We, the Laypeople: How We Talk about Our National Pasts

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores how people from three different generations in present-day Bulgaria refer to and relate to the common past and history: as narratives, symbols and experience. A particular emphasis is stressed on figures, normative plots and national icons from the revival period. Why ask laymen and women about history? What can we learn from their conceptions and misconceptions, from their representations and – often misrepresentations of the past? We can learn how they/ we relate to ourselves today. This is especially important today when different national-populist actors are trying to shape and mobilize the feelings of historical impass – living in a period of time in the absence of narrative genre (Berlant). What do we find in the 41 semi-structured interviews conducted in the early 2019 with people from three Bulgarian generations – those born in the 90-ies, after the democratization, their parents and their grandparents? First, we find across the generation line a missing connection between the intimate pasts and the collective past. Then, people try different strategies to relate to the common past – a) recollection or rather reciting of the school patriotic cannon; b) a certain ecstatic form of search for authenticity in folklore festivities and mystified notion of tradition shaped partially by globally marketed new-age elements; c) a showcase version of cultural heritage as if exposed before the gaze of a foreign tourist. The first strategy that was once coupled with the national-populist appeal to the sense of victimization as a source of collective pride seems now fading, especially for the youngest generation, which is leaning to the ecstatic search for authenticity in tradition. The revival icons from the dawn of the national history are always mentioned, but they are now re-interpreted in terms of persistence and spirituality.

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