BARBARIANS, CIVILIZED PEOPLE AND BULGARIANS. Definition of Identity in Textbooks and the Press (1830–1878)
BARBARIANS, CIVILIZED PEOPLE AND BULGARIANS. Definition of Identity in Textbooks and the Press (1830–1878)

Author(s): Dessislava Lilova
Subject(s): Period(s) of Nation Building, Between Berlin Congress and WW I, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS)
Keywords: Bulgarian elite in the 19th century; Bulgarian state-building; Bulgarian nation-building;
Summary/Abstract: Are Bulgarians barbarians or civilized? Answering this question consumed a considerable part of the intellectual energy of the Bulgarian elite in the 19th century. The dilemma was first put up for discussion at the beginning of the century and ever since then, each new generation has been joining a fresh round of the debate. Interest in the topic has been sufficiently lively to lend legitimacy to the "barbarism-civilization" taxonomy as the main framework within which the nation builds its identity. This research aims to explore the origins of this process. The analysis covers the period from the 1830s to the rise of the independent Bulgarian state in 1878. This is the chronological framework in which the intellectual elite imported and promoted the ideological grammar of modernity and the taxonomies of progress. The objective is to shed light on the history, mechanisms and results of their transfer.

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