По следите на благодарствената памет, или още веднъж за „българските“ чехи

Author(s): Vladimir Penchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

The article deals with the role of Czechs in Bulgaria in the decades after its Liberation in 1878. The author argues that the Czech presence in the country was substantial and clearly visible, so it had a significant imprint on the development of Bulgarian society at the time. This might be the explanation for the tens of “places of memory” and objectified “grateful memory” for the “Bulgarian” Czechs, expressed in the names of settlements, streets, schools, mountain peaks, etc. Other examples include monuments and memorial plaques, as well as works of art dedicated to outstanding Czech people such as Konstantin Jireček, the Škorpil brothers, the Prošek brothers, Antonin Kolář, Antonin Novak, Josef Schnitter, Libor Bayer, and many others.

Социокултурни изражения на съвременната трудова миграция от България в Италия

Author(s): Vladimir Domozetski / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

The article investigates contemporary labour migration of Bulgarians to Italy. An important analytical instrument for drawing a complete picture of the Bulgarian presence in the host country are the research perspectives: “from above, generalized” or “close and detailed”. The sociocultural expressions of migration are interpreted on the basis of in-depth interviews, in which sharing personal experience is of major importance. The personal experience of different groups of Bulgarian migrants is viewed as a source of information for the degree of their integration and adaptation. Some comments are suggested on the peculiarities of the communication between the interviewees and the researcher. The author problematizes notions and images of the Bulgarians in Italy through the lens of employment types and through auto and hetero stereotypes that are delineated in interviews and free conversations. Another subject of attention are the questions about the visibility of Bulgarian migrants in Italian society. The results of the study demonstrate that the Bulgarians are well adapted to the living conditions in Italy. At the same time, they do not always feel presented clearly enough in the host society.

„Етничният синдром“ четвърт век по-късно – едно научно откровение за народа, паметта и историята

Author(s): Elya Tsaneva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

For almost three decades now, there is an ongoing, but also inconsistent search for a new conceptual framework for the study of ethnicities and identities. Against this background, the article offers an interpretation of a fundamental monographic text on this subject from the recent past, a contemporary evaluation of a book from the arsenal of ethnic/national dialectic theory. Written by an insightful connoisseur of culture and history, the book presented some innovative and provocative ideas about the relationship and the dynamic combination of the most important phenomena and characteristics of the ethnonational process. The author shares some thoughts about the ways in which these ideas can be interpreted from the point of view of today’s methodological explorations.

Транснационални наследства: селският дом и историята в Югоизточна Европа

Author(s): François Ruegg / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

Paradoxically enough, our present times combine conservation with the destruction of architectural heritage. The preservation of this heritage is closely related to the foundation of the nation state and serves to show the “national genius” embodied by the peasant. Simultaneously, the different disciplines that study the issues of architectural heritage show that there is a tendency of mutual disregard. Nevertheless, the transnational concept of the rural home in Southeast Europe (mainly Romania and former Yugoslavia) which I have studied and documented in the 1970-s, displays similar features in close geographical zones, and also in zones that are marked by the culture and history of imperial colonization: Austrian in the first case and Ottoman in the second. The perspective from the point of view of regional heritage makes possible to apply a trans-border approach in order to reveal connections of kinship between neighboring villages separated by political boundaries. In the article, the differences between certain cultural areas are explained with the support of history.

Любомир Миков. Обществени чешми в България (XV–XIX век). София: Мюсюлманско вероизповедание, Главно мюфтийство, 2019

Author(s): Nikolay Vukov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

Book review

За дуалистичния характер на българския граждански празничен календар

Author(s): Grigor Har. Grigorov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The paper puts forward the proposition that today’s Bulgarian civic festive calendar may be examined as a system composed not of individual holidays but of corresponding holiday pairs (3 March – 2 June, St. George’s Day – St. Michael the Archangel’s All Soul’s Day, 24 May – 1 November). The holiday pairs have been formed gradually, and in the course of time a ‘strong’ and a ‘weak’ holiday came to exist, the former – honouring a supreme community value, whereas the latter – paying respect to the memory of the heroes who devoted their lives to its achievement. The paper makes an attempt to substantiate the thesis that dualism is the leading trend in the development of the festive calendar, which might be observed in its past historical stages as well.

Празникът „Кюстендилска пролет“ и социалистическата празничност: „Изобретяването“ на празника (Част I)

Author(s): Svetla I. Kazalarska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The article examines and analyses the process of “inventing” Kyustendil Spring Day in the context of socialist festivity. Based on the local tradition of welcoming spring in Kyustendil, which integrates pre-Christian rituals related to the day of spring solstice, the Day of Forty Martyrs of Sebaste in the Orthodox calendar and Mladentsi in the folk calendar, the holiday is gradually “domesticated” by the socialist authorities in the late 1960s, purged of its religious elements and re-invented – engaged with “new, socialist content”. Having combined various festive forms, symbols and rituals and occupying various urban spaces throughout the years, the holiday eventually established itself as a successful “invented tradition” during the socialist period, including several elements: a beauty contest, a ceremony for handing over the symbols of spring, a carnival procession, a public celebration on the Hisarlaka hill above the town, and accompanying cultural and sports events.

Градска празничност в епидемична обстановка

Author(s): Iskren Velikov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The holiday is an essential element in the ideological regulation of public life; it plays an important role in shaping and stabilizing the group celebrating it, in all cases by actualizing the most important unifying values, and very often – by distinguishing examples of exemplary behaviour. The spread of the COVID-19 epidemic at the very beginning of 2020 leads to a number of radical changes in social life. The speed with which processes develop, as well as the search for new forms to continue established practices, leads to experimentation with the possibilities of new technologies, as well as of new conditions – education in an online environment, online shopping, outsourced commercial cash registers for outdoor service, limiting the capacity for public access, reducing programs, etc. Limiting physical access to official celebrations provoked an attempt to compensate for it by broadcasting the festive ceremonies live. However, the transfer of an event to an online environment places local communities in the passive role of spectators of a performance, without the opportunity of participation, and the social function of the celebration is reduced to the possibilities of the social network to communicate through texts and chat with other representatives of the community who observe the broadcast. These restrictions seem to compromise the very idea of a celebration and make visible the fact that its fundamental feature is the possibility of physical presence and participation of citizens.

The Double-Sided Icon of a Seventeenth-Century Galician Painter in Transcarpathia.

Author(s): Puskas Bernadett / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2022

Le Musée Ethnographique de Budapest conserve une icône en mauvais état qui provient de Patakófalu (Stara Stuzhytsya), plus précisément de l’éparchie de Moukatchevo. Sur l’une des faces se trouve une repré-sentation Éléousa de la Mère de Dieu, un type iconographique qui était extrêmement populaire dans le sud de la Pologne – de même qu’en Hongrie – à partir du dernier quart du xviie siècle. Certaines icônes appartenant à ce type étaient même considérées comme étant miraculeuses. Associée à une certaine signification, la Mère de Dieu était peinte pour demander la protection contre le danger et les souffrances futures. Sur l’autre face de l’icône se trouve une scène de la Crucifixion avec des personnages demandant l’intercession, dont un homme portant le costume d’un noble et sa famille. L’inscription votive en ruthène a été transcrite sur le fond de la scène. La signature du peintre permet d’identifier Stefan Wiszeński de Sądowa Wisznia. Dans le présent arti-cle, une photographie conservée au Musée National de Lviv, ainsi que des urbaria, permettent de déchiffrer l’inscription et de comprendre les circonstances de la commande.

Le predicatrici valdesi medievali: mundus reversus et perversus o mundus novus? Sulla testimonianza custodita nel Super Apocalypsim di Goffredo di Auxerre.

Author(s): Francesca Tasca / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2022

‘After preaching, they feasted quite lavishly every day, they chose new lovers almost every night, they spent their time without being subjected to anyone, without worries, without fatigue, without danger’. In his Super Apocalypsim, the Cistercian monk Geoffrey of Auxerre describes in this way two Waldensian lady preachers, delineating an extraordinary condition of female autonomy. The article explores the ‘textual phy-siognomy’ of Super Apocalypsim, a biblical commentary written in the second half of the 1180s, but also high-lights its historical and editorial context. The testimony of Geoffrey of Auxerre, a leading representative of ecclesiastical hierarchies, allows us to analyse lexical choices and conceptual nuclei in order to clarify the speci-fic polemics underlying this description of the subversive life of an order which is represented by the two Waldensian women and the manner in which they experience female freedom. Emphasis is given to the issue of a dangerous ‘upside-down world’ (mundus reversus et perversus); this witnesses the subversive experience of the two Waldensian women. The article also recognises possible surviving traces of a radical evangelism and the attempt to create a new world (mundus novus).

Книги 2021 – 2022

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 45/2022

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

Научни форуми 2023

Author(s): Emiliya Voleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 46/2023

Data about scientific events in the field of the humanities in Bulgaria in the first half of 2023.

Непокорният юнак в южнославянските епически песни и руските билини

Author(s): Danijela Petković / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

This paper explores the position of the rebellious, disobedient hero in his own environment on the examples of South Slavic and Russian epics; more precisely, it explores the hero’s disobedience to an authority from his social or family domain. There is a collision between the heroic status of the hero, emphasizing disobedience, independence and pride, with his social and family status, which lowers the hero on the hierarchical ladder. The hero opposes the will of his superior and sometimes explicitly shows his defiance through special gestures, specific gait or riding, often in the same way as his enemy, but unlike the enemy’s, his arrogance and daring are not always punished. An insubordinate hero is not a frequent type, although often a young hero and a neophyte. Besides, disobedience is not reserved for one and the same characters, although the most disobedient heroes are the greatest Russian hero Ilja Muromec and the greatest South Slavic hero Marko Kraljević. Disobedience is only partially a means of the heroes’ characterization, it is mainly used as a motivation, as an element of the commencement that, through the initial collision, opens the possibility for different variants of the plot, in which, in most poems, the epic prevails over the balladic resolution, the heroism over the punishment for hybris, the heroic over the magical principle.

Мемоаристика и „друг фолклор“

Author(s): Nemanja Radulović / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

Phenomena defined in contemporary folkloristics as postfolklore, small groups folklore, urban folklore have for long been out of the focus of Serbian folkloristics, and papers on this topic have only recently started appearing. Quite understandably, the studies are directed towards contemporary material. However, the diachronic aspect of these phenomena exists too. The testimonies of the existence of such forms of folklore in the past can be found in memoir and diary literature, as well as in the corpus of historical (not folkloristic) archives. All these past phenomena are covered here with the umbrella term “other folklore” whose function is descriptive, not theoretical. Everything that folkloristic paradigms in the past failed to see as a “real” folklore (equated with oral, rural, and traditional) – making that material invisible and hidden in the sources less used by folklorists – is classified here as “other.” “Other folklore” in this case encompasses a few kinds of folklore: folklore of small groups (criminals and prisoners, students, seminarists) and urban folklore (mostly connected to Belgrade). Political folklore could belong here too. It is often close to traditional genres in its forms, but historical and political conditions have made it unsuitable and evicted it to the out-of-sight memory of memoirs and diaries (such are, say, monarchist songs from World War II, or political jokes from the time of Communism). Political folklore sometimes coincides with other “otherness” categories, say, the parodic urban folklore from the time of the Nazi occupation of Belgrade that is an example both of political and urban creativity; humoristic and unheroic, it did not fit the folklore of resistance ideal even upon the end of the war. Such a corpus approach makes it possible to see the diachronic background of many contemporary examples and discover new sources of folklore in the less examined material. More importantly, the definitions of folklore themselves are tested by this approach (surely, along the lines of Popper’s criticism of “facts,” it is definitely not a “discovery,” but a re-evaluation of concepts before approaching the corpus). Finally, such analyses can be useful to historians too, because they reveal the hidden side of certain epochs and their mind-sets, as well as the genre conditionality of historical sources.

Диалектолог, етнограф, писател: стратегии за вторична текстуализация на народните приказки в Етнографската сбирка на Архива на Сръбската академия на науките и изкуствата до 1914 година

Author(s): Marina Mladenović Mitrović / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

The Ethnographic Collection, today a part of SASA Archives, was initiated by Stojan Novaković in order to continue Vuk Karadžić’s work on collecting folklore. The goal of the Academy was to get the material collected, systematized and published, and the task of collecting was entrusted to individuals, such as teachers and priests, who lived among the people and were literate enough to record various forms of folklore. The questionnaires they used were intended for ethnographic and anthropogeographic research, which means that there were no clear instructions for recording folk tales. In this paper, I use the term textualization (after Lauri Honko), defined here as secondary, because it refers to the representation of the written (rather than spontaneous oral) text, in order to point out different models/strategies of recording folk tales used by collectors in the last decades of the 19th and first decades of the 20th century. Depending on their position, recording of the folklore material was sometimes influenced by ethnography or dialectology, considering that the mentioned disciplines were on their rise, while the literary model appears as a regional distinction.

„Да се памти, че е женска работа“: Социокултурни параметри на менструацията в българската традиционна култура и фолклора

Author(s): Mila Bankova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2022

This article aims to outline the main sociocultural aspects of menstruation in Bulgarian traditional culture and folklore. Menarche rituals and etiological legends about the womb’s creation and the menstruation are explored and analyzed in order to define folklore motifs and beliefs. The woman and her cyclicity is related to fertility in the human world. Both in legends and in menarche rituals, the womb and the menstruation are essential for arranging and preserving the dimension between order and chaos, for building a connection between heaven and earth. The magical power of woman's blood and body is included in the cultural system of the human world, but it also aims to achieve prosperity on other levels. This sacred and mysterious physiological process gives woman a special place, makes her wiser and more responsible for the common good.

Ива Кюркчиева. „Етнология и футбол“. София: Издателство на БАН „Проф. Марин Дринов“, 2020

Author(s): Stanoy Stanoev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2022

Book review

Живот с реката: един пример от село Драганово

Author(s): Georgi Georgiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2022

I explore the connections between a particular place that was created by a natural agent (the Yantra River) and an artificial object (the ‘buna’), and the activities by which local people gave the place a specific character. I highlight their past actions and experiences; remembering, recounting and evaluations in the present; the emotional attachment to the place and the ecological nostalgia after its ‘loss’ due to hydro technical intervention.

ИЛЮСТРАЦИИ

Author(s): Rossen Malchev,Konstantin Rangochev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 22/2023