Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables, Figures and Maps
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreciations
- INTRODUCTION: The Europeanization of Bulgarian Society: A Long-Lasting Political Project
- CHAPTER ONE Institution-Building, Political Culture and Identity in Bulgaria: The Challenge of ‘Europeanization’
- CHAPTER TWO Appropriations of Bulgarian Literature in the West: From Pencho Slaveikov to Iordan Iovkov
- CHAPTER THREE Communism and Cold War in Bulgaria: The Absence of Europe?
- CHAPTER FOUR Bulgarian Turks During the Transition Period
- CHAPTER FIVE Women's Identity and Social Policy in Bulgaria Before and After 1989
- CHAPTER SIX Legal Status and Migrant Economic Performance: The Case of Bulgarians in Spain and Greece
- CHAPTER SEVEN Bulgaria's Path to EU Membership – and Beyond
- CHAPTER EIGHT Accession into the Euro-Atlantic Institutions: Effects on Bulgaria's Balkan Policy(-ies)
- CHAPTER NINE Mirroring Gazes: Europe, Nationalism and Change in the Field of Bulgarian Art and Culture
- CHAPTER TEN The Emergence of Regional Policy in Bulgaria and the Role of the EU
- EPILOGUE
- Appendix I Tables, Figures and Maps
- Notes
- List of Contributors
CHAPTER NINE - Mirroring Gazes: Europe, Nationalism and Change in the Field of Bulgarian Art and Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables, Figures and Maps
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreciations
- INTRODUCTION: The Europeanization of Bulgarian Society: A Long-Lasting Political Project
- CHAPTER ONE Institution-Building, Political Culture and Identity in Bulgaria: The Challenge of ‘Europeanization’
- CHAPTER TWO Appropriations of Bulgarian Literature in the West: From Pencho Slaveikov to Iordan Iovkov
- CHAPTER THREE Communism and Cold War in Bulgaria: The Absence of Europe?
- CHAPTER FOUR Bulgarian Turks During the Transition Period
- CHAPTER FIVE Women's Identity and Social Policy in Bulgaria Before and After 1989
- CHAPTER SIX Legal Status and Migrant Economic Performance: The Case of Bulgarians in Spain and Greece
- CHAPTER SEVEN Bulgaria's Path to EU Membership – and Beyond
- CHAPTER EIGHT Accession into the Euro-Atlantic Institutions: Effects on Bulgaria's Balkan Policy(-ies)
- CHAPTER NINE Mirroring Gazes: Europe, Nationalism and Change in the Field of Bulgarian Art and Culture
- CHAPTER TEN The Emergence of Regional Policy in Bulgaria and the Role of the EU
- EPILOGUE
- Appendix I Tables, Figures and Maps
- Notes
- List of Contributors
Summary
In 2005 Irina Hristova, a successful Bulgarian journalist in one of the national dailies, told me about her exasperation with reading a recent article in the newspaper Trud, one of the most widely read publications in Bulgaria. The article was by Anton Donchev, a well-known writer, who argued that despite suggestions that Bulgarian children today need to study English but prefer to read Terry Pratchett instead of old Bulgarian children's books, the study of Bulgarian language and literature in the schools was more important than ever. In Irina's words, Donchev insisted that ‘we need to have our Bulgarian passports close to our hearts as we enter the EU' and ‘ had this nasty, jingoist, awful rhetoric’. Irina ‘ got scared’ after reading this, because she realized how popular such rhetoric is, considering that it is typical of Trud and considering that this newspaper has one of the highest circulations in the country:
Thousands of people vote for these ideas everyday when they spend their money to buy Trud. These are ideas that I don' t agree with, and I don' t support. This is not my Bulgaria.
This chapter looks at the position of young cultural producers, such as Irina, and investigates how they negotiated the tension between Bulgarian national identity and European belonging on the eve of Bulgaria's accession into the European Union in 2007. ‘Europe’ impacts the Bulgarian context, not just through actual political and economic interaction with the EU, but also as a mental concept that can be strategically mobilized by social agents to improve their life chances.
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- Bulgaria and EuropeShifting Identities, pp. 155 - 172Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2010
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