Current Programmes

Bulgarian Literature in the first decade of the twentieth century is characterized by a specific “anthologization” - a result of the synchronous processes of internal canonization (the constitution of a national literature) and external canonization (the incorporation into world literature). In the post-communist period of the 1990s, prominent historical anthologies functioned in turn as a literary-historical matrix for aesthetic reorientation.

The eminent popularity in both Bulgarian modernism and postmodernism of the production of anthologies calls for comparative analysis. The research project analyzes a range of literary anthological production including such diverse forms as compilations of foreign poetry, collections of dedication poems or fictitious anthologies consisting solely of literary mystifications.

Theoretically, the project positions itself in the framework of post-colonial genre theory, which allows a shift of focus in comparative Balkan studies from the discursive surfaces of (self)stigmatization to the underlying structures of creative, subversive genre modification, represented in ideal form in the fictitious anthologies of (post)modern Bulgarian literature.

In my project I intend to focus on intellectual networks activating across the Iron Curtain in order to contribute to the reconstruction of the dynamic of Cold War cultural exchanges and to challenge the conceptual assumptions underpinning the anti-communist taxonomies.

My aim is not just to contrast networks of data gathering with the taxonomical processing of the data, but also to analyze the very process of inferring dichotomies and separating the truth from lies as an inter-discursive confrontational practice unfolding along (and not in spite of) informal trade-offs and ideological trespassing. I attempt therefore to enhance a meta-critical approach to the classifying and documenting of “resistances” as well as of “truthful” behaviors under Communism by investigating the practice of “observing”, “monitoring” and “commenting” on “deviances” by external and internal critical agencies during the Cold War (such as Radio Free Europe and the Security Police). The analysis of transnational cultural agents acting as informative collaborators will be confronted with the critical reading of the bureaucratic archival data belonging to the agencies feeding upon their very mobility. System theory and historical epistemology will provide the tools for the understanding of the paradoxical dynamic of the reproduction of classificatory schemes through the systemic and systematic trespassing of cultural, ethical and political borders within an information poor environment.  

For the study of Ottoman society, the urban economic and social system and the activities of its main components (raya and askeri), are of prime importance. The level of urbanization in the 18th-century Ottoman Empire and the economic state of the urban population however seem to be almost entirely neglected topics in present-day research. The so-called classical period (15th - 17th c.c.) is much better studied from different points of views - administrative, economic, demographical, fiscal, etc. This is almost equally true about the Tanzimat period, partly due to the availability of numerous historical sources.

Because of the importance and interest in these two periods, stemming, among others, from political considerations, the immediate pre-Tanzimat era has been altogether neglected. As a result, little is known about the size of the population, the social and economic differentiation, the social and professional activities of the citizens, as well as the changes in these activities, the level of prices and the cost of living in the 18th-century Ottoman Empire.

The proposed project will focus on these issues through case-studies of the towns of Sofia, Ruschuk and Vidin which happened to play a significant role in Ottoman political and economic history. The case-studies of the social and economic history of these cities will contribute to delineate the economic model of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century.

Moreover, Ruschuk, Vidin and Sofia are interesting cases because of their significant role in the Ottoman political history in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Two of the cities (Vidin and Ruschuk) were governed by influential ayans like Ismail Trusteniklioglu, Bayraktar Mustafa Pasha and Osman Pazvantolu. On the other hand, Sofia was a strict supporter of the central authority in Istanbul throughout the 18th century. The city was the home of the Sultan's forces, which were summoned against Osman Pazvantoglu at the end of 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries.

The project's first goal is to examine the demographic potential of the cities, the ethnic, religious and professional composition of their population (i.e., Muslims and Christians, soldiers and artisans, etc.).
The second and main aim is to build up the professional and ownership profile of the population and to create a "portrait of property" for different social groups - the askeri (the Ottoman ruling class), the reaya (the tax-payers), the artisans, the women. I will also try to elucidate their role and importance in the city's economic and social life, their activities in agriculture and involvement in crafts respectively.