Bulgaria and Europe

Shifting Identities

Edited by Stefanos Katsikas

Publication date:

15 June 2010

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

229x153mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781843318460

‘Bulgaria and Europe: Shifting Identities’ offers a unique analysis of Bulgaria’s relationship with the European continent. Katsikas examines how Bulgarian historiography and literature over the centuries have created differing conceptions of Europe and, in the process, shaped the country’s own shifting identity. Through his analysis, he provides the broader cultural context and historical perspective required in order to understand the country’s EU accession process as well as its aftermath. This work ultimately addresses what has arguably been the key question facing Bulgaria in the post-Cold War period: 'Are we European?'

List of Tables, Figures and Maps; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Introduction: The Europeanization of Bulgarian Society: A Long-Lasting Political Project; Institution-Building, Political Culture and Identity in Bulgaria: The Challenge of ‘Europeanization’; Appropriations of Bulgarian Literature in the West: From Pencho Slaveikov to Iordan Ionkov; Communism and Cold War in Bulgaria: The Absence of Europe?; Bulgarian Turks During the Transition Period; Women’s Identity and Social Policy in Bulgaria Before and After 1989; Legal Status and Migrant Economic Performance: The Case of Bulgarians in Spain and Greece; Bulgaria’s Path to EU Membership – and Beyond; Accession into the Euro-Atlantic Institutions: Effects on Bulgaria’s Balkan Policy (-ies); Mirroring Gazes: Europe, Nationalism and Change in the Field of Bulgarian Art and Culture; The Emergence of Regional Policy in Bulgaria and the Role of the EU; Epilogue; Appendix I. Tables, Figures and Maps; Notes; List of Contributors

'Among the now extensive literature on Bulgaria's European accession, this collection of essays, written by an international team of well established as well as young scholars, will shine with its careful social and political contextualization of the issues, its longue durée framework, and its genuine comparative effort.' —Maria Todorova, Gutgsell Professor of History, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign