Ewelina Drzewiecka1; 1 Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
Discussion
The aim of the presentation is to address the notion of the Bulgarian Orthodox identity in regard to the national Master Narrative and the role of literature and literary studies, and thus – to disrupt the traditional research approach towards these issues. Various research show that the concept of religion constitutes the foundation of the Bulgarian national ideology. Bulgarians commonly declare their attachment to the Orthodox tradition, but the percentage of believers is low. The well-known phrase „belonging without believing” (G. Davie) seems to be a perfect description. However, the question is not whether “irreligiosity” is an adequate explanation for contemporary religious phenomena in Bulgaria, but what is the local meaning of religion/the religious. The presentation suggests the necessity of engaging the disciplinary perspective of literary studies and focuses on two important facts regarding Bulgarian culture: 1) The auto-stereotype of Bulgarian as irreligious was developed by literary scholars; 2) The question of the religious worldview of the Bulgarian literary classics is a leitmotif of the Bulgarian literary studies. It is suggested that both literature and literary studies reveal in fact the process of creating new distinctions and meanings in regard to the religious-secular opposition. Therefore, what is needed is the postsecular point of view as an epistemological sensitivity that aims at going beyond Western dichotomies in search of local ambiguity.
