Modern Bulgarian Society and Culture through the Mirror of Bai Ganio

Slavic Review ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 530-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roumen Daskalov
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
National Symbol

This article deals with the fictional character Bai Ganio, who was created by the Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov at the end of the nineteenth century and who has become a sort of national symbol in Bulgarian society and culture. Daskalov presents the various interpretations of Bai Ganio, explores their assumptions and implicit meanings, and then employs the character to illuminate some of the major problems and concerns within Bulgarian society. Metaphorically one might say that the various interpretations of Bai Ganio serve as a mirror for a modernizing Bulgaria or, even better, that Bai Ganio and Bulgaria mutually reflect each other. Yet although the mirror retains the trace of the mirrored object, it obfuscates and distorts it.

scholarly journals Corridos, Tequila (and others), and Mexican/Chicano Masculinity

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
Amaia Ibarraran-Bigalondo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Symbol ◽  
Life Issues ◽  
Mexican Identity

The Mexican corrido is one of the most popular cultural manifestations both in the United States and Mexico. From its origins in the mid-nineteenth century, the corrido has dealt with “people’s stuff,” such as war, love, honor, immigration and/or belonging to a land, among other everyday life issues. The corrido is, in short, a symbol of identity and belonging, and can be considered a marker of the Mexican identity on both sides of the border. In this sense, it is to be expected that the corrido, as an expression of “people’s stuff,” voices the relevance of a “national” symbol. In the same way, tequila is regarded, at least internationally, as directly related to “lo mexicano/chicano,” and in many cases also to Mexican/Chicano masculinity. Starting from this premise, the aim of this article is to observe the presence of tequila and its significance as a symbol of “lo mexicano/chicano” in the work of Los Tigres del Norte, one of the most prominent corrido bands, both locally and internationally.

The Highland Society of London, material culture and the development of Scottish military identity, 1798–1817*

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Watt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Symbol ◽  
The Military

Abstract The image of the Highland soldier as a brave, loyal warrior was central to nineteenth-century notions of Scottish national identity. This article uses material culture evidence alongside traditional archival sources to provide an interdisciplinary explanation of how the military dimension of Scottish identity was shaped in the early nineteenth century. It finds that it was the responses of the Highland Society of London to Scottish battlefield valour – rather than the actions themselves – that created the enduring popular perception of the Highland soldier as a desirable national symbol and as an icon of empire.

scholarly journals La Lucrècia Borja de ficció en el drama d’Hugo i els seus derivats

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Marc Gomar Calatayud
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Victor Hugo ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Family Policies ◽  
Fictional Character ◽  
Gaetano Donizetti ◽  
The Real ◽  
Black Legend ◽  
The Many ◽  
Pope Alexander Vi

Resum: El drama Lucrèce Borgia de Victor Hugo confereix al personatge històric una sèrie d’atributs en sintonia amb el gust sensacionalista de l’època: en ser dona, poderosa, bella i formada. Lucrècia Borja és el millor exemple d’allò que Kristeva anomena «l’abjecte» en les Pouvoirs de l’horreur (1980). Una imatge de femme fatale lligada al verí o l’incest que es popularitzarà gràcies a les nombroses obres derivades del drama: de l’òpera de Donizetti als romanços populars de manera que les característiques del personatge de ficció s’imposaran a l’històric en l’imaginari col·lectiu. Lucrècia Borja, que fins aleshores havia estat considerada un instrument al servei de les polítiques familiars, entrarà a formar part per «mèrits» propis del triangle del mal junt amb l germà, Cèsar Borja, i son pare, el papa Alexandre VI. Paraules clau: Lucrècia Borja, Victor Hugo, Gaetano Donizetti, llegenda negra, literatura de cordell, paròdia, segle XIX, Francesc Godó, abjecte Abstract: The Victor Hugo’s drama Lucrezia Borgia gives to the historical character some attributes in line with the sensationalist preferences of that time: being a female, powerful, beautiful and educated. Lucrezia Borgia is the best example of what Kristeva names «the abject» in Pouvoirs de l’horreur (1980). The character is a femme fatale image linked to poison or incest and it was popularized thanks to the many works resulting from this drama. So that, the features of the fictional character prevailed to the real historical character in the popular beliefs, this happened in Donizetti's opera, but also in the chapbooks of that time. Lucrezia Borgia had previously been considered an instrument in the service for family policies, but she became part of an evil triangle, thanks to her own attitude, along with her brother, Cesare Borgia, and her father, the pope Alexander VI. Keywords: Lucrezia Borgia, Victor Hugo, Gaetano Donizetti, black legend, chapbook, parody, nineteenth century, Francesc Xavier Godó, abject

scholarly journals 5. The Polka as a Czech National Symbol

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-148
Author(s):  
Daniela Stavělová
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
National Symbol

Stavělová (Czech Republic) discusses how the Polka was established as a Czech national symbol during the middle of the nineteenth century. She analyses a large number of sources that discuss the Polka, tracing the dance from its appearance in Czech national circles in the 1830s to its success in Paris in the 1840s. She discusses its consolidation as a Czech symbol through the work of music composers such as Bedřich Smetana in the second part of the century, arguing that it was first and foremost the name of the dance that carried political meaning: Polka as a cultural product fulfilled this goal to a lesser extent. In this way, Stavělová offers a detailed discussion of how the myth of the Polka became a significant aspect of Czech national culture.

Covenant

2018 ◽  
pp. 117-154
Author(s):  
Timothy Matovina
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Our Lady Of Guadalupe ◽  
Native Peoples ◽  
National Symbol ◽  
The People ◽  
New Nation

Father Miguel Hidalgo famously adopted the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as the banner for the insurrectionary movement that led to Mexican independence. Following independence, Guadalupe’s strong association with national identity led interpreters to emphasize that her appearance established a singular election of Mexico as her chosen nation. Guadalupan preachers addressed a variety of national concerns through allusions to biblical notions of covenant, avowing that Guadalupe had established a pact with the Mexican people in similar fashion to God’s covenants with Noah, David, and especially Moses and the people of Israel. Nineteenth-century Guadalupan preachers addressed the theme of covenant as Mexicans won their independence, struggled to establish a new nation, and mounted a successful campaign for papal authorization of an 1895 Guadalupe coronation. This chapter examines their theological claims, the growing devotion to Guadalupe as Mexico’s national symbol, and the unprecedented increase in devotion to Guadalupe among native peoples.

Hetero-Ontologicality

Worlds Enough ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 99-114
Author(s):  
Elaine Freedgood
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fictional Character

This chapter explains how realist fiction of the nineteenth century has been treated by critics, and experienced by readers, as an oasis from the zany ruptures of fiction that is not yet or nor longer realistic precisely because of its referentiality. If the madcap metaleptic adventures between history and fiction remain unnoticed, it would create a vertiginous hetero-ontologicality. Every sentence in which a fictional character traverses an actual city or an actual poet, has dinner with a fictional character, or an actual war is observed or fought in by a fictional character is a rupture of enormous existential proportions. That such ruptures do not feel like ruptures may be the most significant thing about them. The chapter also talks about the possibilities of hetero-ontologicality, in which various kinds of being and beings mingle and mix, allowing readers to imagine future worlds and ways of living with themselves and all of the others they have evicted from having and inhabiting “their own world.”

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