Albena Vacheva

The shrewd way is to arm ourselves with their arms: Bulgarian modern debate about native and non-native art

Summary

The article is a theoretical examination of modern Bulgarian vision about West (Europe) as a legitimizing instrument in the debate native/non-native art in Bulgarian cultural context after I World War I. Focused on critical and culture-scrutinizing articles published in Bulgarian periodical press in the 1930s, content-analysis shows the ways of perception/resistance to West-Europe cultural influences. Studying the relationships between native (taken as cultural traditions) and European (understood as “high norms” and criteria for commensurability) the study discusses the parameters of the abovementioned debate, which played an important role in Bulgarian cultural life in next years and became an important issue of Bulgarian national self-vision and self-perception.