MEMORIES OF EVERYDAY LIFE DURING SOCIALISM IN THE TOWN OF ROUSSE, BULGARIA, Диляна Иванова/Dilyana Ivanova, The American Research Center in Sofia, 2014

MEMORIES OF EVERYDAY LIFE DURING SOCIALISM IN THE TOWN OF ROUSSE, BULGARIA

Автор: Диляна Иванова/Dilyana Ivanova
Раздел: Българска история на чужди езици, Българска културология, етнология и фолклор
Издателство: The American Research Center in Sofia
Народност: българска
Преводач: Искрен Великов/Iskren Velikov
ISBN: 9789549257144
първо издание, 2014 год.
твърди корици, 351 стр.
Цена: 20,00 лв (10.23 €)

Прикачен файл:

DiLYANA Ivanova was born in Rousse in 1976. She obtained her MA degree in Balkan Studies at the University of Veliko Turnovo "Saints Cyril and Methodius" in 2001. From 2002 to 2006 Ivanova worked as Curator at the Rousse Regional Museum of History, Modern History Department, doing research in the field of Ethnology of Socialism and Post-socialism. In 2006 Dilyana Ivanova moved to Chicago with her husband and son. From 2009 until the summer of 2013, she worked in the Anthropology Department at The Field Museum in Chicago as assistant for the Bulgarian Archaeological Grant Program. Ivanova obtained her Ph.D. in December 2012 from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia. In August 2013, Dilyana Ivanova became Administrator of the United States office of the American Research Center in Sofia, based in The Field Museum in Chicago.

The book is a good contribution to memory studies, especially the study of the memory of Socialism. It demonstrates convincingly that Socialism was not monolithic even in one city. The book maps out the common sites of memory to show that they entail contest and struggling interpretations. Thus the study manages to overcome the simplistic bipolar model of relating to the recent past through either apology or negation. Another valuable contribution is the identification of the agents of memory in the city: old urbanites, rural migrants, minorities, women. Last but not least, the author manages to fruitfully "play with scale" between the biographical, the collective and the institutional level, capturing the complexity and the dynamics of the local memory of Socialism.
Daniela Koleva, PhD, Dr. Habil, Associate Professor, Sofia University

... A significant contribution to the research of everyday life in Communist Bulgaria. The theme is topical and well-timed - after another decade or so it would have been impossible, because the witnesses, who lived through the period of Communism would not be alive. Based on the author's personal fieldwork, including interviews and observations, the book gives an insider's perspective into various individual experiences and manners of interiorization of a social system based on total control and propaganda. It explores important themes like the Communist coup on 9 September 1944 and the meaning that very date was given to signify a borderline between two epochs; the town feasts and celebrations and the Communist ideology they adopted and maintained; industrial development and the way various social and ethnic groups were engaged in it; clientelism and social injustice during socialism; the government methods of control; childhood and youth; and so on.
Prof. DSc. Albena Georgieva, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences