Представление о «своем» и «чужом» при описании болгарских женщин в русской публицистике рубежа XIX–XX вв.

Abstract

The paper discusses descriptions of the status of the Bulgarian woman in travelogues and publications published at the turn of the 20th century and intended for a wide range of readers. They did not pay much attention to this issue, yet it is possible to identify common features: they recognized the low level of natural beauty of Bulgarian women, noting it was rapidly lost due to continuous work. A lot was said about the hard work of Bulgarian women, which testified to the positive connotation of this, it became a symbol of “own”. High moral bearings of the Bulgarian society were described accordingly. At the same time, the subordinate position of the Bulgarian woman was characterized as the influence of an “alien”, Turkish. The presence of brothels was also explained through the “alien”, but already Western, influence. Many of the stories are confirmed by other sources and took place in reality, but it is the semantics of the texts that are noteworthy. The symbolic description of a young, healthy people who had experienced alien influences painted a picture of “one`s own” people, but cleaner and morally healthier. In fact, we see an image of “own”, Russian, youth irretrievably lost as Europeanization and modernization took place.