sponsorship

This article examines one of the main research projects of Nedka Kapralova, namely, the practice of sponsorship during the Bulgarian National Revival and its importance for understanding the processes that accompanied the transition to modernity in the Bulgarian lands. The new historical era gave rise to new social actors. Literature would begin to “produce” those actors and circulate them as cultural models. The Enlightened European, the National Awakener, and the Teacher became symbolic images charged with the notions of a new and desired cultural space. These figures had their antipodes: the Phanariot and the Pseudo-Civilizer, both rooted in the enemy aggressor stereotype. The collective self-envisioned images of “We, the Bulgarians” and “We, the Enlightened Bulgarians” were gradually affirmed by being juxtaposed with, and contrasted against, the above-mentioned antipodes. The phenomenon of sponsorship, as analyzed by Kapralova, reveals the mechanisms through which new normative frameworks were established. It highlights notable cases in the legitimization of an emergent modern culture, with its guilds and its respective new social networks and circles. The study further attests to the mentoring ethos of the men of letters and offers intriguing insights into the self-determination of the Enlightened. Another line that is traced is represented by the shifts in attitudes and moral orientations of successive generations of intellectuals of the Revival period.

The article traces how Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nedka Kapralova became one of the prominent researchers of culture and literature of the Bulgarian Revival. Having left us untimely, she did not realize her ideas, did not fulfill her research dreams. Her research is primarily in the field of Revival culture, with her scientific interests mostly focused on the phenomenon of philanthropy. She is interested in the connection between folklore and literature, researches female initiation as a phenomenon, etc. The topic of philanthropy is her doctoral thesis. She treats the facts and the documents with respect, which is evident in her book dedicated to the letters of Elisaveta Karaminkova. Over the years, she has been involved in various projects, the result of which is her latest book, dedica- ted to Ekaterina Vasileva. She bequeathed to the Bulgarian cultural community some precise translations of modern French scholars, cultural theorists and philosophers such as Claude Lévi-Strauss, Fernand Braudel and Pierre Bourdieu.

The sponsorship during the Bulgarian Revival is part of an ancient, centuries-old tradition and is a kind of continuation of the donation from previous historical epochs. Religious books are an important part of the books published during the Renaissance. In the period 1806–1856, a total of 77 books were published with assistance, and 24 of them were religious (or 31%). Religious books “in simple Bulgarian language“ set and achieve the goal of maintaining, upholding and strengthening the religious identity of Bulgarians.