Debating (Post-)Coloniality in Southeast Europe: A Minority Oriented Perspective in Bulgaria
Abstract :
Despite the fact that its scholarly application has been considered highly
problematic in the former Eastern Bloc and barely employed due to the
Marxist background, post-colonialism has been recently introduced by a large
number of scholars and academics. Yet, theoretical experiments, research,
and projection of post-colonialism in Central and Eastern Europe have
come to compose an abundant field of reference. Drawing on this theoretical
approach, this paper aims to debate the category of post-coloniality in post-
communist Bulgaria in order to better venture the parapet of the post-1989
transition. Employing a ‘minority perspective’, which will reveal minority
positionality in the contemporary Bulgarian cultural and political ground,
this paper traces potential power actions of (dis)possession of knowledge among
subaltern groups, which actions continue to negate, disavow, distort, and
deny access to different forms of minority cultures and life visions represented
by non-majoritarian segments of the Bulgarian society. In general, this paper
digs into the historical experience of the ethnic Turks and Muslim minority
groups in Bulgaria prior to (1) the communist experience, (2) throughout and
after the collapse of communism, and (3) in the contemporary Republic of
Bulgaria. In particular, post-coloniality – understood in terms of ‘coloniality
of being’ – shall offer a better and critical angle of investigation over the
issues of human marginalisation, cultural subordination, and knowledge
exploitation in Bulgaria and Southeast Europe.