Newsletter No 36 November
2003 News From National Committees
Bulgaria
Two books on women‘s history appeared recently
in Bulgarian:
1)
Voices of Their Own. Oral History
Interviews of Women. Edited by Kr. Daskalova, V.
Elenkova, D. Koleva, T. Kotseva, R. Roshkeva, R. Stoilova. Sofia: POLIS Publishing
House, 2003, 437 pp.
2)
“University Education and Bulgarian Women (1879-1944)” by Georgeta Nazurska. Sofia: IMIR, 2003, 311
pp.
“Voices of Their Own”
is a result of an oral history research, initiated by the Bulgarian Women’s
History Group and the Bulgarian Association of University Women. Krassimira
Daskalova, who wrote the introduction to the book, directed the research, as
well. Oral history seeks to save the unofficial, non-institutionalized knowledge,
to make visible marginal and forgotten women’s voices, to write history
“from below”, from the point of view of ordinary people. Oral history
is especially helpful for the study of relations, communities and groups, neglected
by history establishment, as gender relations, for example. Through the experience
and judgments of the ordinary social actors, oral history contests and corrects
official history narratives. Distanced from the patriotic excitement of nationalism
and self congratulatory rhetoric of the official socialism, this “down
to earth” everyday life history shows points of views of people immersed
in a subjective “life world”, very different from the
one celebrated in the academic history writings. Oral history questions the
claim for objectivity and impartiality of historical positivism and subversively
replicates the canonical history texts. It shows possibilities for “contesting
official memory” (in this case of communism) by putting emphasis on invisible
past and re-writing the traditional history from a gender sensitive perspective.
The book contains thirty-two
interviews (out of more than eighty) of women from various generations (in
some cases, grand mothers, mothers and daughters), of various professions,
and ethnicity (Bulgarians, Turks, Roma women, Armenians, Jewish women). It
presents their vision about their own lives and the important changes they
experienced under socialism and the Transitional period after 1989.
Both the research and the book were made possible thanks
to the financial support of Open Society Foundation in Sofia. A shortened English
version of the book will be published at the beginning of next year.
Rhe second book –
“University education and Bulgarian Women (1878-1944)” - by
the historian Georgeta Nazurska is dedicated to an important and under researched
topic – the history of women’s higher education in modern Bulgaria. One of the goals
of the book, made explicit by the author, is to summarize the empirical data
and place it in the historical context of Bulgarian educational tradition
and politics. This is innovative research focussed on various gender aspects
of the history of modern education. It is based on archival documents from
the Central State Historical Archive in Sofia and from Sofia’s State Archive,
as well as from other institutional and private collections. Data from statistical
yearbooks, reports of higher education institutions, and publications dedicated
to Bulgarian students and doctorate degree holders are among the sources for
the book. The text is illustrated richly by various tables and graphics.
Compiled by Krassimira Daskalova
