Paper short abstract:

The report presents several recently published guidebooks of Bulgarian cultural heritage sites abroad. The selection of essential topoi and (re)imaging a national cultural space beyond the political boundaries are studied based on interviews with the authors and content analysis of the publications.

Paper long abstract:

Recently, several guidebooks containing a selection of Bulgarian holy places, cultural heritage sites, and monuments abroad have been published in Bulgaria. The authors and messages of these books are various – a nationalistic political leader, journalists, scholars, an anonymous collective – and they all contribute to the rising interest in the national (religious, cultural, historical) heritage abroad. Not only the trend draws the scholar’s attention but the time – all of them have been issued in a couple of years, and there are no previous publications.

The report presents these publications and their authors through the idea of (re)imaging a national cultural space that does not depend on political boundaries and cultural policies of the conquest of influence and territories. The leading analytical lines are the author’s selection of essential topoi, the significance of tourist visits on commemorative routes, and the desacralization of religious routes through their inclusion in the national space.

The study is based on interviews with the guidebooks’ authors, as well as on the content and discourse analysis of publications, on the feedback they received, and on representations of books in the media. The report is part of the authors’ work on the project “Constructing a National Cultural Heritage Abroad. Cross-Border Pilgrimage and Memorial Practices”, funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund.