Balkan Fair in the Mirror of the Bulgarian Folksongs: Themes and Heroes

Authors:

Pages: 305-315

Abstract:

Beyond the trivial definition of trade fair as an annual market there is an important second one, which reveals it as a specific social space and a cross-point of cultures. One way of investigating this phenomenon has been to see them through the eyes of the contemporary observers. Bulgarian folksongs provide a unique opportunity of tracing such personal viewpoint of participants. Study and analysis of folksongs’ themes and heroes reveal the community’s perception of the fair, its attitude to the different participants (“own” or “strangers”) and the regulation of the permitted or forbidden relations within and outside the group.

Keywords:

fairs, folksongs, contacts, community, ‘other’

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