„Ognisko epidemiczne małpiej ospy”. Analiza konfliktu wyobrażeń bułgarskich środowisk LGBTI i Bułgarskiej Unii Nacjonalistycznej na przykładzie Sofijskiej Parady Równości

Eliza Markiewicz; Zuzanna Kierwiak

doi:10.32798/zl.1116

Published: 2023-10-18

Vol. 59 No. 1 (2023)

“Epidemic outbreak of monkeypox”: an analysis of the conflict between Bulgaria’s LGBTI communities and the Bulgarian Nationalist Union on the example of the Sofia Equality Parade

Eliza Markiewicz , Zuzanna Kierwiak

Zeszyty Łużyckie

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.32798/zl.1116

Abstract

The subject of the analysis is the public conflict over the right of LGBTI communities to demonstrate going on between the far-right Bulgarian Nationalist Union and organizations for LGBTI people and their allies. Using critical discourse analysis, we examine statements made by Bulgarian Nationalist Union activists regarding Sofia Pride, which becomes a pretext for analyzing the ideologies, conflicting perceptions and even legal battles of the two communities. By analyzing the reaction of activists from the LGBTI community to counter-manifestations and violence by nationalist groups, we try to frame the conflict of social imaginaries, strongly manifested in urban space. The work is enriched by information drawn from narrative interviews conducted with Bulgarian feminist activists and participatory observations in left-wingand far-right circles in 2021–2022.

Keywords:

Bulgaria, LGBTI, Sofia Pride, Bulgarian Nationalist Union, far-right, monkeypox

Eliza Markiewicz

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5655-8906

Affiliation:

University of Warsaw, Institute of Western and Southern Slavic Studies Poland

Bio Statement:

Eliza Markiewicz, a Slavist and Gender Studies student at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her research interests focus on feminist activism in Bulgaria. Selected publications include "Żałuję, że nie urodziłem się niedźwiedziem". Park Tańczących Niedźwiedzi w Bułgarii (“I wish I had been born a bear”: The Dancing Bears Park in Bulgaria) (2022) and Faces of spirituality in Pirin Macedonia, in Живописна България. Литературен атлас (Picturesque Bulgaria: A literary atlas) (2022).

Zuzanna Kierwiak

zuzanna.kierwiak@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1922-1730

Affiliation:

University of Warsaw, College of Interdisciplinary Individual Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (MISH) Poland

Bio Statement:

Zuzanna Kierwiak, a Slavist and cultural anthropologist. Her research interests include qualitative studies of far-right organisations in the Balkans, as well as the anthropology of tourism and death. Selected publications include Bułgarskie a macedońskie: krytyczna analiza narracji Bożidara Dimitrowa na temat narodu, państwa i języka macedońskiego (Bulgarian or Macedonian? A critical analysis of Bozhidar Dimitrov’s narratives on the Macedonian nation, state and language) (2022) and "Żałuję, że nie urodziłem się niedźwiedziem". Park Tańczących Niedźwiedzi w Bułgarii (“I wish I had been born a bear”: The Dancing Bears Park in Bulgaria) (2022).

“Epidemic outbreak of monkeypox”: an analysis of the conflict between Bulgaria’s LGBTI communities and the Bulgarian Nationalist Union on the example of the Sofia Equality Parade

Abstract

Keywords:

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