CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Belensky, Iris |
|---|---|
| Title | Russophilia and Russophobia in Bulgaria: Discourse Bridging Past and Present |
| Summary | This thesis seeks to bring to light the influence of Bulgaria’s identity construction, with reference to its historical relationship with Russia, upon the debate and negotiation of current foreign and domestic policy issues. In order to do this, the thesis first delineates the basic discourses of Russophilia and Russophobia that developed over the course of Bulgaria’s historical relations with Russia and the ways in which they construct the Bulgarian Self with relation to its Russian Other. The thesis then examines the arguments made in two contemporary policy debates – the debate over the mandatory inclusion of the communist period in Bulgarian school curricula, and the debate over the ratification of the Istanbul Convention - assessing them for the structuring influences of the motifs and logics of the basic discourses of Russophilia and Russophobia. The thesis finds that the basic discourses of Russophilia and Russophobia continue to act as conditions of possibility and structuring agents within contemporary policy debates. However, the development of these debates has had an effect on the discourses as well – emphasizing incompatibility between Russophilia and Russophobia, and thus polarizing the discourses. |
| Supervisor | Merlingen, Michael |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/belensky_iris.pdf |
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