Bulgarian Society for Eighteen-Century Studies
PROGRESS AND STEREOTYPES IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY
29–30 March 2024
New Conference Hall
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Progress in all its forms and appearances – social reforms, ideas- has always been approached with suspicion and ambiguous attitudes. Optimism, admiration and enthusiasm naturally clash with distrust, stereotypes and even fear.
Confrontation with the foreign style of life and thinking can mobilize conservative standpoints and can evoke complex parallels, contradictions and counteracts in the cultural history of 18th and 19th c. in Europe and the Balkans. Similar phenomena can be traces in particular in the Bulgarian culture in its ambivalent attitude to European ideas and Modernity.
In the present call for participation we offer the following thematic areas:
- Optimism and suspicion: dubious attitude to novelty;
- European ideas and local usage
- Advancement and conservatism
- Gender and stereotypes
- Inventions and technical appliances
- Material objects and their daily usefulness
- Consumption and capital
We expect your resumes until 20 March 2024 at the following email: bulgc18@gmail.com
