Fair Encounters

Bulgaria and the "West" at International Exhibitions from Plovdiv to St. Louis

Bibliographic Data

ID4208396
AuthorsMary C Neuburger (0000-0002-0221-3507, corresponding author), Mary Neuburger
Year2010
Volume69
Issue3
Pages547-570
Publication date2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSlavic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-6779 • E-ISSN: 2325-7784
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0037677900012146
OpenAlexW2587471980
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited19

By the late nineteenth century, world's fairs had captured the imagination of Bulgarian political and intellectual elites. Bulgarians were not only enthusiastic pilgrims to the major world's fairs in the west, but by 1892 they had staged their own international trade exhibition in Plovdiv. Here, as elsewhere, the fair phenomenon was an arena for broadcasting messages of national prowess and progress, as well as a context for the performance and contestation of national identity. But for Bulgarians the fair phenomenon at home and abroad was also part of a highly contested process of negotiating its unique place between east and west, politically, economically, and culturally. The tensions and dilemmas that characterized the Plovdiv fair experience were also palpable in Bulgarian participation in fairs abroad, such as the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and the St. Louis Fair of 1904, where both the nation and the west were yet again reimagined

Archaeology · Art history · Bulgarian · Context (archaeology · Exhibition · Media studies · National identity · Negotiation · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Historical Art and Culture Studies · History · Law

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