The kidnapped identity and the myth of the book burning

Abstract

The national identity could be seen as an outcome of the deliberate efforts
of some kind of élite to consolidate an ethnic community. Every identity needs
a mythology to legitimate it for the others and in the consciousness of its
members. Such mythology defines the Own and distinguishes it from the
Alien, it combines several elements -the glorious past, some key figures and
the Enemy, who always must be available. To obtain the status of mythology
the narratives about them must manifest a universally recognized through
about the community, to define its identity and the laws it submits to.
One typical myth from the time of the Bulgarian national Revival tells us
the story of the burning of some old Bulgarian books. For its contemporaries
its deep meaning is to explain one significant absence and to point at the
guilty kidnapper. These two operations must forge the national identity. The
events take place in the 1820s and 1830s in the town of Tamovo when Ilarion
from Crete (1821-1827, 1831-1838 “Exarh of the Hole Bulgaria”), but they
repeat something happened in ilio tempore.
The situation could be described like this:
The old books as symbol and testimony of the desired and prestigeous
identity are missing or are not enough. There is an Enemy for whom they
thought that this absence is favourable, hence he must be blamed for it and his 

guilt is accepted a priori. Someone throws up a piece of unconfirmed information
from the past and it is repeated deliberated from many outer people.
This paper traces the spring up of the myth and examines its most
impressive and representative variations and looks for the mental constructs
that form its basis. It also shows the attempts to disagree with the myth and
its connection with the struggle for separation from the Patriarchate.