The Village Project

Since the collapse of socialism, Bulgaria’s population has been on the move—out of rural regions and into cities, or out of the country altogether. Yet today there is a countermovement of young, urban Bulgarians, born after 1989, seeking to repopulate rural villages and reclaim traditional Bulgarian folklife. Though many of these young Bulgarians have no direct experience with a rural lifestyle nor personal nostalgic memories of thriving village life, their actions and movements are inspired by a nostalgic vision of the past. And so, beyond a spatial return, this rural revitalization movement speaks to visions of an alternate future, one inspired by dismay with the conditions of contemporary life. Using ethnographic and folkloristic methods, Sarah Craycraft paints a complex, detailed picture of Europeanization on the ground, carried out through neoliberal folklife projects as they collide with ongoing efforts to build a revitalized civil society in the ruins of the past. Contextualized within a particular Southeast European nation, the study speaks to broader questions of rural revival, public-facing culture work, intergenerational folklore, and the imbrication of folklore with politics and culture.