Данчо Господинов

The paper consists of analysis of Ivan Shishmanov’s approach and contribution to the exploration of the Bulgarian national revival age. The analogy between the European Renaissance and the Bulgarian national revival, deeply rooted in the disciplinary matrix of contemporary researchers, is here rejected as inappropriate. Instead, the paper suggests the processes in the Bulgarian society and culture during the 18th and the 19th century to be examined in the context of Early Modern period and to be interpreted without borrowing concepts and patterns elaborated in the researches of rather different historical material.