Ангелина Илиева (Angelina Ilieva)
Abstract
In this article, the author analyses the media discourse surrounding the National Child Strategy 2019 – 2030 from a classic anthropological emic perspective. The draft of the National Child Strategy was introduced for public discussion in early 2019 and caused a “mass hysteria” and a series of protests in many Bulgarian cities. On Facebook, groups of parents opposing the Strategy speculated about a “Norwegian conspiracy” of stealing Bulgarian children and subjecting them to risks of sexual abuse and organ trafficking. In the analysis, narratives and narrative elements (motifs, images, tropes) conveying conspiracy ideas and notions have been examined, and a contemporary mythology of parental fears has been outlined. Two types of fear-generating ideas and notions have been differentiated and termed old and new demons of the public imagination. The old demons of public imagination are rooted in folklore beliefs and legends of child abduction, sexual perversions and ritual murder. The new demons of public imagination, based on the socio-political experience of the recent past, are the concepts of the totalitarian state and its system of repressions formed in the collective consciousness of post-socialist societies.
Keywords: National Child Strategy 2019 – 2030; conspiracy ideas and notions; contemporary mythology
