The Shirt and Death

Zdravko Dechev

University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”

https://doi.org/10.53656/bel2025-3-ZA

Abstract. As a starting point for considering the relationship between the shirt/clothing and the public presence of the human body is the pre-funeral care of the dead in Bulgarian folk culture. As an attribute of ritualized activity, the shirt can be perceived not only as a boundary, but also as a connection between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Research interests are interested in how in death a person remains a person precisely through the shirt/clothing. The care of the shirt/clothing is particularly indicative of the current context. For our people, the shirt becomes symbolic when it gleams white with purity. In this case, “whiteness” and “purity” transcend physical laws and become a moral and spiritual guide to the connection between the shirt and the human body – both living and dead. The peculiar fusion of the shirt with the body and its perception by our people as a “second skin” also stands out. This notion is tied to the violence against the slave body and the removal of its natural protective barrier. And this unimaginable nakedness of the dead slave body is an example that the slave body, even in its death, is deprived of any protection.

Keywords: folklore; Bulgarian Renaissance; funeral; shirt; nudity; white; body

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