National Identity of Romanians in Transylvania
This meticulously researched and elegantly written book is the most authoritative study of the emergence of modern Romanian identity in Transylvania during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Based upon a plethora of contemporary published sources, Mitu approaches national identity from a variety of perspectives - from within the Romanian community itself and their reaction to the image others had of them.
The author sheds new light on the problems of self-evaluation using a method he describes as "functional analysis" to examine a complex set of ideologies and propaganda. This approach helps the reader to understand the intricate web of contemporary Romanian nationalism.
National Identity of Romanians in Transylvania appeals to scholars of modern Romanian history, those focusing on the Habsburg Monarchy and the study of modern nationalism. The book is an important contribution to the expanding debate on nationalism and national identity from an East European perspective.
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION: THE ARGUMENT
Motivations, Conceptual Background
Why a Self-image?
Why the Transylvanian Romanians?
Why the Beginning of the Modern Era?
Sources and Methods
Notes
I. SELF-IMAGE AND IMAGES CONSTRUCTED BY OTHERS
Reflection on One’s Own Condition as a Reaction to Images Constructed by Others
Should the Romanians Reply to Calumnies Uttered by Others?
The Reasons for the Slander
The Romanians, Object of Envy for Foreigners
Perpetually Wronged, Deserted, Forgotten and Betrayed
The Universal Conspiracy against the Romanians
The Romanians as the Laughing-stock of Others…
...but They Will Show the Others (in the Long Run)
Notions of Comparative Imagology among the Transylvanian Romanians of a Hundred and Fifty Years Ago
A More Refined Attitude to the Images Constructed by Others
Notes
II. NEGATIVE DIMENSION OF THE SELF-IMAGE
The Romanians as Self-denigrators: Should They Denigrate
Themselves as Well or Not?
Cultural Backwardness
The Romanians as Occupying the Lowest Place
The Romanians Compared to the Gypsies
The Romanians compared to the Jews
Moral and Behavioural “Flaws” Due to the Nation’s “Specificity”
Lack of Zeal for the National Cause
Keeping to the (Bad) Old Ways: Romanian Hostility towards Progress
“Forms without Substance”: The Moral Corruption of the Romanians by Modern Civilisation
The Unhappy Lot of the Romanians
Notes
III.IN BETWEEN THE GOOD AND THE BAD
Idle or Diligent?
“Idle”
“Diligent”
Resistance to Denationalisation--Open towards Assimilation or Resistant to It?
The Capacity for Ethnic–Racial Resistance
The Mixed Marriage as a Means of Altering Ethnic Purity
Denationalisation: Stigmatising the Élites as Promoters of Assimilation
The Shame of Being a Romanian
Notes
IV.THE HISTORICAL DIMENSION OF THE POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE
Generalities
No Different from Others: The Romanians’ Growing Trust in Their Own Powers
The Compensatory Function of History
Latin Origins
Saviours of Christian Europe in the Middle Ages
Notes
V.THE POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE: BASICS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY
Moral and Behavioural “Qualities”: An Ethnic-Psychological Profile.
The Number and Spreading of the Romanians
The “Spreading” of the Romanians: The Need to Enlarge the Sphere of National Identity
The Number of Romanians: “We Are Many”; “We Are the Most Numerous”
The Number of Romanians: The Whirligig of Figures
Language and Alphabet
The Ideological Reconstruction of the Language
The Alphabet
Church and Religion
Generalities: Preliminaries and Context
Representations of the Relationship between Church and Nationality
The Venerable Age and Purity of Romanian Christianity as Features of National Identity
The Four Identity-related Formulas of Romanian Pluri-confessionalism
The Greek Catholic Formula
The Orthodox Formula
“The Third Way”: Unity of Confessions
The Romanians’ Religious Disunity
Notes
VI.CONCLUSIONS
Notes
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Period Sources.
1.1 Unpublished Manuscripts and Documents
1.2 Papers and Periodicals
1.3 Calendars
1.4 Old Books (1780–1830)
1.5 Books (1831–1861)
1.6 Published Correspondence: Volumes and Sets
1.7 Political Memoirs and Petitions
1.8 Poetry: Volumes and Sets
1.9 Anthologies, Document Collections, Working Tools, Critical Editions, Subsequent Re-edits
2. Sources Referring to Other Periods (Late Nineteenth to Twentieth Century
3. Secondary Sources (Specialised Bibliography)
Index