Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

The Idea of the “Nation” in Transylvanismethical community, the nation. This situation implies, however, that allattempts that are not “spiritual” enough are regarded as almost meaningless,or, at least, of very little relevance. Thus, not only concrete politicalinterests, but also economic ones, are declared to be false reflections, anduseless to pursue. The actual goals of Transylvanism (as, for instance, there-organization of the Hungarian university, or the establishing of culturalinstitutions, etc.) were all supposed to be achieved by the mere virtue ofhaving a right to them, without any extra effort on the part of the minority,without negotiations or any other actions. The Transylvanist programwas thus only declaring the claims of the minority, passively waiting forthem to come true.By transforming suffering into a positive asset, and a value-producingstate of being, Transylvanism denied the appropriateness of a pleasant,comfortable way of life for the members of the minority, and set the generaltone to melancholic and even to tragic. The image of the communityprovided by the Transylvanist discourse is that of a lonely (abandoned)suffering people, who, nevertheless, are even more valuable than their fellow-Hungarians,due exactly to their suffering. They appear as the “chosenpeople” because their suffering becomes meaningful as they are theones who are going to “save” the world. For them, suffering is the primemeaning of their life, and collective redemption (of their own and ofhumanity) is their prime purpose. Redemption can be achieved by “stayingalive,” by sticking to the land. The central figures of this imaginedcommunity are the intellectuals in general, and especially the poets, whoare vested with the knowledge of the truth and the task of professing it tothe ignorant people.There are, however, more positive aspects of Transylvanism, as well.For instance, it does not limit membership in the national community.Anyone, who believes himself/herself to be a part of the minority, is alsoa member of the Hungarian nation. Of course, this essentially implies theacceptance of the values advocated by Transylvanism. Another positiveaspect of Transylvanism would be its emphasis on the issue of inter-ethnictolerance and the equal right of all nations in Transylvania to completeself-determination. One can realize that this is an important aspect ofTransylvanism if one remembers that this intellectual trend experiencedits climax in the 1920s and 1930s, a time when East-Central Europe cameto be dominated by extreme nationalism.Transylvanism was a strange amalgam of democratic ideas and ofbeliefs that are not in accordance with the democratic values. In its ideologicalsystem, it mixed “conservative” and “progressive” elements and itsprinciples often contradicted each other. The ideology, however, provedto be successful. In Transylvania, the Hungarians organized themselves53