THE CITY AS AN IDEOLOGICAL PALIMPSEST: REACTUALIZING THE MIDDLE AGES AND COLLOQUIAL NATIONALISM IN THE URBAN TOPONYMY OF CLUJ-NAPOCA
THE CITY AS AN IDEOLOGICAL PALIMPSEST: REACTUALIZING THE MIDDLE AGES AND COLLOQUIAL NATIONALISM IN THE URBAN TOPONYMY OF CLUJ-NAPOCA

Summary/Abstract: This study investigates the construction of national identity in contemporary Romania through the lens of critical toponymy, proposing the concept of colloquial nationalism to describe the tacit, everyday acceptance of nationalizing practices. Focusing on the municipality of Cluj-Napoca, we analyze the city as an ideological palimpsest, where the city-text has been successively rewritten by shifting political regimes—from the Austro-Hungarian period to the Interwar era, Communism, and the post-1989 transition. The research highlights how administrative power instrumentalizes the Middle Ages to legitimize current political narratives. We analyze the spatial displacement of historical figures from the city center (intramuros) to peripheral neighborhoods, and their substitution with the names of historians—a trend suggesting a preference for the creators of the historical narrative over the historical actors themselves. By decoding these hodonymic shifts, the article demonstrates how urban nomenclature serves as a tool for power, generating a "nationalism of disillusionment" where lived history diverges from the official, written history inscribed on the city streets.

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