Attachment to Transylvania in the Discourse of the Cultural Elite: On Hans Bergel
Attachment to Transylvania in the Discourse of the Cultural Elite: On Hans Bergel

Summary/Abstract: Hans Bergel, born into the Transylvanian Saxon community, was a multifaceted personality: writer, journalist, musician, and sportsman, as well as an anti-communist dissident, political prisoner, and advocate for human rights. In this study, we examine his case and experience in order to explore Transylvanian Saxons’ attachment to the region of Transylvania and in broader sense to Romania as a homeland, particularly in the context of decisions to emigrate. Our hypothesis is that elite discourse—as an expression of emotional and cultural attachment to both Transylvania and Romania—is key to understanding the role that people-place bonds had in the emigration of Transylvanian Saxons to Germany. To pursue this inquiry, we analyzed a range of texts authored by or about Hans Bergel. We first applied thematic content analysis to identify major recurring topics, followed by a qualitative discourse analysis of these narrative sources. We concluded that Hans Bergel embodies the complex and ambivalent emotional landscape that arises from the conflicted relationship an emigrant or exiled often develops with their homeland and adoptive country. Furthermore, as he experienced a cultural rupture with his homeland, caused by communist ideology and political violence, home is both a place of attachment and a wound.

• Details
• Contents