What Cultural Hegemony was More Convenient?
What Cultural Hegemony was More Convenient?

Transylvanian Romanians’ Self-Representation in the Multicultural Imperial Ethno-/Historiographical Project

Summary/Abstract: In this study I explore the role of subjectivity in the scientific discourses dedicated to the construction of the self-image of an ethnic group (i.e. the Romanians) within the ethno-/historiographical projects patronized by the central authorities in Austria-Hungary at the end of the long 19th century. My study considers Ioan Slavici’s and Grigore/Gergely Moldovan’s essays dedicated to the self-representation of their in-group within the Dualist Empire. I examine how two top Transylvanian Romanian intellectuals shaped their discourses according to the poles of power (Vienna respectively Budapest) to which they personally referred to as contributors to development of the Transylvanian Romanians’ culture. In other words, I show how these two authors sketched the self-image of the Transylvanian Romanians in multicultural scientific projects whose main readership was an elevated and official German language readership. I concentrate on the manner in which, in turn, Slavici and Moldovan accepted or disregarded cultural Habsburg/German, respectively, Magyar hegemonies over the Transylvanian Romanians in the process of designing a self-image of their Kulturnation.

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