Conceptul de caracter național în istoriografia săsească în secolele al XVIII-lea și prima jumătatea a secolului al XIX-lea
The Concept of National Character in Transylvanian Saxons’ Historiography from the 18th to the First Half of the 19th Century

Summary/Abstract: Although a highly controversial concept and for the last decades a topic commonly visited by the social scientists, the notion of the “national character” was initially investigated in the histori(ographi)cal writings. In my view, every qualitative research which seriously considers a satisfactory content analysis cannot deny the relevance of the approach from a historical perspective. Usually, the major landmarks/criteria considered in the debate from the 17th to the long 19th century texts concerned with this topic, outlined the importance of the climate or of the institutions, ethnic genealogies and the confessional belonging, also, playing a vital role in the accounts promoted. The elaboration of this concept within the elite culture(s) and its dissemination in larger social strata turned it into a discursive recurrence and it even became a popular mode of discussing group identities. Explicitly or not, otherness and its representation has remained a key reference in this rhetoric. Living for centuries in a multiethnic milieu, Transylvanian Saxons were interested to address the notion of “national character” in texts aimed both for in-group usage (e.g. edification), as well as, for promoting themselves in the consciousness of the others. It may be claimed that the debate had only infrequently to do with climatological explanations but rather insisted on honorable idolized/idealized ethnic genealogies going back in the classical and late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although making frequent references to otherness, Saxons’ attempts to define and work within the paradigm of the national character, may also be seen as a reflex of the confessionalization which involved processes of social disciplining, and eventually lead to the forging of a specific national group identity. As the texts I am referring to, written by Martin Felmer, Michael Lebrecht and Martin Schnell, show it, Saxons’ concern with the topic was much earlier than the recent secondary bibliography has demonstrated. Yet more, a comparative perspective lead me to the conclusion that in this self-definition process, the Saxons not only historicized the inventory of attributes assumed as definable but also, succeeded to properly manage, control and disseminate them in-group and out-group.

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