Authors

Giuseppe Motta¹;  ¹ Sapienza University, Italy

Discussion

At the turn between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Romania emerged as one of the most ambitious and influential States of South-Eastern Europe. Her position in the region was further strengthened by the great territorial expansion that the country experienced during the Second Balkan War and World War I. This naturally influenced the political and cultural discourse, with many intellectuals and politicians discussing on the role of Romania in Europe and in the Balkans, between the West and the East, and the overall process of modernization of the country. These debates were focused on the need of defining a Romanian way to modernization, reflecting upon the historical and geopolitical dimension of the country. This lively context of intellectual speculations focused on the psychology and identity of the Romanian people (C. Radulescu-Motru), its specificul național (Dimitrie Gusti), the spațiul mioritic (Lucian Blaga), and the Romanian dimension of existence. Finding a symbolic space on Europe’s mental map, at the same time, meant defining a Romanian identity to drive present and future development. It was necessary to find a sort of compromise between what Mircea Vulcanescu defined as the Two Romanias (Cele două Românii), which were not exclusively represented by the rural and urban dimensions of the country, but were also reflected on other latent oscillations: between the safeguard of Romanian position within the international security system and the spread of Romanian nationalism or Românismul; the rights of majority and minorities; the distance between old and new generations; the geopolitical projection towards Europe or the Balkans; modernism and anti-modernism; market economy or autarchy; Western liberalism and local Țărănism. This general irresolution tragically resulted in different ambiguities that, both under the economic and the political points of view, conditioned the fate of the country. The discourse on modernization finally turned into what can be described as a cul de sac, with the rediscovery of the village as the idealized space of Romanian identity and the response to the challenges posed by modernity.