Styles of Communication, Vol 1, No 1 (2009)

Abstract

This article attempts to define the specificity of Transylvanian Romanians in the Dualist period. The article presents a list of material and symbolic identifying components and the way in which they are revealed by the sources of the time. Identity appears as a sum of elements, material and symbolic, which define and particularize the constitutive ethnic substance. History, geography, as well as the number and dissemination of the Romanians are factors that offer legitimacy, being used as arguments in the favour of the rights and identity of Transylvanian Romanians. National holidays, heroes, the national anthem and the banner are symbols of the nation. Other elements such as language, culture, religion and also psychology and folklore are elements that complete the list of self-knowledge. The article points out the following: as a type, identity of the Romanians is mainly founded on the organicist model, more precisely the Herderian one, the Romanians assert their identity in a persuasive and argumentative manner and the intellectuals’ main goal was to affirm the distinctive and particular features, which could have assured the survival and the safeguarding of the nation.