National Ideology Under Socialism

The current transformation of many Eastern European societies is impossible to understand without comprehending the intellectual struggles surrounding nationalism in the region. Anthropologist Katherine Verdery shows how the example of Romania suggests that current ethnic tensions come not from a resurrection of pre-Communist Nationalism but from the strengthening of national ideologies under Communist Party rule.

Katherine Verdery is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, and the author of Transylvanian Villagers (California, 1983).

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Introduction: Ideology, Cultural Politics, Intellectuals
Concepts and Terms
Ideology, Legitimacy, Hegemony
The Politics of Culture
Intellectuals
Methods
Organization of the Book
PART ONE: FRAMEWORKS
1
Antecedents: National Ideology and Cultural Politics in Presocialist Romania
Seventeenth through Nineteenth Centuries
How Romanian Identity Was Represented:The Question of Origins
State Formation and Westernism
Romanticism, Dacianism, and the "National Essence"
Recapitulation
1900 to World War II
Defining the Nation Between East and West
The Social Efficacy of Debates on the Nation
Intellectuals Defend the Nation and Construct Themselves
Intellectuals and the Disciplines
2
Modeling Socialism and Socialist Cultural Politics
The Dynamics of "Real Socialism"
Maximization Principles and Bureaucratic Allocation
Weak States and the Mode of Control
Socialism and Cultural Production
3
The Suppression and Reassertion of National Values in Socialist Romania
General Developments in Romanian Politics after 1947
From Minion to Maverick: The Romanian Party Draws Away from Soviet
Domination
Eliminating Reformism
Regime Relations with Intellectuals
The Reassertion of National Ideology in Romanian Culture and Politics
Why National Ideology?
PART TWO: CASES
4
The Means of Conflict: "Elitism," "Dogmatism," and Indigenizations of Marxism
Foreign Imports, "Universality," and Representativeness
"Elitism" and Cognizant Publics
"Fascists," "Dogmatists," and "Proletcultists"
Genealogical Appropriations: Eminescu as Proto-Marxist
5
Romanian Protochronism
Clarifications
The Birth of Protochronism
Writers and Party in Socialist Romania 
Protochronism and Politics 
The Determination of Value 
Press Runs, Literary Canons, and Influence Within the Writers' Union 
Cultural Authority, "Elitism," and Genealogical Appropriations 
Competing Values and the Concentration of Culture in the Apparatus 
Protochronism and Shortage 
6
Historiography in a Party Mode: Horea's Revolt and the Production of History
Parameters of the Production of History in Socialist Romania
The Debate over Horea's Revolt
The Events
Meanings of the Debate
The Actors
The "Revolution" and National Identity
The "Uprising," Science, and Europe
The Production of the Debate: Individual and Institutional Competition
The Centralization of Historiography under Political Control
Historiography in a Party Mode
7
The "School" of Philosopher Constantin Noica
Who Was Constantin Noica?
The Battle over Noica as a Contest for Representativeness
The Definition of Philosophy and the Claims of Intellectuals
Salvation through Culture and the Production of Urgency
Representativeness and the Process of Cultural Reproduction
From Cultural Creation to Political Action
Unifying the Field of Opposition:Philosophy, Literary Criticism, and Ethics
Noicism, Power, and the Question of Audience
Conclusion
National Ideology under Socialism
Intellectuals, Opposition, and the Power of Discourse
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX