Issue 12 of the “Herito” can be thought of as an integral collection of history, heritage, identity and culture of contemporary Romania, as written about by Lucian Boia, Traian Ungureanu, Dan Lungu, Marius Stan, Octavian Logigan and Olga Bartosiewicz, who try to answer the question “Why is Romania different?” by taking a closer look at its history, complicated transformation and sometimes paradoxical modernity. Valentina Iancu, Jakub Kornhauser, Olga Bartosiewicz, Małgorzata Rejmer and Łukasz Galusek write about literature, cinema and the plastic arts, which make Romania famous all over the world.
Tomasz Ogiński and Corina Bucea present the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest and the Paintbrush Factory in Cluj – ventures which have transformed Romania’s cultural map. Claudio Magris, Michał Korta, Adam Burakowski and Wojciech Bonowicz recommend significant books and interesting artists. Dieter Schlesak writes about the civilisation of the Transylvanian Saxons, the pitfalls of the 20th century history, the end of a nation and German-Romanian literature as a form of life after life.
Content
Editorial
Worth a look
Why is Romania different? Professor Lucian Boia talks to Cristian Pătrășconiu
Lucian Boia – Why is Romania different? Excerpts
Traian Ungureanu – Who’s had enough of Romania, and why?
Dan Lungu – The paradox of nostalgia over communism
Marius Stan – In our own view. People of cultural recognition before, during and after…
Octavian Logigan – The absent gadjo Gypsy and the present goy Jew
Olga Bartosiewicz – Does Romania need the myth of Central Europe?
Jakub Kornhauser – Surrealism’s second homeland. The mysterious heritage of the Romanian avant‑garde
Olga Bartosiewicz – Benjamin Fundoianu – the unknown face of Romanian modernism
Małgorzata Rejmer – The rulers and the exiles. The past and memory in Romanian cinema since 1989
Valentina Iancu – The invented peasant? Traditionalism in modern Romanian art
Łukasz Galusek – The Clujians
Corina Bucea – City meets art – how micro big bangs changed Cluj
Tomasz Ogiński – Museum of the Peasant
Michał Korta – A close‑up. On Nicu Ilfoveanu’s photography
Wojciech Bonowicz – The dark revelations of Max Blecher
Adam Burakowski – New after fifty years
Claudio Magris – Return to Transylvania, a spiritual Tower of Babel
Dieter Schlesak – Finis Saxoniae and the art of return