New Europe College Regional Program Yearbook 2001-2002

N.E.C. Yearbook 2001-2002
94 As Gellner argued in his replies to critics, the passion of nationalism is very
present in his theory: “the passion is not a means to a particular end, it is a
reaction to an intolerable situation, to a constant jarring in the activity which
is by far the most important thing in life – contact and communication with
fellow human beings”, Gellner, Reply to Critics, quoted in John Hall, (ed,)
op. cit., p. 12.
95 Brendan O’Leary, op. cit., p. 43.
96 Taylor, Nationalism and Modernity, p. 45.
97 Op. cit., p. 44.
98 Op. cit., p. 45.
99 Different national identities can become a “tribal stigma”. Sorin Antohi
describes the devastating consequences of becoming aware of the stigma in
Romanian space in the chapter “Cioran and the Romanian Stigma. Identitary
Mechanism and Radical Definitions of Identity”, in Civitas Imaginalis, p.
208.
100 Communication between Basarabian intellectuals and their Romanian
“brothers” was possible in an indirect way: through the libraries and
bookshops of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
101 Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, pp. 92-98.
102 Michael Ignatieff, “Nationalism and Toleration”, in Europe’s New Nationalism,
State and Minorities in Conflict, (eds.,) Richard Caplan&John Feffer, Oxford
University Press, 1996, pp. 212-231, p. 225.
103 Ignatieff, op. cit., p. 213.
104 Charles Taylor, in The Ethnics of Authenticity, Harvard University Press,
1991, analyses the need for authenticity in nationalist struggle, as well as in
multicultural movements of the contemporary world.
105 Klaus Heitmann, Limbã ºi politicã în Republica Moldova, Chiºinãu, ARC,
1998, p. 141.
106 Due to the linguistic inferiority, being Moldovan became a kind of stigma.
According to psychological approaches stated by the book of Erving
Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, stigma is
produced when somebody accepts the perspective of the other over his
own identity and this leads to shame, humility, self-hate. Of course, one
condition for the appearance of tribal stigma was the meeting of Moldovans
with Romanians. Usually, being in Romania, Moldovans try to hide the
linguistic difference, particularly the phonetic differences that are considered
ridiculous. But now there is stigma even among Moldovans. Moldovans,
who speak their native language “correctly”, fluently, without stuttering,
consider ridiculous those who still speak the archaic dialect.
107 For an explanation of the case of Hebrew and Norwegian languages see
Language and Nationalism in Europe, (ed.) Stephen Barbour & Cathie
Carmichael, Oxford University Press, 2000, and Thiesse Anne-Marrie,
Crearea identitãþilor naþionale în Europa, secolele XVIII-XX, traducere A.
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