Nation-Building and Contested Identities - MEK

KINGA-KORETTA SATAmuch quicker than in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The Hungarianintellectuals in Transylvania became, in fact, models for the other minorities.Most importantly, the literature produced by Transylvanism provedto be a significant part of Hungarian culture of the time.NOTES1The journal numbered its volumes as a continuation of another journal thathad existed before, the Erdélyi Szemle, which it considered as its predecessor.Thus, the 1921 volume carried the number 7, and so on.2Sándor Reményik, “‘Biológiai tény’?” (“Biological fact”?), Pásztortûz 8(26 February 1922) 8, p. 227.3Sándor Reményik, “‘Önmaga mértékével’” (“With one’s own measure”), Pásztortûz7 (15 November 1921) 33, pp. 635-636.4Sándor Reményik, “Fajmagyarság” (Racial Hungarianness), Pásztortûz 8(22 January 1922) 3, p. 87.5Reményik, “Fajmagyarság,” pp. 86-87.6Reményik, “Fajmagyarság,” p. 87.7Reményik, “‘Biológiai tény’?” p. 226.8Reményik, “‘Biológiai tény’?” p. 226.9Reményik, “‘Biológiai tény’?” p. 226.10 Reményik, “‘Biológiai tény’?” p. 227.11 -r., “Rabindranath Tagore: Nationalismus,” Pásztortûz 7 (15 November 1921)33, p. 629.12 Sándor Reményik, “A nemzeti öntudat jellege” (The character of the nationalconsciousness), Pásztortûz 8 (5 March 1922) 9, pp. 278-279.13 Reményik, “A nemzeti öntudat jellege,” pp. 278-279. The idea that nations arenot equal and that there are superior nations that have the right to dictate toand even assimilate the rest, the inferior nations, is common in the philosophicalthought of the 19 th century. In this respect, there is no essential differencebetween the two prominent 19 th century Western political traditions: both liberaland socialist thinkers subscribe to the idea. John Stuart Mill, for example,sets up a hierarchy of nations, dividing them into “highly civilized and cultivated”peoples and the “half-savage relic(s) of past times, … an inferior and morebackward portion of the human race.” He considers that the upper part of thehierarchy, the civilized nations, should assimilate the nations on the lower partof the scale. Marx has a very similar scale of nations, with only a minimal divergenceas to the exact hierarchy of nations on the upper part of the scale. Forhim the basis for dividing the nations was the existence of centralized politicaland economic structures that made those on the upper part of the scale “thecarriers of historical development.”14 Reményik, “A nemzeti öntudat jellege,” pp. 278-279.15 Reményik, “A nemzeti öntudat jellege,” p. 279.16 Reményik, “‘Biológiai tény’?” p. 227.54