The risk of losing national identity in the twenty-first century Romania, or national identity from adaptation to self-censorship

Abstract

In the contemporary world of extremely dynamic movements in the fields of territorial state reconfiguration, economic “colonization”, globalization, Europeanization, migration of population, borrowing of cultural values and intensified cultural exchange or transfer, defining national identity has become a process which registers numerous changes and encounters various challenges. The classical features that assisted this process of defining national identity in the past – a historic territory, common myths, historical memories and values, a common public culture, common legal rights and duties, a common economy with territorial mobility (A. D. Smith 1991: 14) – undergo significant transformations each decade and the definition of a nation’s identity calls for important reconsiderations. One aspect worth considering is that of losing or self-censoring one’s national identity due to a nation’s own intention or some external demands of adaptation to general aspects of political, economic, financial, social, or cultural nature. Our paper intends to explore some of the causes or factors that might lead to twenty-first century Romania’s weakening, degradation or loss of national identity and suggest some possible solutions against such a process.