Tudor Roșu

How Do We Celebrate a National Hero Today? The Transylvanian Avram Iancu and his Bicentennial

How Do We Celebrate a National Hero Today? The Transylvanian Avram Iancu and his Bicentennial

PhD Tudor Roșu

 The National Museum of Union

Alba Iulia, Romania

Abstract

Avram Iancu (1824-1872) is perhaps the most representative historical figure among Transylvanian Romanians, with a rich biography highlighted by the Revolution of 1848-1849. Known as the "King of the Mountains" to Transylvanian Romanians, he was immediately embraced as a national hero by Romanians beyond the mountains. However, he was often met with reservation, if not severe criticism or even stigmatization, in the rhetoric of otherness, particularly in the perception of Hungarian historiography. However, the way Avram Iancu’s personality and historical role have been approached in Romanian historiography and beyond, in over 150 years of works on this subject, has undergone numerous transformations. Since the presentation of such a personality to the general public is inherently tied to patriotic values, such approaches are often avoided by most contemporary historians. The current presentation aims to analyze, starting with the subject of Avram Iancu, how our relationship to history has changed, how thin the border between patriotism and chauvinism is perceived today, how "we are still allowed" to get excited about historical figures, what is considered disturbing and what is not in the historical information we pass on to new generations, and why, for example, the disturbing "doses" have increased compared to the historical content of 20 or 50 years ago. Alternatively, from another angle, how critical thinking shapes our perception of history.

Keywords: national hero, Transylvania, historical representation, perception, values

Bibliography:

Gelu Neamțu, Avram Iancu. Mit, realitate, simbol, Ed. Argonaut, 2012.

Pompiliu Teodor, Avram Iancu în memorialistică, Ed. Dacia, 1972.

Silviu Dragomir, Avram Iancu. O viață de erou, Ed. Școala Ardeleană, 2022.

Biodata

Deputy Manager at the National Museum of Union Alba Iulia (Romania).

In 2007 he obtained his PhD at the University of Alba Iulia. He is a member of the editorial committee of the journal Apulum: Acta Musei Apulensis. He has published over 60 academic publications and his subjects of interest include: cultural history at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century; the First World War; the year 1918 and the Romanian unification process; film and cinema between 1900 and 1960; and imaginary and other representations of the West in the communist period. His main publications are: August Treboniu Laurian (1810–1881): discurs istoric romantic [August Treboniu Laurian (1810–1881): Romantic historical discourse] (Cluj-Napoca: Accent, 2008); 1 Decembrie 1918. Radiografia unei zile [1 December 1918: The radiography of a day] (Cluj-Napoca: Mega, 2021); and Încoronarea de la Alba Iulia [The Coronation in Alba Iulia] (Cluj-Napoca and Alba Iulia: Mega, Editura MNUAI, 2022); and, as editor/coordinator: The Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920) and Its Aftermath. Settlements, Problems and Perceptions (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020); The Paris Peace Conference and Its Consequences in Early -1920s Europe (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023).