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• The Interpretation of Strangeness and its Impact on the Local Society in Beregdéda, Transcarpathia

  87-106

  Julianna Kohut-Ferki

  Views:

  108

  My work focuses on the different patterns of experiencing strangeness. Based on my ethnographic fieldwork in Beregdéda, Transcarpathia, Ukraine, I try to reflect on why the articulation of strangeness becomes necessary, and how does the appearance of the stranger modify, erode, rebuild or create symbolic boundaries between the Hungarian-Ukrainian-Gypsy ethnic groups living together. At the time of the fieldwork, in spring 2015, the Ukrainian-Russian war conflict provided a breeding ground for stereotypical perceptions of ethnicity, while the appearance of the stranger tourist also led to the strengthening of the relationship between Ukrainians, Hungarians and Gypsies in the local society, and to the formation of a united front. The understanding of the stranger is constantly changing in line with the various regional and global cultural and economic processes and is formulated with individual interests in mind.

• Literacy of lower social classes at the turn of the century: Letters in the First World War

  37-50

  Csilla Schell

  Views:

  163

  The paper discusses the literacy of lower classes in the last decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and focuses on the correspondence of the First World War. Besides briefly reviewing the general contexts for the literacy of lower social classes (education, legislation), the paper discusses language/ethnicity issues as well. By summarizing linguistic remarks from selected research papers, the author underlines that the large number of letters was due to the increased need for communication and these pieces of writing reflect the literacy and the language of the masses; consequently, wartime correspondence is an accurate reflection of the communica­tion of lower social classes.

• Competing Nationality Politics Targeting German Communities at the Hungarian-Romanian Border Zone after the Great War

  71-86

  Levente Szilágyi

  Views:

  166

  In my study, I focus on the events that took place in the short period after the Great War ended (1918) and before the consolidation of Romanian power in the Hungarian-Romanian Border Commission (1922) from the point of view of the artificially created ethnic category: the Satu Mare Swabians or Sathmar Swabians. The historiography related to the “ethnographic” aspects of these events have appeared multiple times and in several contexts and forms in the years since. However, the question of ethnicity has not arisen in relation to the population of German descent, but rather in relation to the Hungarian-speaking Greek Catholic communities of Romanian and Rusyn/Ruthenian origin who were treated by the Romanian side as Magyarized Romanians. Following this example, the Romanians later began to collect data on the Magyarized Germans, which they then presented to the Border Commission. Germans living in the territory witnessed a strong competition between identity politics and discourse supported by rival Hungarian and Romanian states. One of the key features of this rivalry was the intensive propaganda activity promoted by both the Romanian and the Hungarian authorities to gain territories to the detriment of the other.