Abstract
Reading Romanian history textbooks, one does not get the feeling that the “Romanian nation” is an “imagined community” (Anderson, 1991) or a “creation of modernity, [a] creation of an elite” (Boia, 2005, p. 40). Rather, the nation is presented as a natural and unstoppable development brought about by the inherent logic of history. Likewise, national identity is offered as the most salient identity category in the historical narrative - the one category that can explain every major historical event. These rhetorical and epistemological choices do not only favor the currently dominant demographic group that describes itself as ethnic Romanian (whose members now have proof that they are the premier inheritors of all things Romanian), but they also position the students who read these textbooks to internalize an unproblematic account of true Romanian identity – an account that does not allow them any freedom to negotiate the nuances of their identity for themselves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson B. Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. New York, NY: Verso; 1991.
Apple MW. Cultural politics and education. New York, NY: Teacher’s College, Columbia University; 1996.
Apple MW. Official knowledge: Democratic education in a conservative age. New York, NY: Routledge; 2000.
Apple MW, Christian Smith LK. The politics of the textbook. New York, NY: Routledge; 1991.
Benwell B, Stokoe E. Discourse and identity. Edinburgh, Great Britain: Edinburgh University Press; 2006.
Boia L. Două secole de mitologie naţională [Two centuries of national mythology]. Bucharest, Romania: Humanitas; 2005.
Boia L. History and myth in Romanian consciousness. Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press; 1997.
Burleac L, Lazăr L, Teodorescu B. Istoria românilor [The history of the Romanians]. Bucharest, Romania: ALL Educational; 2005.
Carey J. Communication as culture: Essays on media and society. New York, NY: Routledge; 1992.
Dewey J. Democracy and education. Boston, MA: IndyPublish.com; 2003.
Elliott A, du Gay P. Identity in question. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 2009.
Fairclough N. Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. New York, NY: Routledge; 2003.
Fairclough N. Language and power. New York, NY: Longman; 1989.
Freire P. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum; 2000.
Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Towards an interpretive theory of culture. The interpretation of cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers.
Giordano G. Twentieth-century textbook wars: A history of advocacy and opposition. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing; 2003.
Giroux H. Theory and resistance in education: A pedagogy for the opposition. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey; 1983.
Giurescu DC, Berciu-Drăghicescu A, Grigore SD. Istorie [History]. Bucharest, Romania: SIGMA; 2006.
Hall S. The problem of ideology-Marxism without guarantees. Journal of Communication Inquiry. 1986;10:28–44.
Hall S. Who needs “identity”? In: du Gay P, Evans J, Redman P, editors. Identity: A reader. New York, NY: Sage Publications Inc.; 2000. p. 15–30.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.
Johnsen EB. Textbooks in the kaleidoscope: A critical survey of literature and research on educational texts. Oslo, Norway: Scandinavian University Press; 1993.
McGee MC. The “ideograph”: A link between rhetoric and ideology. The Quarterly Journal of Speech. 1980;66(1).
McLaren, P. (2009). Critical pedagogy: A look at the major concepts. In A. Darder, M. P. Baltodano, & R. D. Torres, R.D. (Eds.), The critical pedagogy reader (pp. 69-96). New York, NY: Routledge.
Phillips N, Hardy C. Discourse analysis: Investigating processes of social construction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2002.
Sen A. Identity and violence. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.; 2006.
Shor I. Empowering education: Critical teaching for social change. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1992.
Toolan M. What is Critical Discourse Analysis and why are people saying such terrible things about it? Language and Literature. 1997;6(2):83–103.
Vande Kopple WJ. Some exploratory discourse on metadiscourse. College Composition and Communication. 1985;36(1):82–93.
Van Dijk, T. A. (1997). The study of discourse. In T. A. Van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as a structure and process (pp. 1-34).
Van Dijk, T. A. (2001). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 352-371).
Wodak, R., & Reisigl, M. (2001). Discourse and racism. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 372-395).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Sense Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sibii, R. (2012). Imagining Nation in Romanian History Textbooks. In: Hickman, H., Porfilio, B.J. (eds) The New Politics of the Textbook. Constructing Knowledge, vol 2. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-930-5_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-930-5_15
Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam
Online ISBN: 978-94-6091-930-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)
