Cultural memory between the national and the transnational

Abstract

This study explores the dynamics of cultural memory against a transnational background. The paper offers a concise discussion of the concept of cultural memory as developed by Jan and Aleida Assmann and as qualified by the most recent scholarship. Focussing on aspects concerning practices of cultural memory, the analysis proceeds to examine a couple of decisive components of Romania's cultural identity. Over time, the arguments attempting to define this identity have drawn on strands of cultural memory that have defied strictly drawn borders: the Latin cultural connotations as embodied by the Romanian language and Eastern Orthodoxy. Mapping the convergence of these two strands within this particular illustration of cultural identity shows one way in which the concepts of cultural memory, of the national, and of the transnational can be applied to a concrete case.