Empty Signs, Historical Imaginaries: The Entangled Nationalization of Names and Naming in a Late Habsburg Borderland

Ágoston Berecz

Published by Berghahn Books 2020

Empty Signs, Historical Imaginaries

The Entangled Nationalization of Names and Naming in a Late Habsburg Borderland

Ágoston Berecz

Volume 27 in the series Austrian and Habsburg Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781789206357

Overview
Contents

About this book

Set in a multiethnic region of the nineteenth-century Habsburg Empire, this thoroughly interdisciplinary study maps out how the competing Romanian, Hungarian and German nationalization projects dealt with proper names. With particular attention to their function as symbols of national histories, Berecz makes a case for names as ideal guides for understanding historical imaginaries and how they operate socially. In tracing the changing fortunes of nationalization movements and the ways in which their efforts were received by mass constituencies, he provides an innovative and compelling account of the historical utilization, manipulation, and contestation of names.

Author / Editor information

Ágoston Berecz is Research Fellow at Pasts, Inc., Center for Historical Studies, Budapest.

Reviews

“The research was extensive and, I can imagine, difficult. In addition to linguistic complications, religious affiliation, nationalism, and class distinction make the interpretation of data (differences between rural and urban, state employees, and intelligentsia) challenging. …Berecz’s study is an important addition to a growing corpus of research and historiographical debates that are sure to continue in the future.” • Journal of Romanian Studies

“Berecz proves to be an erudite and sure-footed guide to a complex and hard-to-interpret body of data… Overall, Berecz has written a rich and fascinating work, which brings much not just to historians interested in onomastics and toponymy, but to those wanting to understand the complex social worlds behind the development of modern national identities in east central Europe in the crucial period before the First World War.” • Slavic Review

“The result of his research is not only a source of useful information for researchers interested in this subject, but also the outcome of the new trend of historiography, characterized by approaching innovative sources and methods which are quite difficult to relate to the history of nationalities, in order to finally bring a fresh perspective upon some much researched topics.” • Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Ser Historia

“…a fine scholarly work.” • Slavonic & East European Review

“This fascinating monograph provides an exhaustive and remarkably archival-based discussion of the sociocultural history of competing and intertwined nationalizing processes…While it is devoted to a seemingly narrow subject, Berecz’s monograph calls attention to the crucial symbolic relevance of the nationalization of proper names. It thus constitutes a major contribution to the study of nationhood and nationalism.” • Hungarian Historical Review

“This book remains an outstanding piece of scholarship. Berecz, who previously published a superb study of efforts to Magyarize Transylvanian schools, has established himself not only as an important expert on late Habsburg Transylvania, but as the leading authority on Magyarization.” • Central European History

“An impressive and stunningly original study that makes a significant contribution to the field, using hitherto entirely unexplored source material.” • Monika Baár, Leiden University

“With Empty Signs, Historical Imaginaries, Berecz raises the methodological bar for future generations of nationalism scholars and commendably trailblazes new paths of inquiry. This is a meticulously researched, tightly argued, and brilliantly executed work on a subject too often neglected.” • Tomasz Kamusella, University of St. Andrews

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Notes on Text Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Peasants
1. Under Ancestral Masks Name-Giving Nationalized Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
2. Family Names on the Ground Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
3. Place Names and Etymologies from Below Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Part II. Nationalisms
4. Faces of the Self-Other Contact-Influenced Family Names in Discourse and Practice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
5. Dimensions of Family-Name Magyarization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
6. Signposts over the Land Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Part III. The State
7. Floreas into Virágs State Regulation of First Names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
8. The Most Correct Ways to Spell One’s Name Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
9. The Grand Toponymic Manoeuvre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
Appendix A. Tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	274
Appendix B. Place-Name Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 350
Keywords: History: 18th/19th Century

eBook

Published: March 20, 2020
ISBN: 9781789206357