Ionel N. Sava, From Political Nostalgia to Cultural Trauma? Hungary’s European Dilemma a Hundred Years After Trianon

This study uses a sociological perspective in order to illustrate the transfer of Hungary’s political nostalgia into the cultural trauma of the Trianon Treaty. The author describes the collective journey that persuades domestic and foreign audiences to observe the making of a new narrative by using the legendary ingredients of the past. In the process, the Hungarian Diaspora is playing a surprising active role. Along the road, other narratives—the 1940’s deportations, the Holocaust and the Soviet invasion of 1956—are substituted by the collective sufferings generated by the international decision of 4 June 1920 that eventually turned into a sort of cultural trauma. Hungary’s post-socialism tends to be inspired by the interwar period once again and therefore to become revisionist and litigious. However, taking into account the current quarrels between Budapest and the European institutions in Brussels, the author evaluates the possibility of Hungary solving its European dilemma and looking for a reconciliation with its neighbors. It seems quite reasonable that parochial wishes should not to clash with the European ones.