Nemzeti és regionális történelem egy sokszínű térségben: a bánsági történetírás a hosszú 19. században
National and Regional Pasts in a Colourful Region: Historical Scholarship in the Banat in the Long Nineteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: This study investigates historical scholarship produced in and about Banat, a heterogeneous region divided today by Romania and Serbia but belonging to the Kingdom of Hungary during the long nineteenth century. The first comprehensive history of the region was authored by the Venice-born Franz Griselini, whose narrative mirrored the Enlightenment and the modernization program of the Austrian government. Local narratives, framed in a Hungarus identity, emerged in the early 1860s by local, German-speaking authors. Yet, romantic and national historical scholarships produced the most influential visions of the past of the region. From the mid-nineteenth century on, Romanian scholars, based mostly in Bucharest, produced a powerful narrative, in which the Banat appeared as a genuinely Romanian territory. With a slight delay, Magyar historians affiliated with institutions in Budapest elaborated a Magyar master narrative, putting emphasis on the Hungarian chapters of the history of the Banat. A Serbian and a German national reading appeared, too, but these were less elaborate than the Romanian and Magyar ones. From the 1870s on, historians based in the Banat (many amateurs and a few professionals among them) authored several works discussing the history of their region. These local works were heavily influenced by the national master narratives and can be seen as the offspring of the pasts produced on the national level.

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