The Old New Soul of the Interwar Romanian Thought

After the minimum criteria for unity - a common language and a unified polity - have been achieved in the aftermath of the Great War, the monopoly over Romanian identity in the interwar period has been strongly contested by several parties. Debating what is the direction that Romanian thought should take in the burgeoning plurality of ideas and concepts that have begun to take root, a few voices have emerged, some with a stronger echo than others. In this regard, Romania's situation is not entirely different from that of Germany or Italy. However, whereas Germany saw its national monument unfolding at the end of the Great War, for Romania it was a matter of fulfilling the aspirations of the new spirit through the now unified Romanian cultural space. Having accomplished its hitherto historical imperative, this new soul underwent a brief identity crisis in order to redefine its ideology, which left enough space for the old spirit to resurface. Amidst this crisis, culture ultimately became a political ideology. And this ideology is the essence of the old new soul of the interwar Romanian thought. In addition to the need to formulate a coherent philosophy of culture, Romanian thinkers also faced the challenge of developing a politics of culture to go along with it.