THE ROMANIA-YUGOSLAVIA BORDER's CLOSINGS

CROSSINGS AND DWELLINGS, OR THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE BLACK BOX: THE ROMANIA-YUGOSLAVIA BORDER’s CLOSINGS AND OPENINGS, 1940’s TO 1980’s A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Master of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2012 COSMIN RADU SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES CONTENTS 1. ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................ 3 2. DECLARATION .................................................................................................................... 4 3. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ................................................................................................. 5 4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................... 6 5. THESIS OUTLINE................................................................................................................. 7 6. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 8 7. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES ................................................................ 13 8. BORDERS: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT......................................... 15 8.1. BORDERS ..................................................................................................................... 15 8.2. STATE ........................................................................................................................... 22 8.3. QUESTIONS OF BECOMING: A FURTHER EMPHASIS ON BORDERS.............. 29 8.4. BORDER BECOMING AND THE BLACK BOX....................................................... 41 9. DATA DESCRIPTION AND METHODOLOGY: FIELDWORK, FICTION AND ETHNOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................... 47 10. THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE BORDER...................................................................... 56 10.1. THREE FICTION NOVELS IN CONTEXT .............................................................. 56 10.2. CLOSING THE BORDER-BLACK BOX .................................................................. 64 10.2.1. Undeva pe Dunǎre (Somewhere at the Danube)................................................... 64 10.2.2. La borna 203 (At the landmark 203)..................................................................... 72 10.3. OPENING THE BORDER-BLACK BOX? ................................................................ 81 10.3.1. Iluzia (The Illusion)............................................................................................... 81 10.4. THE (IM)POSSIBILITY OF THE BORDER-BLACK BOX..................................... 90 10.4.1. Building a dam on the Danube.............................................................................. 92 10.4.2. Before the dam ...................................................................................................... 93 10.4.3. After the dam....................................................................................................... 103 10.4.4. Dwelling and crossing......................................................................................... 111 10.4.5. Crossing, in practice and fantasy ........................................................................ 122 11. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................................... 128 12. BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................. 137 Final word count, including footnotes and references: 60,275 2 1. ABSTRACT The Cold War border regimes between Romania and Yugoslavia were not only aimed at securitising the Romanian territory from any Western infiltrations, but also at actively imposing the party state, in physical and ideological form, antagonising and settling consensus among groups and individuals within the Romanian border area. The early Stalinist border regime established a harsh defence apparatus oriented both towards and beyond the country’s territory, with multiple possibilities of action and subjection. In contrast with developments that led to the internalisation of a growing everyday feeling of the state and border’s illegitimacy, the party’s apparatus of culture produced visions of consensus, stability, and control at the frontier, in the context of an intense class struggle strengthened by alliances between borderlanders, party representatives, and the military. By analysing three fiction novels – La borna 203, Undeva pe Dunǎre (Alexandru Jar) and Iluzia (Ion Lotreanu) – the thesis explores different constructions (proletcult/socialist realist and modernist) of the frontier between Romania and Yugoslavia in two periods. The first period refers to the Romanian sovietisation and break-up of relations with Yugoslavia, as of the 1950’s. The second period concerns the de-sovietisation of the 1960’s and the re- enactment of good relations with Yugoslavia. Using actor network theory, as well as other theoretical inputs, the thesis follows the border along processes that attempt to objectify and ‘close’ it into a black box. Also, it points out the difficulty of representing the border and describes the attempts of ‘opening’ it. In the final part of the ethnographic chapter, the border is traced and analysed through processes that produce what I call here practices and imaginations of ‘dwelling’ and ‘crossing’, and their consequences for the border-entity, or actor-network. This final part, that uses interviews and fieldnotes collected during fieldwork on the border, brings us to the intrigue of the impossibility of closing the black box of the border. Along with the fiction novels that cover the early periods of 1950’s and 1960’s, the final ethnographic part, which is formed by retrospective narratives, mixes various spatiotemporal references, from the 1960’s to 1989 and after. The thesis concentrates on a few aspects of border-making processes: the ‘utopian’ constructions of cross-border flows and control during the early period of absolute legal restrictions on crossing and the relations which border guards developed with local populations in their efforts to defend the ‘Motherland’. In addition, by using fieldwork experience and certain stories from fiction novels, the thesis discusses dwelling and crossing as intersubjective engagements with cross-border flows and control with the mediation of an important event that generated a principal actant within the border-network – the construction of the Iron Gates dam. Combining fieldwork material and fiction works into an ethnographic piece, the thesis approaches its objects creatively and seeks to avoid the fixity and limitations of the metanarratives that bias the study of early expansion of the Romanian Workers’ Party, and socialism, in general. Also, the thesis wants to be a contribution to the anthropological study of borders. In doing so, it advances the possibility of treating borders as becoming, never-quite-fixed entities, or actor networks, which can support dereifying frontiers as objects of inquiry and avoid the overemphasis on notions of culture, state, and territory which are common references in the existing social sciences literature and sometimes pose the risk of simplifying and reifying complex social relations and political processes. 3 2. DECLARATION I hereby declare that no portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 4 3. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=487), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulation). 5 4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank Stef Jansen and Sarah Green, my supervisors at the Manchester Social Anthropology Department

Load more