Beyond the Forest
Heard the Radio 3 breakfast-show presenter refer to Transylvania this morning, in respect of Bela Bartok, 'today in 1919 being the day when Transylvania was annexed by Romania'.
Having been brought up in the English-speaking cultural tradition, and not having examined enough of my accreted stereotypes, I couldn't help but see Bela Lugosi loom up out of the mist, intoning ominously in his faux-central European accent. 'Transylvania', in the shorthand of this culture, is an amalgam of Stoker's "Dracula", the Universal 'monster' movies of the 30s, and perhaps the Hammer films of the 60s and 70s: a gloomy, bucolic land of hills and forests, scattered with crudely rustic villages and castles denizened by aristocrats and ghouls.
Obviously this is a travesty of the region's long and rich history (Rome, Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire...), its beautiful landscapes, and immensely complex and diverse religious and ethnic history.
By the same token, the one-dimensional and toxic stereotypes of migrants from 'Eastern Europe' that dominate the press and much of popular consciousness/discourse rest on a narrow foundation of prejudice and simplification.Perpetuating them risks embedding them in the minds of the young, the ignorant and the impressionable, and with more damaging effects than Bela Lugosi wrought on my subconscious.
