“Words That Must Not Be Named”: Narratives of Language, Power, and Identity in Communist Romania

Abstract

This longitudinal study examines the multilayered connection between language, power, and identity through the emic perspectives of four ethnic Hungarians from Romania who had first-hand experience of Ceausescu’s dictatorial regime and now live abroad. The study is embedded in the language socialisation paradigm, which offers a socioculturally informed analysis of language intertwined with life course, historical continuity, and transformation. Data were collected through multiple narrative interviews and informal discussions with participants between 2018 and 2022. The author’s own experiences in the examined context were used for triangulation. The emerging themes refer to participants’ lived experiences with language in the context of the dictatorial regime in Romania and to their beliefs about the way languages used in specific situations shaped their identities over the years. Findings reveal participants’ understanding of the discursive constructions of communist ideology, of how power relations were created through language, and how they navigated their relationships and identities through linguistic practices. Long-term social and psychological effects of lived experiences with language in communist Romania are also identified: interviewees partly attribute their occasional lack of agency and learned helplessness to specific discursive constructions. Other findings relate to the role of narratives in making sense of lived experience, with a particular focus on participants’ absent memories and untold stories. Data also reveal how humour was used as a co** strategy. Code-mixing and code-switching between Hungarian and Romanian indicate distancing and closeness and are spontaneously used by participants to create symbolic spaces and imagined communities across contexts.