If we contextualized the phrase 'minority culture' into a larger, European, even global, perspective, we would notice that it has lost at once its obscure, frustrating meaning of 'small', 'weak', or 'frail', because in the globalization process, 'major' European cultures such as the French or the German are also facing the physical danger of assimilation. There is a specific European angst related to disappearance, to loss, to danger, which is not at all new in the history of the continent, the image of the fortress under siege being a familiar one since the early Middle Ages. Belonging to a minority is a basic pattern of our culture. At the beginning of the third millennium, I cannot distinguish any type of culture except that of various minorities and identities, of various kinds of difference, among which may be found ethnic minorities. The revival of the 'small' cultures and languages in Europe in the last decades is a sign of departure from the deadlock of the devastating opposition 'major culture vs. minor culture'. An example: for several seasons in a row, the Hungarian Theater of Cluj, where I am a resident playwright, has kept in its repertoire two plays by contemporary Irish playwrights. The way in which these thespian propositions related to the issues of ethnic and cultural minority has been a liberating one for our spectators, both Hungarian and Romanian: it cleared a path, recognizing the narratives of a remote culture, an equally 'small' one, and giving us a different perspective on the stereotypes that make dialogue impossible.
by Andras Visky (b. 1957)
