A Generation "Without Beliefs" and the Idea of Experience in Romania (1927-1934)

Philip Vanhaelemeersch

In 1927, the young Romanian student and journalist Mircea Eliade encouraged his fellow

young Romanians to look for new "experiences," setting himself as an

example through his own adventures in India. Until 1934, when the idea

suddenly disappeared, young Romanians were obsessed with the idea of

experience. In this fascinating study, Philip Vanhaelemeersch considers

the social, cultural, and political history behind this short-lived

intellectual fashion.

The Romanian idea of experience was a late

product of World War I. For Romanians born between 1905 and 1911,

experientialism functioned as a way to recapture their missed childhood

years during the war and as a substitute for the fact that they unable to play a role in

the building of the new, Greater Romania after 1919. In 1925, these

children entered Romanian universities, and two years later they

launched themselves as the "new generation." However, they were not the

first group of Romanians to call themselves this-similar claims had been

made a few years before by the students entering Romanian universities

immediately after the war. Vanhaelemeersch argues that the best way to

approach this history is to abandon all generational terminology.

Instead, he looks at the idea of "experience," reconstructing its

genesis to understand these individuals' desire to be perceived as a

new and distinct "generation."

About the Author

Philip Vanhaelmeersch is a fellow at Oxford University in England.

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