ABSTRACT
The two villages Pinkamindszent and Moschendorf have gradually drifted apart and become estranged from one another. As part of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, Moschendorf belonged to the notarial district of the Hungarian village of Pinkamindszent; the villagers were taught Hungarian as the state language at school. This chapter focuses on 'bordering silence' that has several meanings. Firstly, it refers to a sense of physical stillness: there is no movement of traffic or people in the vicinity of the state border, and both villages are restful and quiet. For the villagers this stillness represents one of its greatest attractions. Secondly, silence relates to a striking absence in the narratives that are collected on either side: people do not speak about their neighbours on the other side of the border. The chapter shows how the apparent disconnection and striking lack of explicit reference to their neighbours as people nevertheless resonates in the interviewees' stories.
