The Traditions of Invention: Romanian Ethnic and Social Stereotypes in Historical Context

321 Pages·2013·3.029 MB·English

by  Alex Drace-Francis

The Traditions of Invention
Balkan Studies Library
Editor-in-Chief
Zoran Milutinović, University College London
Editorial Board
Gordon N. Bardos, Columbia University
Alex Drace-Francis, University of Amsterdam
Jasna Dragović-Soso, Goldsmiths, University of London
Christian Voss, Humboldt University, Berlin
Advisory Board
Marie-Janine Calic, University of Munich
Lenard J. Cohen, Simon Fraser University
Radmila Gorup, Columbia University
Robert M. Hayden, University of Pittsburgh
Robert Hodel, Hamburg University
Anna Krasteva, New Bulgarian University
Galin Tihanov, Queen Mary, University of London
Maria Todorova, University of Illinois
Andrew Wachtel, Northwestern University
VOLUME 10
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsl
The Traditions of Invention
Romanian Ethnic and Social Stereotypes
in Historical Context
By
Alex Drace-Francis
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2013
Cover Illustration: A Romanian (‘Wallachian’) in traditional costume. Trachten-Kabinett von Sie-
benbürgen (1729), from a 1692 watercolour. Romanian Academy Library / www.europeana.eu.
Author unknown.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Drace-Francis, Alex.
 The traditions of invention : Romanian ethnic and social stereotypes in historical context /
by Alex Drace-Francis.
  pages cm. — (Balkan studies library, ISSN 1877-6272 ; volume 10)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-21617-4 (hardback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-25263-9 (e-book)
1. Romania—Social conditions. 2. National characteristics, Romanian. 3. Romania—In literature.
4. Romania—Civilization. I. Title.
 DR212.D724 2013
 949.8—dc23
2013012194
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters
covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the
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ISSN 1877-6272
ISBN 978-90-04-21617-4 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-25263-9 (e-book)
Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
CONTENTS
List of Tables and Illustrations  ................................................................... vii
Acknowledgments  .......................................................................................... ix
Introduction  ..................................................................................................... 1
PART I
SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS
1.  The Traditions of Invention. Representations of the Romanian
Peasant from Ancient Stereotype to Modern Symbol  .................... 11
PART II
TRAVEL AND ALTERITy
2.  A Provincial Imperialist and a Curious Account of Wallachia:
Ignaz von Born  ........................................................................................... 63
3.  ‘At ten minutes past two, I gazed ecstatically on both
lighthouses’: Time, Self and Object in Early Romanian Travel
Texts  .............................................................................................................. 91
4.  ‘Like a member of a free nation, he spoke without shame’:
Foreign Travellers as a Trope in Romanian Cultural Tradition  115
5.  Dinicu Golescu’s Account of My Travels (1826): Eurotopia as
Manifesto  ..................................................................................................... 135
PART III
MyTHS AND DISCOURSES OF THE NATION
6.  National Ideology between Lyrics and Metaphysics: The Political
Writings of Mihai Eminescu  .................................................................. 161
7. Ion Luca Caragiale: The Tall Tale of the Romanian Nation  ........ 187
vi contents
PART IV
AT THE VERBAL FRONTIERS OF IDENTITy
 8. Eugen Ionescu’s Selves, 1934–60  ......................................................... 201
 9.  Beyond the Land of Green Plums: Romanian Language and
Culture in Herta Müller’s Work  .......................................................... 213
PART V
EAST-WESTISM IN THE COLD WAR AGE
10.  Sex, Lies and Stereotypes: Images of Romania in British
Literature, 1945–2000  ............................................................................. 233
11.  Paradoxes of Occidentalism: On Travel and Travel Writing in
Ceauşescu’s Romania  .............................................................................. 251
Works Cited  ...................................................................................................... 265
Index  ................................................................................................................... 293
LIST OF TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Tables
1. Leipzig Valachica, 1774  ............................................................................ 84
2. Intercontinental ethnography in the London press, 1777  ............. 85
3. London popular pamphlets, 1779  ......................................................... 85
4. Frameworks for comparison: Ignaz von Born’s other works  ....... 86
5. Articles in The Times about Romania, 1996–1998  ............................ 247
Illustrations
1. View of Schemnitz (Banská Štiavnica), site of Maria-Theresa’s
Mining Academy (from R. Bright, Travels from Vienna through
Lower Hungary, 1818)  ................................................................................ 68
2. Emmanuel-Adolphe Midy ‘Le rencontre’, c. 1840. Encounter
between a boyar of the older generation in Oriental dress, and
a younger boyar in European dress. Detail from lithograph,
Romanian Academy Library  .................................................................. 103
3. A Wallachian boyar, c. 1830. Watercolour by Russian artist
“R.G.A.I.”, Romanian Academy Library  ............................................... 140

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A work compiled over as long a period as this one was brings with it many
scholarly debts, and I have done my best to recall the assistance I have
received along the years. Primary support, encouragement and critical
engagement has come from Dennis Deletant, now Emeritus Professor of
Romanian Studies at University College London, and Wendy Bracewell,
now Professor of Southeast European History at the same institution. With
their contrasting but complementary approaches, Dennis and Wendy
have suggested topics, readings and contacts in the world of compara-
tive Romanian and southeast European history and culture. In Bucharest,
I have always found a warm welcome at the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of
History, as well as at the New Europe College, and have enjoyed many
fruitful exchanges with the members and fellows of these establishments,
as well as with those of the “A.D. Xenopol” Institute in Iaşi. I have also
been fortunate to receive invitations to lecture at the Doctoral School of
the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest and try out my ideas on
students there in 2010 and 2012: thanks to Mircea Anghelescu and Adrian
Stoicescu for facilitating this. An earlier such invitation to the University
of Cluj in 2003 was no less fruitful. Colleagues at the Universities of Liv-
erpool and Amsterdam, notably Harald Braun, Alexandrina Buchanan,
Charles Forsdick, Kirsty Hooper, Michael Hughes, Kate Marsh, Lyn Mar-
ven and Brigitte Resl at the first institution, and Joep Leerssen, Michael
Wintle, Krisztina Lajosi, Guido Snel and Christian Noack at the second,
have engaged in discussion of issues of travel writing and cultural differ-
ence, in a most fruitful way.
Xavier Bougarel, after inviting me to present some of my ideas from
Chapter 1 at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris,
suggested the title ‘traditions of invention’ for that section. It seemed to
me such an inspired coinage that I adopted it for the work as a whole.
Angela Jianu read the manuscript through and offered valuable sugges-
tions, references and improvements, especially in respect of structure and
continuity. Zoran Milutinović has acted efficiently as efficient editor, and
administered the peer review process in a constructive fashion. Ivo Romein
has been exemplary in his courteous and prompt assistance. I thank also
Brill’s anonymous readers for their helpful comments and observations;
and Thalien Colenbrander for her careful production editing.