The traditions of invention : Romanian ethnic and social stereotypes in historical context / / by Alex Drace-Francis.

• Author: Drace-Francis, Alex.
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Language: English
• Series: Balkan studies library, v. 10; Balkan Studies Library 10.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (320 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Literary and cultural images, once considered marginal to the main currents of political and institutional development in southeastern Europe, have been accorded much greater importance by scholars in recent years. In this volume Alex Drace-Francis brings together over fifteen years of work on the topic of representations of Romania and Romanians. Crossing the East-West divide, the book studies both external images of the country and people, and domestically-generated representations of Europe and 'the West'. It draws on material in a wide range of languages and offers a long-term view, providing a nuanced and historically-grounded contribution to the lively debates over Balkanism, Orientalism and identities in Romania and in Europe as a whole.

Table of Contents

The traditions of invention. Representations of the Romanian peasant from ancient stereotype to modern symbol -- A provincial imperialist and a curious account of Wallachia: Ignaz von Born -- "At ten minutes past two, I gazed ecstatically on both lighthouses": -- Time, self and object in early Romanian travel texts -- "Like a member of a free nation, he spoke without shame": foreign travellers as a trope in Romanian cultural tradition -- Dinicu Golescu's Account of my travels (1826): Eurotopia as manifesto -- National ideology between lyrics and metaphysics: the political writings of Mihai Eminescu -- Ion Luca Caragiale: the tall tale of the Romanian nation -- Eugen Ionescu's Selves, 1934-60 -- Beyond the land of green plums: Romanian language and culture in Herta -- Muller's work -- Sex, lies and stereotypes: images of Romania in British literature 1945-2000 -- Paradoxes of occidentalism: on travel and travel writing in Ceausescu's Romania.