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 humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. 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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. x acknowledgments Many other people sent or gave me books, articles and theses, includ- ing Cristina Bejan, Ioana Both, Xavier Bougarel, Cristina Codarcea, Euge- nia Gavriliu, Mihaela Grancea, Florea Ioncioaia, Vintilă Mihăilescu, Andi Mihalache, Cătălina Mihalache, Raluca Muşat, Şerban Papacostea, Jeanine Teodorescu, Maria Todorova, Marius Turda, Constanţa Vintilă-Ghiţulescu, and Alexandru Zub. For help sourcing illustrations, I am especially grate- ful to Angela Jianu and Cristian Cercel. INTRODUCTION This book gathers a number of studies researched and written over the past fifteen years, on representations of Romanian culture from the begin- nings of the modern age to the late twentieth century. In an earlier book, The making