BRUKENTHALIA

Romanian Cultural History Review

Supplement of Brukenthal. Acta Musei

No. 4
2014
 BRUKENTHALIA

Romanian Cultural History Review

Supplement of Burkenthal. Acta Musei

Revistă Română de Istorie Culturală

Supliment al Revistei Brukenthal. Acta Musei

Advisory Board

Francis CLAUDON, Professor, ‘Val de Marne’ University of Paris, France

Dennis DELETANT, Professor, ‘Georgetown’ University of Washington D. C.
Hans-Christian MANER, Professor, ‘Johannes Gutenberg’ University of Mainz
Pascal ORY, President of Association pour le Développment de l’Histoire Culturelle (ADHC)
Professor, 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University of Pars
Zoe PETRE, Professor emeritus, University of Bucharest
Alexandru-Florin PLATON, Professor, ‘Alexandru-Ioan Cuza’ University, Iaşi
David D. SMITH, Professor, University of Aberdeen
Tony WALTER, Professor, University of Bath, Great Britain

Editor-in-chief

Adrian Sabin LUCA, Professor, ‘Lucian Blaga’ University, Sibiu

General Manager of Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu

Senior Editor

Mihaela GRANCEA, Professor, Faculty of Socio-Human Sciences, ‘Lucian Blaga’ University,

Sibiu

Editors

Anca FILIPOVICI, PhD, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca

Ecaterina LUNG, Professor, Faculty of History, University of Bucharest
Andi MIHALACHE, Researcher, ‘Alexandru D. Xenopol’ Institute for History, Iaşi
Olga GRĂDINARU, PhDc, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
Alexandru SONOC, PhD, Curator, Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu
Radu TEUCEANU, PhD, Curator, Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu

Editorial assistant

Anca FILIPOVICI, PhD, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca

2
BRUKENTHAL NATIONAL MUSEUM * MUZEUL NAŢIONALBRUKENTHAL

BRUKENTHALIA
Romanian Cultural History Review
Supplement of Brukenthal. Acta Musei

No. 4

EDITURA MUZEULUI NAŢIONAL BRUKENTHAL

Sibiu/Hermannstadt 2014

3
 Editorial Policies and Instructions to Contributors

The review Brukenthalia receives contributions under the form of unpublished research papers,
review papers written in English. The field of interest is Cultural History. The editors alone are
responsible for every final decision on publication of manuscripts. The editors may suggest changes in
the manuscript. Such changes are not to be made without consultation with the author(s).

Manuscripts will be accepted on the understanding that their content is original and that they have
not been previously published in a different form or language.

Articles will be edited according to Brukenthalia style guide in matters of punctuation,

capitalization and the like. The accuracy of the translation is the author‘s responsibility. The authors
should ensure that the paper as ready for publication. Page proofs will be supplied, but only errors in
typesetting may be corrected at this stage.

All correspondence regarding contributions and books for review should be sent to the editors:

e-mail: mihaela_grancea2004@yahoo.com

ISSN 2285 - 9497

ISSN-L 2285 - 9489

4
 Table of contents

A. STUDIES. MISCELLANEA
Mircea-Sever Roman
Considerations on the Sumerian Hieratic City-State 9
Mihai Dragnea
The Thraco-Dacian Origin of the Paparuda/Dodola Rain-Making Ritual 18
Robert Mirică
The figure of the angel Temeluch in the apocryphal writings The Apocalypse of Paul and The 28
Revelation of Pseudo-John. A comparative study
Vlad Sofronie
The Title Fight between the Two Christian Empires in the Age of Crusades 34
Ligia Boldea
Pictures of the Serfs in Medieval Documents from Banat (14th and 15th Centuries) 42
Mihaela Grancea
Truth in Fiction versus Fiction in Truth. Historical Novel and Romanian Folk Creation on the 51
Tragedy of the Brancoveanu Family
Iacob Marza
A Proposal for a Comparative Research. Two Gymnasium Libraries in Transylvania of the 73
Enlightenment Period
Andi Mihalache
Laocoon’s Prints. The Meaning Of Plaster Casts Of Antique Sculptures From A History Of Art 81
Perspective
Roxana- Mihaela Coman
Romanian travelers to the East between the quest for the exotic and diplomatic mission 92
Georgeta Fodor
Woman as a Nation’s Symbol: The Romanian Case 101
Silviu Cristian Rad
The Bible – Generator of Russian Literature in the Modern Era (F. M. Dostoyevsky, The Brothers 110
Karamazov)
Elena Andreea Boia-Trif
The Gypsy in the Transylvanian Romanian Mentality. 19th Century 116
Diana Crăciun
The Image of the 19th Century Worker in Wladyslaw Reymont's Literature 125
Irena Avsenik Nabergoj
Cultural History and Literary Representations of Jews in Slovenia 137
Gabriela Glăvan
Eerie Beauty: Premature Death in 19th Century Postmortem Photography 155
Mihaela Haşu Bălan
From Seppuku to Hikikomori. Suicidal Patterns in the 20th and 21st Centuries Japanese Literary 162
Imaginary
Loredana-Mihaiela Surdu
The European Idea Reflected by the Post-communist Romanian Intellectual Elite in Dilemma 169
Adriana Cupcea
Turks' Image in the Romanian History Textbooks, in the Post-Communist Period 175
Mariam Chinchrauli
Georgian musical art in the context of European and non-European musical culture (The Case of 185
Globalization in Georgia)
Maria-Nicoleta Ciocian
The Dialogue between the Contemporary Writer and the Bible 190
Dumitru Lăcătuşu
Convenient Truths: Representations of the Communist Illegalists in the Romanian Historiography 197
in Post-Communism

5
 B. STUDIES. CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES OF WAR

Dana Percec
The Happy Few, the Band of Brothers and the Two World Wars 205
Valeria Sorostineanu
Dilemmatic Loyalties. A Case Study: the Church District of Sibiu before the Great Unification 214
Carmen Ţâgşorean
Life on the Frontline and the Horrors of WWI as Seen by the Romanian Newspapers of 223
Transylvania: Libertatea, Deşteptarea and Românul (1914-1918)
Radu Teuceanu
Paul Eder’s Memories from the Bukovinian War (1915-1916) 236
Andreea Dăncilă Ineoan
‘... And the wind used to keep me company.’ The Notes of Archpriest Cândea during the Refuge in 243
Moldova, 1918
Alexandru –Ilie Munteanu
World War I narratives in Ion Agârbiceanu´s literary writings 250
Olga Grădinaru
The Germans, the Whites, the Reds and Other Enemies in M. Bulgakov’s The White Guard 255
Daniel Gicu
The Great War Seen through the Eyes of Romanian Peasants 265
Laura Coltofean
Death as a Political Instrument. Introducing the ‘Bolshevik’ and ‘Hungarian Death’ as Death of 283
Otherness
Cristiana Budac
Divergent Accounts of War German Expressionist Painting and British Official Photography 290

C. REVIEWS

Lucian Boia
Balchik, between Lieux de’Histoire and Lieux de Mémoire (Anca Filipovici) 301
Adriana Babeţi
The Amazons. A Story (Gabriela Glăvan) 303
Oana Bodea
About a Historical Behavior (Laura Stanciu) 305
Michel Pastoureau
Black. The Hero of a History (Gabriela Petică) 310
Ruth B. Bottigheimer
Fairy Tales: Between Literary and Oral Tradition (Daniel Gicu) 313

6
A.STUDIES

7
 Romanian Travelers to the East between the Quest for the Exotic
and Diplomatic Mission

Roxana-Mihaela COMAN
PhD Candidate, Faculty of History, University of Bucharest
E-mail: roxana.coman@rocketmail.com

Abstract. Travel has a long and complicated history, and has always been an experience
observed from the European point of view. A journey is more than just a walk from A to B, it’s a
bildungsroman, and it’s an identity interplay between us and others, because, in most of the cases, travel
is an initiatic journey for self-knowledge, self-worth, and recognition. Confronted with the reality of the
other we cannot help ourselves from comparing what we see or fell, hear, smell, with the familiar without
pointing out the differences, the strange.
Our study aims to analyze the types of travel writings by the Romanians who, for various reasons,
journeyed into the East, starting from the Near East (the Ottoman Empire).

Keywords: travel, perception, stereotype, travel writings, identity, cultural encounter

Romanian travelers to the East: were they

Peter Burke named travel history among
the subjects favored by the cultural historians
who took upon the study of cultural maps.
(Burke 2004, 59) Because any journey begins
with the existence of a map, physical or mental,
of the destination (1).
An example can be found in Timothy
Youngs work Travel writing in the 19th century
that begins with a quote from Trough the Dark
Continent by Henry Morton Stanley (Youngs ed.
2006, 1) Stanley says to his travel companion
that European’s recent map of the African
continent is blank, empty, and that he’s taken
upon himself to populate with cities, wonderful
images of the people that occupy them, while
being anxious to see if his predictions are true.
Travel literature doesn’t represent an
objective or photographic record of the
traveler’s experience in another foreign land.
These types of writings are the subject of
normative social influences such as the author’s
cultural background.
In this study we will try to answer some
questions regarding the travel records of the
(1) This paper is supported by the Sectorial
Operational Program Human Resources
Development (SOP HRD), financed from the
European Social Fund and by the Romanian
Government under the contract number SOP
HRD/159/1.5/ S/136077
products of the Western cultural phenomena?
Did the political situation between the Romanian
Principalities and The Ottoman Empire played a
key factor in the characteristics of the gaze?
Casey Blanton’s definition of travel
literature will provide a starting point for the
analysis. From his point of view, based on
psychological relation between the observer and
the observed, the topic of the travel books is the
result from ‘the interplay between the
philosophical preconceptions of the traveler and
the test to which they are submitted’.(Blanton
2002, 1-3) Outlining some of the features from
travel literature, Blanton names some of the
obvious ones: the existence of a narrator/
traveler with no specific purpose, just for the
pleasure of travel; a narrative style that borrows
from fiction to set a climax and anticlimax for
the action and the characters, a setting fitted for
the action, and a commitment to picture the odd
and the exotic, but using familiar methods.
When trying to discover similar patterns
among the Romanian travelers we ought to
make several distinctions. First of all, the
Romanian Principalities where among the
regions chosen by the Western travelers as being
part of the East. Secondly, from a social
standpoint, there were two major social classes:
the boyars and the peasants, and in between, the
incipient bourgeoisie. The reason behind these
explanations is mainly, due to the social changes
produced by the Western imports.
The social role of the 19th century
Romanian elite is borrowed from the Western,

92
especially French, aristocracy, in an attempt to
gain some prestige when faced with the
examples provided by the western world.
(Olariu 2006, 45)
And so, we can use some of the
definitions we discussed so far in order to
analyze the writings of the Romanian travelers.
At the border between the ‘reality’ of
the descriptions and the subjectivity of the
narrator/traveler’s gaze, travel writing is
considered by Florin Faifer a domain that ranges
from the murks of the subconscious to the
‘universe of the fictional’. (Faifer 1993, 6-7)
Travel literature has been used by
Romanian researchers in an attempt to better
understand the events from the Romanian
Principalities in the 19th century using the
descriptions made by foreign travelers. And, of
course, are a valuable source for cultural
historians because they are the products of
encounters between different cultures, a product
and a process.
We will attempt to use the theories and
characteristics mentioned above in order to
discuss the works of Vasile Alecsandri, Dimitrie
Bolintineanu, Dimitrie Ralet, Alexandru M.
Lahovary. We will try to point out the image
attributed to the Orient by individuals who,
somewhat journeyed inside their cultural
comfort zone (they were aware of the oriental
cultural background and the descriptions that
depicted them as existing within the East). Their
perceptions of the Orient, as defined by the
Western cultural norm, is quite revealing and
draws a certain evolution of mentalities
concerning the relations with the East.
Irina Mihai-Vainovski thinks that in the
second half of the 19th century travel literature
undergoes a process from the Romantic
exaltation to the scientific inquiries made by the
so-called ‘intellectual travelers’. (Mihai 2009,
11-12) We would add to these categories the
works of those sent to Constantinople on a
diplomatic mission (and tend to put the political
affairs first, and their perception is heavily
influenced by the outcome) and the descriptions
brought back by some Romanian artists, like
Theodor Aman.
Between 1848 and 1856, the main
features of the travel writings of the Romanian
travelers can be summed up in a Romantic quest
for the exotic, for those aspects that are outside
the concept of civilization. The authors tend to
give the impression that they took a mirror down
the street and their descriptions are the image
resulted.
93
The interval between the 1860 and 1880
was named by Irina Mihai as the ‘classic period’
of Oriental travel when there is a rising interest
for the African continent and some of the
territories under ottoman rule (Oriental Rumelia,
Bosnia, Albania).We can find articles published
in magazines and newspapers of the time by
Iulian Grozescu, Ioan Maiorescu, Iacob
Negruzzi, Ieronim Bariţiu, Cezar Bolliac, etc,
that try to inform the public regarding the
oriental ‘delights’. Their content is more
balanced between fascination and reality, and
more specific about the ethnographical detail.
(Mihai 2009, 15)
Maybe this phase owes its
characteristics to the political and diplomatic
relations between the Romanian Principalities
and the Ottoman Empire. Another possible
explanation can be provided by the Western
influence and taste for the Eastern travel adopted
through their period spent studying in Western
universities.
We can trace the second hypothesis in
some of the articles published in Romanian
papers taken from the foreign press, often
published without any alterations (copied from
their original form), or paraphrasing the terms
that didn’t have any correspondent in the
Romanian language.
Irina Mihai called some of these articles
‘de-exotised’ because they were adapted to fit
the level of understanding of the Romanian
public by containing comparisons of types of
costumes and descriptions with long
explanations. (Mihai 2009, 16-19) The French
cultural pattern for the oriental travel can be
found in the presence of works by Lamartine or
Chateaubriand or Victor Hugo in any personal
library owned by the representatives of the
Romanian elite. Travel becomes a way of life in
the 19th century, a trademark for one’s status.
As well as any other cultural
phenomena, the history of travel has its
moments of spontaneity, and reaches a stage in
which scientific inquiry and critical appraisal are
dominant.
The oriental temptation is present in the
Romanian poetry: The herder of Bosphorus by
Vasile Alecsandri, The flowers of the Bosphorus
written by the one who also wrote about the
historical legends of the Romanians, Dimitrie
Bolintineanu, etc. Also, the ones who traveled to
the Orient didn’t have the chance to publish their
experiences in independent volumes, but chose
to send articles to the local newspapers such as:
Curierul românesc, Albina românească, Foaia
duminecii, Mozaicul, Icoana lumei, etc.
providing their readers with means for travels
with the power of imagination. These papers
also translated various pieces from foreign
travels to the East (made by Lamartine,
Chateaubriand or Nicolas Forbin). (Faifer, 76)
The concept of the exotic becomes, by
the end of the 19th century, a concept familiar to
the cultural Romanian elite. Oriental interiors in
the Western-fashioned residences of the
Romanian intelligentsia (not only ottoman, but
Chinese and Japanese, also) become a trend.
There are more and more journeys into the
exciting East and more frequent, and tend to
break the comfort zone targeting regions such as
Tierra del Fuego, Australia etc. The Far East is
the main attraction and, when revisiting the
Middle or the Near East ‘it isn’t a foreign or
unknown land to the Romanian public, and
Romanians don’t perceive themselves in a
competition with the East in tracing their own
identity’. (Mihai 2009, 32-34)
One possible reason for this shift in
perception regarding the discourse about the
oriental can be found in the unfolding of the
events in the Romanian Principalities towards a
national state. But we can add the
Westernization of the Romanian elite might
have played a part in the shaping the context for
these changes.
Romantic exoticism and Romantic
nationalism
The purpose of this study doesn’t reside
in the determining the authenticity of the
descriptions for the Orient and the public
reaction. But every analysis of the travel
literature must establish the certain report
between the body of text and the reality of the
event.
There are difficulties in establishing this
relation because it entails a multitude of
variations. Starting from an idea that the text has
its own reality, we are dealing with the text that
declares reality as its own meta-structure, but,
also, with a text that decides to break away from
reality. (Anghelescu 1988, 5)
The travel memoirs, even the ones
written by the Romanian travelers, have a
fundamental and unmistakable characteristic
over time. And that is the tendency to describe
to their readers information unknown to them, to
retell, as precise as possible, the itinerary of the
journey, with details about various smells, or
sounds, colors and types of physiognomies.
Travel writings, though a significant historical
source, represent the subjective reflection of the
Other through the traveler’s lenses, becoming
94
the result of a cultural encounter with the claim
to truthfulness.
In our opinion, the Romanian travelers
to the East didn’t sought an exotic escape from
an over industrialized landscape (because it
wasn’t the case in a predominantly agrarian
economy), but the desolation and degradation
found in the oriental depictions/representations
had the purpose of convincing them that they
made the right choice at the crossroad of the
18th-19th centuries.
Belonging to the so-called
‘revolutionary generation’, Vasile Alecsandri
and Dimitrie Bolintineanu are among the first
ones to publish descriptions of oriental voyages.
They are, also, pioneers in breaching the oriental
comfort zone, traveling to Africa, a breach
considered by Mircea Anghelescu as a
consequence of the 1848 Revolution, a catalyst
for surpassing the traditional itineraries.
(Anghelescu, 1983, 9)
These traditional routes mentioned
above were the journeys undertaken by the sons
of the Romanian boyars to the Western
universities in order to study and reduce the gap
between the Romanian Principalities and the
Western world.
The travel writings of Vasile Alecsandri
and Dimitrie Bolintineanu, although they have
the same stylistic characteristics as the ones
written by French or English travelers, they
constitute the materialization of an Orient filled
with poetry and harmony, and feminine beauty.
We can observe a certain influence in picking up
some of the leitmotifs of French romantics such
as Chateaubriand and Lamartine, their attention
being drawn by the street movement, poly-
ethnicity of the bazaar and human types. The
result from the confrontation of what was
expected from the oriental landscape and the
reality of it consists in an ambiguous and
heterogeneous writing.
Vasile Alecsandri publishes his
impressions from the African/Oriental travel in
an article My travel diary. Morocco in the
edition of ‘Telegraful’ from 1868. It tells the
story of a long journey that began 1853, in the
south of France, passing through Spain and
ending in the north of the African continent. An
itinerary quite familiar and almost identical to
the one used by those who were searching for
the exotic. The most interesting aspect regarding
the memoirs of Vasile Alecsandri is the use of a
character, fictional more or less, who is
presented to the reader as a companion met in
unusual circumstances. Angel, the British, draws
a mental map of their expedition.
 Angel suggested that ‘from Marseille
we go and visit the whole of the Spanish coast:
Barcelona, Valencia, Cartagena, Malaga, etc., up
to the Gibraltar rock. From there we travel to
Cadix, and from there our Spanish voyage truly
begins by visiting: Seville, Cordoba and
Granada. And then we reach Madrid, where we
stop for as long as we like, before returning to
France’. (Alecsandri 1960, 200)
Impressed by the Mediterranean views,
Alecsandri remembers episodes from his
previous travels. In 1845 he took a short voyage
to Constantinople where he met the consul of
Tripoli, Dickson, who was very fond of Turkish
coffee. (Alecsandri 1960, 204-205) Alecsandri
also gives various details about Turkish cities
Brussa, the old Ottoman capital, Ghemlic, and a
romantic description of the natural wonders of
the road.
The encounter with the Other is
rendered using as term of comparison the notion
of home, of his native land, and so, the exotic
romanticism coexist with the nationalist
romanticism in his travel stories. At the end of
his journey in Spain, he leaves France on a ship.
Alecsandri’s sea journey facilitates a moment of
meditation about his country’s situation: ‘among
my thoughts and dreams, my country reveals
herself as a loving mother calling me to her
bosom. Oh! Beloved country, oh! My beloved
heaven. Wherever I may wonder in this world, I
am accompanied by your holy
image’.(Alecsandri 1960, 216) He then proceeds
to remember his favorite scenes from Italy,
France, and the picturesque oriental landscapes.
The same motif, associating his
homeland with and oriental situation, is present
in Suvenirele din 1855 in his famous letters to
Ion Ghica. Travelling to Crimea, he reaches
Sevastopol, a city of great importance to the
recent Romanian history (a battle from the
Crimean war), naming it the New Jerusalem
because of the Oriental Question. Sevastopol
becomes in Alecsandri’s description ‘a sacred
place for us, Romanians, where the future of our
countries is being made. (…) under the influence
of those thought and driven by a great curiosity
a decided to do a pilgrimage into the old
Tauride, accompanied by a friend who
previously visited the region’.(Alecsandri 1998,
288)
The construction of the Other begins,
from an anthropological point of view, as a gaze
of the Western world over the non-European
people, situated outside of the civilized world’s
standards. And the story of this encounter
becomes the expression of crossing the cultural
95
boundaries using a fixed point, home. For Vasile
Alecsandri, home is a national remembrance, as
noticed in his letter to Ion Ghica, or is a
nostalgic meditation about the concept of a
homeland. This home is always present in his
evocation of the Oriental journey, the East
becomes a term of comparison between the
familiar and the foreign, with emphasis on the
familiar, of that loving mother/country.
Vintilă Mihăilescu argues that there is
an anthropological and universal fascination
about the distant, the foreign and the strange,
and that strangeness is ambivalent. It can be the
object of feelings of hate and rejection (the
Herodotus’s rule) or, on the contrary, one of
admiration and attraction. (Mihăilescu 2009, 63)
Alecsandri includes himself in the
European world, pertaining to the civilized
world, taking upon himself the role of an
omniscient narrator. On the 27th of September, at
8 o’clock in the morning, he reaches the
Gibraltar where he can already see the shores of
the African continent. He perceives the
landscape beneath his gaze as the juxtaposition
of two opposite worlds: the civilized Europe and
the wild Africa, admiring the majestic spectacle
of this union. (Alecsandri 1960, 242)
His scrutiny crosses city walls, bad
roads, admiring the sights offered by the
symbiosis of nature and human constructions,
but considering its people a ‘population of sick
and foolish men. The indigenous people I have
met so far have an air of suffering and saddening
misery; I have not seen yet a jolly face’ and
Tangier is like a ‘city burnt by a big fire, shaken
by an earthquake’. (Alecsandri 1960, 244-249)
Although Alecandri is obviously disappointed
when faced with the confrontation between
reality and expectation, it doesn’t prevent him
from dreaming away to the Orient with immense
gardens and silvery waters.
Nature has the Romantic aura of a deity
and Alecsandri gives the reader a slight
sensation that the aesthetic pleasure of the
journey is solely provided by its wonders. When
speaking about the governor of the city of
Tangier he pictures him as an oriental, barbaric
satrap, living isolated from his people. Based on
this description of Tangier’s ruler, he concludes
that, if in Morocco, a place where Europe meets
Africa, one can find such barbaric
manifestations, in the center of the continent,
what degree of wilderness must characterize the
populations living there. (Alecsandri 1960, 254-
255)
When speaking of Alecsandri’s
counterpart, Dimitrie Bolintineanu, the Orient
means the city with a certain significance for the
Romanian contries, Constantinople (he joins
Alexandru-Ioan Cuza on a diplomatic mission to
obtain the sultan’s recognition of the united
Romanian Principalities), but also, the Holy
Land, and the northern Africa.
Given the fact that Bolintineanu
received a scholarship in Paris (1846-1848), he
had the opportunity to read travel novels that
were in fashion then such as Volney’s (whom he
quotes often). But, unlike Bolintineanu’s French
counterparts, he came from a part of Europe
considered to be oriental in nature. Luminţa
Munteanu views Bolintineanu’s take of the
oriental image as one dominated by the Western
norm, existing outside of civilization, passive,
the fundamental opposite of the active and
progressive spirit of the West. (Munteanu 2009,
77-78)
The Danube is considered by many of
the Romanian travelers, including Dimitrie
Bolintineanu, as a liminal space, a hybrid space
between Us and Them. But, on the other hand,
in his description, the river becomes ‘a cradle of
liberty (…) a witness for the greatest deeds’
(Bolintineanu 1915, 12-13) filled with beauty
and riches, speaking about its ancient history.
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of
alterity, consists of the self-analysis that creates
self-images. The relation between Us and Them
in the case of the Romanian travelers to the East
from this interval (1848-1880) often contain
allusions to a national ideal and tend to describe
the oriental populations using pejorative terms
and poetical eulogies to home.
The self-images that can be found in
Bolintineanu’s accounts can only be understood
in tandem with the stereotypical images taken
from his lecture of French authors as he
confesses at some point: ‘I haven’t yet read a
book about travelling in the East in which the
author doesn’t mention a bearded and raggedy
dervish’. (Bolintineanu 1951, 284) He then
continues the series of unappreciative
stereotypes regarding the oriental people, mixed
with a slight note of optimism: ‘everything in
Turkey seems to be a ruin: people and places;
and this decay affects even its government. The
foreigner who sees these things for the first time
thinks the Turkey is fading. But it’s on the verge
of major changes’.
Bolintineanu’s opinions about the
political situation of the Ottoman Empire
(always named in the text as Turkey, as a secular
state), are due to better understanding of the
status of the Empire given the relations between
the two states. The cultural differences are fewer
96
than in the Western example. Luminţa
Munteanu considers that these constant
references to other travel books as a nuanced
and ironic remark regarding their lack of real
knowledge about the real Orient. (Munteanu
2009)
Călătoriile pe Dunăre şi în Bulgaria
have been considered to be a witness to
debunked discourse of the East because they
were made under the constraint of exile (as a
punishment for his role in the 1848 Revolution,
Bolintineanu was banished from the Romanian
countries until 1857; his travel accounts were
published a year later). (Munteanu 2009)
But that doesn’t prevent him from re-
creating an oriental atmosphere with beautiful
women, exotic and mysterious places e.g. Șam,
Candili, Scutari, Brussa. He uses various
toponyms and anthroponyms, names of types of
clothing or objects of everyday use. This type of
discourse adds, if it was still necessary, to the
intention of giving the reader the impression he
was more acquainted with the reality of the
Orient.
Unlike Vasile Alecandri, Bolintineanu
tends not to adopt the Western perception of the
East in its entirety. Regarding some of the
specifications made about the demography of
the Ottoman Empire, he contradicts what was
generally known to Western public (the
Europeans believed that the decrease in
population was due to their religion that allowed
polygamy, but Bolintineanu states that such
assumptions were false and based on a religious
aversion). (Bolintineanu 1951, 269)
His work about the journey through
Asia Minor is filled, almost annoying at some
point, with so much historical, demographical,
social information that it resembles more and
more with a travel guide or encyclopedia than a
personal experience. He quotes the writings of
Nicolas de Forbin. During his pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, he doesn’t act like a pilgrim, but,
rather in a matter similar to a tourist who came
to discover what happens at the Holy Tomb on
Easter.
He insists, with a Romantic mindset, to
describe buildings, natural landscapes,
sacrificing the human element. Călătoriile have
a bookish feeling, with long historical accounts
about various cities, biblical episodes e.g. the
battle of David and Goliath. Following the
itinerary established by his travel memoirs we
can have a compound of romantic exaltation,
historical and relevant facts in a tourist guide
manner and personal opinions regarding aspects
of culture. And what is more intriguing is that
the author never visited all those places, re-
telling the first or second-rate story of a fabulous
oriental journey, checking the usual destinations
on an usual Eastern tour.
The Orient through an artistic eye: the case
of Romanian artists
Having declared that his sole purpose
for his voyage to Constantinople is to present his
recent painting The Battle of Olteniţa to the
ottoman sultan after being received so well in
the Parisian cultural circles, Theodor Aman
doesn’t publish his experience (he prefers to
correspond with his brother on the matter). It
seems to be important for Aman to specify to his
brother the reason behind his trip to
Constantinople in a letter dated October 1854:
the possibility to see the French troops in their
glory and watch the war’s unfolding. (Istrati
1904, 11) Unlike other orientalist painters,
Aman doesn’t assert a need for an escape from a
suffocating and industrialized society, or a
longing for spiritual renewal, as in the case of
Victorian orientalist painters.
In his letter exchange with his brother,
Aman fulfills the role of a narrator to a public
with little knowledge about the Orient. Maybe
his artistic education has a say in the matter, but
he describes the scenery with precision and an
abundance of details: ‘I thought I was dreaming
because it is indeed something enchanting, the
shores of Bosphorus being bordered by gardens,
the exquisite columns decorating the houses, the
multitude of boats that form the port, convince
the tourists to declare that it is the most beautiful
place seen by someone anywhere in the
Universe’. (Istrati, 13)
After the enthralling scenery at the
crossing of the Mediterranean Sea and the
entrance in the old Byzantion, Aman has a
similar reaction as a westerner to the reality of
an oriental, crowded city, the confrontation
between the ascribed exotic beauty and the filth
of a transit area. ‘But what a disappointment
upon entering the city, those foul streets,
innumerable dogs, those barefoot Turks with
barbaric appearance. The women, whom, in
another cities I have admired their poetic allure,
are nothing but ghostly figures, differing only in
color (…) contribute to a feeling of regret from
whoever visits this ancient city’. (Istrati 1904,
13) Aman uses all of his senses to perceive the
oriental flavor of the city, documenting every
little detail of the surroundings, informing his
brother about several Turkish traditions. For
instance he wrote that the men would gather and
dine every Friday evening, with women divided
97
in a different group – Aman makes some
observations regarding the structure and gender
roles in Turkish society, keeping also in mind
some of the culinary customs.
‘The men, as it is their custom, are
placed in separate groups from the women, they
drink and smoke. When I say drink it means
coffee because, due to their Islamic religion,
wine is forbidden, but they often drink it
whenever they are home alone’. (Istrati 1904,
13-14)
Theodor Aman was acclaimed among
the Romanian cultural elite for his series of
odalisques, greeted as works of significant
beauty. Depicted in several stances: smoking
hookah or playing the mandolin, or sitting in a
Turkish style, laying on the divan, the erotic
aspect of this kind of subject is slightly
diminished, the ambience being one of
detachment and the indolence of a Moorish
afternoon. With a nonchalant and dreamy
attitude, the odalisque’s source of inspiration
can be traced back to his journey from
Sevastopol to Smyrna. ‘Smyrna, where I could
only admire women’s beauty, but their waist
were ill-proportioned with the allure of their
heads and their eyes filled with fire’. (Istrati
1904, 12)
He speaks often of the female figures he
met in Istanbul, Pera, and some other cities in
Asia Minor, which always had an expression of
eternal somnolence, a recurring assertion in the
letters sent to his brother.
Aman’s oriental perception is
profoundly shaped by the western cannon, and
that can be seen in his sequel of paintings of
harems or odalisques, several types of human
characters (sketches such as Mosque, Turkish
fighter, Turkish coffee shops, Oriental
architecture, Street from Constantinople). This
sums up an image comprised of stereotypes
borrowed from orientalist stream in the
Romantic painting in the 19th century.
One of Aman’s peers, the painter
Gheorghe Tattarescu whose main focus
consisted, mainly, in the religious artistic theme
or the historical allegories, also took a short
voyage to Istanbul. The art historian Ion
Frunzetti mentioned that in 1851 Tattarescu used
this journey to reach out to some of the exiled
participants in the 1848 Romanian revolution.
A small notebook with several sketches
was used as a proof for his oriental voyage with
views of Athens, drawings of the Temple of the
wind, Mountain peaks in the Balkans,
Bosphorus, Prinkipo Island, Karavanserai,
Andal-hipar (one of the two fortresses that stand
on each side of the Bosphorus), Brussa and
many more. Although the oriental scenery
attracts his gaze and artistic prowess,
considering them worthy to be subject of an
entire sketchbook, ‘they are merely travel notes,
results of a different frame of mind from the
Romantic travelers infatuated with the exotic
scenery, such as Delacroix or Raffet (…)
landscape is not a subject favorable to
Tattarescu and his oriental voyage has no effect
on his style’. (Frunzetti 1991, 185-186)
Through the eyes of a diplomat
Until this moment we attempted to
analyze the Orient’s representation through
visual, auditory and olfactory experiences by
some of the artists and men of letters. This
section of our study aims to discuss the features
of a discourse outlined in the memoirs and notes
pertaining to members of the Romanian cultural
elite sent on diplomatic missions in Istanbul.
We will begin with the work of Dimitrie
Ralet, a significant member of the boyars, who
dabbled with literature, but was, also, a gifted
politician who played an important part in the
1848 Revolution (a liberal with modernist
views). Ralet was nominated along with
Costache Negri by the Moldavian ruler Grigore
Ghica to find a solution to the situation of
monasteries dedicated to the ones from Athos.
His account Souvenirs and travel impressions in
Romania, Bulgaria, Constantinople was
published in Paris in 1858.
Recurring mentions in his notes are
those consisting in assertions about the political,
judicial and the various conflicts with the
suzerain state, Ottoman Empire. Ralet’s
accounts do not have the usual structure of a
travel report, instead they have a slight tendency
to be a manifesto for the independence of the
Romanian countries.
Touched by the natural wonders, he
described his journey on the Danube River with
details about every city encountered; when he
had an opportunity he informed his reader about
famous battles that occurred in the places he
visited.
Approaching the Bosphorus shores, he
talks about the history of the old city of
Byzantion, using more details and a somewhat
critical point of view to discuss the variegated
mix of ethnical costumes, the bright colors of
those ensembles in opposition with evident signs
of poverty. (Ralet 1979, 45). Ralet makes a habit
of informing his readers about the specifics and
main members of the ottoman society (his
knowledge of such details is due to the
98
numerous contacts between the upper-class
Romanians and Ottoman officials). He makes
note of the new and old melting pot (the 19th
century Tanzimat), the infusion of various
populations Muslim and Christian, the
Europeans that began to wear oriental clothing
and Turks which had to renounce them in favor
of the western attire.
Ralet, in behalf of his diplomatic role,
had the chance to witness up close the
diplomatic ceremonies and customs of the
Turkish Divan, commenting on how obsolete
they were. The Sublime Porte kept a
disproportionate arrogance during the audience.
Unlike other authors discussed
previously, Ralet uses quite frequently the term
oriental, when speaking about a council of
elders, regarding some of the customs and
functions, types of clothing and even a
proverbial oriental apathy, when patience is a
virtue. This kind of assertions can be understood
in the context of the voyage’s purpose: a
consular service.
A peculiar sequence of his stay in
Constantinople was dedicated to a rather
unexpected encounter with what he called ‘a
ghost of the past’. On one of his touristic walks
in the old part of the town, he came across a
Divan with elders sitting silently, dressed
according the norms of the high Ottoman
officials. Among this gathering he noticed a
familiar figure, that of one Walachian former
rulers, in an oriental costume: a cutlass around
his waist, a piece of garment denoting his rank
(căbăniţă), tall fur cap and a mace in his hand.
(Ralet 1979, 86-90) It was a scene from a history
museum, ‘a place filled with dreams of the past’,
Ralet took the image of an old buttonwood to
picture the Ottoman Empire as a state threatened
from all of its borders, shaken by the numerous
fought wars, but protecting and still keeping its
will to live.
During his visit to Boiagi-Kioi, a village
with many liaisons to the Crimean War, Ralet
took the advantage to bring up the Romanian
involvement in this conflict and the implications
of its actions.
The reader doesn’t miss in Ralet’s travel
notes the usual oriental images of slowness and
passivity that makes the people’s temperament
one of laisse faire, laisse passer, uncaring and
pessimistic about the future, giving in to carnal
desires. Also, the writer informs his audience of
the differences between the Orientals and
Romanians, the latter being part of the sort of
people meant to inquire, to discover, to progress,
to spend their existence in the fast lane, never
stopping until they reach the very end. This audience of the relations existing between the
paragraph placed beside the one at the beginning Romanian countries and the Empire.
of his journey when he talks about the Romanian In order to conclude our study, we
people in terms of an oriental race makes an would like to point out that, although Romanian
interesting point about the never-ending travelers use a literary genre borrowed from the
fluctuation between the East and the West, western culture, they distance themselves from
between being oriental by acculturation and similar works by including elements regarding
westerner by cultural heritage. their own identity and history, with an oriental
His last chapters of Souvenirs and background. We can assert that the idea of
impressions take into consideration the writing about the Orient not only in political and
contradictory aspects of Ottoman society and historical terms is a way of placing a gap
everyday life, making extensive notes about the between them and the oriental heritage and
role of women, with personal observations about transforming it in a literary representation/image
literature, language, music, poetry and so on.
Ralet concludes his oriental voyage with References
state affairs raised shortly after the signing of the
Paris Treaty (1856), discussing the current a. Books:
political situation of the Romanian Principalities Anghelescu 1983 Anghelescu, Mircea,
and claiming that the events so far were never Călători români în Africa
intended to bring any damage to the relations (Romanian travelers in
with the Ottoman Empire. Africa), Bucureşti, Editura
His travel writings are among the most Sport-Turism, 1983.
detailed work so far by any Romanian traveler, Anghelescu 1988 Anghelescu, Mircea, Textul
with significant details regarding the Ottoman şi realitatea (The reality
culture and society, and hinting at the issues of and the text, Bucureşti,
the two provinces struggling for autonomy. Editura Eminescu, 1988.
Half a century later, we have the Alecsandri 1960 Alecsandri, Vasile,
Diplomatic memoirs of Alexandru Em. Călătorie în Africa.
Lahovary who was the Romanian Minister Culegere de proză
Plenipotentiary at Istanbul during the interval of (Journey to Africa. Short
1902-1906, a period of conflict between the two story collection) vol. I,
states caused by the Armâni from the Ottoman Bucureşti, Editura de Stat
Empire. His account is mostly filled with details pentru Literatură şi Artă,
about the Sultan Abdul-Hamid and the 1960.
diplomatic affairs. Burke 2004 Burke, Peter, What is
Alexandru Lahovary tries to shed some cultural history?,
light on the personality of one the most Cambridge, Polity Press,
controversial sultan’s in the recent ottoman 2004.
history, he is adamant in describing the high Blanton 2002 Blanton, Casey, Travel
ranking officials and the evolutions of the writing: The Self and the
political talks. (Lavohary 1935, 10-11) World, London, Routledge,
He has very few remarks about the 2002.
oriental customs and mundane aspects, when Bolintineanu 1915 Bolintineanu, Dimitrie,
compared to the political ones. But Lahovary Călătorii, vol. I, (Pe
assures his readers that ‘Wallachia and Moldavia Dunăre şi în Bulgaria. La
were never the subjects of Ottoman rule. They Ierusalim şi în Egipt)
were only vassals of the Empire’. (Lahovary (Travels. On the Danube,
1935, 19-21) and in Bulgaria. At
Unlike Dimitrie Ralet’s travel account, Jerusalem and in Egypt),
Lahovary gives less or none, for that matter, an Bucureşti, Minerva,
exotic feeling replacing it with matters of the Institutul de Arte Grafice şi
state. Editură, 1915.
The travel literature discussed above Bolintineanu 1951 Bolintineanu, Dimitrie,
draws a certain image about and Orient Opere (Complete works),
meaningful only when viewed through the Bucureşti, Editura de stat,
political and diplomatic aspects, reminding the pentru literatură ştiinţifică
şi didactică, 1951.

99
Fairfer 1993 Faifer, Florin, Semnele lui Dridri, Bucureşti, Litera
Hermes. Memorialistica de Internaţional, 1998.
călătorie (până la 1900) Munteanu 2009 Munteanu, Luminţa,
între real şi imaginar (The ‘Călătoriile lui Dimitrie
signs of Hermes. Travel Bolintineanu în Orient:
memoirs until 1900 Despre resursele şi
between reality and limitele
imaginary) Bucureşti, stereotipurilor(Dimitrie
Minerva, 1993. Bolintineanu’s travels:
Frunzetti 1991 Frunzetti, Ion, Arta About the stereotype’s
românească în secolul al sources and limits’). In
XIX-lea (Romanian Art in ‘Tradiţii în dialog II’,
the 19th century), Bucureşti, Florentina Vişan, Anca
Meridiane, 1991. Focşeneanu (eds.),
Istrati 1904 Istrati, C.I., Theodor Aman, Bucureşti, Editura
Bucuresci, Institutul de Universităţii din
Arte Grafice ‘Carol Gobl’, Bucureşti, 2009.
1904. Youngs 2006 Youngs, Tim Ed.,
Lahovary 1935 Lahovary, Alexandru Em. , ‘Introduction: Filling
Amintiri diplomatice the Blank Spaces’. In:
(Constantinopol 1902- Travel writing in the
1906) (Diplomatic memoirs 19th century. Filling the
– Constantinople 1902- Blank Spaces, New
1906), Bucureşti, York, Anthem Press,
Imprimeria naţională, 2006.
1935.
Mihăilescu 2009 Mihăilescu, Vintilă, c. Unpublished thesis or reports:
Antropologie. Cinci Mihai 2009 Mihai, Irina, Călători
introduceri (Anthropology. români în Orientul
Five introductions), Iaşi, Apropiat şi imaginea
Polirom, 2009. Orientului (1880-1914)
Olariu 2006 Olariu, Elena, Mentalităţi (Romanian Travelers
şi moravuri la nivelul elitei in the Near East and
din Muntenia şi Moldova the Image of the Orient
(secolul al XIX- (1880-1914)),
lea)(Mindsets and manners Universitatea din
of the elites in Wallachia Bucureşti, Facultatea
and Moldavia – the 19th de Litere, 2009.
century), Bucureşti,
Editura Universităţii din
Bucureşti, 2006.
Ralet 1979 Ralet, Dimitrie, Suvenire şi
impresii de călătorie în
România, Bulgaria şi
Constantinopole (Souvenirs
and impressions from
travels to Romania,
Bulgaria and
Constantinople) Mircea
Anghelescu (ed.),
Bucureşti, Minerva, 1979,

b. Chapters in books:
Alecsandri 1998 Alecsandri, Vasile,
‘Suvenire din 1855’
(‘1855 Souvenirs’). In :
Alecsandri Vasile,

100